Run down the list of great mayors U.S. cities have had. Now run down the list of the all-time NBA assists leaders. See any repeats? Well, you might, come 2005, because last week Earvin "Magic" Johnson announced he was looking into running for office in Los Angeles during the next mayoral election.

As a native Los Angelino, I'm sure one can only imagine how thrilled I was to know that the Magic man was going to step up and take the reins of my hometown when he felt it was in trouble. The man saved the Lakers so many times, and now he can save Los Angeles. How different can a proposed tax cut be from a pick and roll, anyway?

Johnson is great at basketball and knows the game well, and everything he has been successful in stems from that. It's about time he figured that out.

Growing up in Los Angeles, I, like every other kid, was taught to love Magic Johnson and all the Lakers. However, unlike himself, and apparently a number of stupid people in Los Angeles who keep sending Johnson money for his prospective campaign, I am aware that Magic earned his received affection because of his play on a basketball court. With the game on the line, Magic is the guy you want in control. When the city is on the line, maybe you might want to go a different route.

I have nothing against Johnson as an individual, of course. And I'm not suggesting that his life end because he's retired from the game. He's already accomplished a great deal since his retirement. But, as far as mayor is concerned, maybe he's stepping just a bit outside his area of expertise. After all, haven't we been here before with Magic?

At the end of the 1994 NBA season, Magic decided he wanted to coach the Los Angeles Lakers. He did so for a full 16 games and then did not return the following season. In 1996, he decided it was time to give professional basketball another shot and he came out of retirement for an eye-popping 40 games before once again hanging them up. However, the most entertaining of his post-retirement adventures was yet to come.

In yet another brilliant move, the Fox television network gave Johnson his own late-night talk show called "The Magic Hour." Johnson certainly proved to still have some magic in him because he made viewers and advertisers disappear at record numbers and never return. In Magic's three-week stint as talk show host, he managed to be the butt of every joke possible. He required a daily speech coach and still couldn't find his way to a coherent sentence with a compass and a map. Magic being a terrible talk show host did not make him a terrible ball player. But the same holds true for the inverse. Being a great ball player didn't make him a great host, nor will it make him a great mayor.

This happens all the time in professional sports. Athletes think they can switch careers because of their fame, fortune and talent for the game. The problem is that they find out their talent isn't all that diversified. Has anyone seen Allen Iverson or Shaq-Fu on the Top 100 Billboard lists lately? How about "Error" Jordan's baseball career? Remember how smoothly that went? Is running for mayor all that different for Magic?

He has already proven that he gets ideas to do things and then doesn't see them through for very long. What happens when his desire to be the mayor fades out a year after he is elected to office?

Magic has done some great things for the city, but the fact of the matter is that he puts his name on a foundation, and others truly control it, making it successful. He has used his fame to do a lot of good for a lot of people. But if he becomes mayor, the onus is squarely on his shoulders, and I'm not sure he is up to the challenge. On and off the court, Magic has always been a great player and person, but now is the time he needs to know his limits, as do all athletes and celebrities.

If it really means that much to him, maybe they can make him honorary mayor of Los Angeles. That way, he still gets the title he wants, and he can even be used in the annual Los Angeles vs. the rest of the country's basketball games.

OK, maybe that doesn't exist, but if we ever hear the title "Mayor Magic," you know it can't be too far away.