It Is--How You Say--a Big Game, Non?

Who were they rooting for in the Magic Johnson-Michael Jordan matchup in Paris?

“That’s a tough question,” said Christophe Caramans of L’Equipe, the French sports daily. “Maybe for Magic because of the HIV thing and his personality and because he’s so charming. And he’s been in France more than Michael.”

How did they feel about it in Stockholm?

“Sweden doesn’t have a great basketball league,” said Annika Duncan of TV4, a Swedish network, “so they watch a lot of NBA. And they all have Air Jordans and they all want Bulls’ jackets. For some, I’d say it’s more of a fashion statement than a deep-rooted knowledge of sports.

“But it’s coming up. There hasn’t been much street ball in Sweden because it’s so cold, but now they see those American commercials with all those tough guys playing outside and they want to be tough guys and play outside.”

Christophe Deroulet of Mondial Basket, a French basketball magazine, flew here from Paris for Johnson’s return Tuesday. Agence France-Presse was at Friday’s game along with DPA, the German press outlet, A Bila of Portugal, Svenska Tagblat of Sweden, Clarin X and La Nacion of Argentina, The Telegraph from Australia, El Mundo Sportivo of Spain and RAI, an Italian TV network.

The Lakers gave out more than 250 credentials, so many they couldn’t find seats in the arena for more than 40 members of the press who watched on televisions in press rooms under the stands.

When was there ever such a buildup for a regular-season NBA game?

“The game I came back last year,” suggested Jordan.

TNT, televising Friday’s game domestically, was expecting a new cable ratings record for a regular-season basketball game, and hoping for more than that.

The top cable rating for a regular-season game is 5.1. The record for any cable telecast of a basketball game is 8.8 for Game 5 of the 1987 Eastern Conference finals, when Larry Bird made his famous steal of Isiah Thomas’ inbound pass.

Tuesday’s telecast of the Bulls-Houston game drew a 4.3 rating, TNT’s fourth-highest rating for a regular season game. The Lakers-Warriors game that followed drew a 4.4, the third-highest rating.

“I think this is the perfect time, right after the Super Bowl,” said Kevin O’Malley, president of Turner Sports, from his Atlanta office.

“There aren’t a lot of other competing stories. You look at the newspapers and it’s all over the place. It’s as big an individual story as basketball can have.

“The one negative factor, it’s a late-night game in much of the country. On the other hand, the weather is extremely bad in much of the country. It’s always difficult to predict, but I would think we’d be a little bit disappointed if we weren’t in record-breaking ground tonight.”

The press was packed so tightly into the Bulls’ locker room before the game that James Edwards, trapped in the bathroom by the crowd around Jordan, had to climb over Toni Kukoc, who was lying on the training table, to escape.

“I’ll tell you one thing,” said Jordan, “you can’t come in here with a closed eye. You got to come in with your eyes open. The hype has been built, the challenge has been set. Then you’ve got to go out and live up to the challenge. Of all the games we’ve had on the road this far, I don’t think you’re going to have too much of a time to get us motivated. So I think he’s accomplished that, without a doubt.

“It’s like a championship game, a playoff game to them in a sense. ‘Cause here we are, possibly on the brink of winning 70 games and they’re struggling, trying to get themselves back on track. What better way to turn this into a very successful story than to come out and beat the team that’s had the most success?”

There might have been no better way, indeed, but the Lakers couldn’t turn it into a very successful story Friday, only a very big one.