Dodgers' success is good for the game, Magic says

Beneath his feet, confetti decorated the turf. Behind him, the video boards congratulated his team on its latest championship.

- BILL SHAIKIN COLUMNIST

DODGERS co-owner Magic Johnson stands at center behind Yoshinobu Yamamoto, holding his World Series MVP trophy. The 27-year-old pitcher is one of the team's high-priced acquisitions.

The Dodgers part-owner who lives and breathes championships smiled broadly. Magic Johnson always does, of course. This time, he had an impish twinkle in his eye.

"They said we ruined baseball," Johnson said. "Well, I guess we didn’t."

If you are not in Los Angeles, you might be screaming in frustration. The team with all the gold makes the rules, and the new rule is that the Dodgers win every year, and now their most famous owner is mocking you?

He is not.

He is, however, issuing a subtle warning to all of baseball’s owners: Don’t let your desperation for a salary cap destroy a sport on the rise — in no small part thanks to the Dodgers.

The NBA was not much more than a minor league 45 years ago. This is crazy to imagine now, but the NBA Finals aired on tape delay, on late-night television, most often at 11:30 p.m. The NBA audience was so small that advertisers would not pay prime-time rates for those commercials, so the games were not broadcast in prime time.

Johnson helped change that. The rivalry between his Lakers and Larry Bird’s Celtics revived the NBA, and then Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls became global sporting icons.

From 1980 to 1988, either the Lakers or the Celtics won the NBA title in every year but one. From 1991 to 1998, the Bulls won six titles.

The Celtics and Lakers and Bulls did not ruin the NBA.