Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, May 22, 1990 TAG: 9005220231
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: INGLEWOOD, CALIF. LENGTH: Medium
Johnson, who led the Lakers to a regular-season record of 63-19, best in the NBA, has won the award three times in the past four years.
He becomes only the sixth player in NBA history to win the award three times, joining former teammate Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain, Moses Malone and Larry Bird.
A news conference will be held this afternoon at the Forum, where Commissioner David Stern will present the award to Johnson, who averaged 22.3 points, 11.5 assists and 6.5 rebounds this season.
Despite Johnson's 25.2-point average in nine playoff games, the Lakers were eliminated by the Phoenix Suns in their Western Conference semifinal series.
The deadline for turning in media ballots was the final day of the regular season. Voting results will be released today.
Johnson, 30, has led the Lakers to five NBA championships since joining them in 1979. The team reached the Western Conference finals for eight straight years before losing 4-1 to the Suns.
Pat Riley was honored on May 14 as the NBA Coach of the Year for the first time. The Lakers were eliminated by the Suns the next night.
Johnson was the first player selected in the 1979 NBA draft after he left Michigan State at the end of his sophomore season, when he led the Spartans to the NCAA championship.
As a rookie, Johnson also led the Lakers to a championship as they beat the Philadelphia 76ers in six games in the NBA Finals.
In the sixth game, with Abdul-Jabbar unable to play because of a sprained ankle, the 6-foot-9 Johnson, normally a point guard, had one of the great games in playoff history with 42 points, 15 rebounds and seven assists.
The Lakers were eliminated from the playoffs by the Houston Rockets in a best-of-three first-round series the next season, but came back to win NBA titles in 1982, 1985, 1987 and 1988.
The Lakers were the Western Conference champions in 1983, 1984 and 1989. They were eliminated in the Western Conference finals by Houston in 1986.
In 1986-87, Johnson was both the regular-season MVP and the NBA Finals MVP as the Lakers won the first of back-to-back championships. They became the first team to repeat since the Boston Celtics in 1969-70.
Johnson also won the NBA Finals MVP award in 1980 and 1982 to become the first player in league history to win three such awards.
Johnson scored his career playoff-high 43 points in both the fourth and fifth games of the series against the Suns earlier this month, but the rest of the Lakers did not play as well.
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