SPRINGFIELD, MASS. ? The Magic man and a team full of magicians. Globetrotters and one well-traveled coach. Two mentors who helped generations reach their potential, and one young man who never will.

They are the Basketball Hall of Fame class of 2002.

Los Angeles Lakers star Magic Johnson leads the group that will be inducted into a gleaming new $36 million hall tonight in the town where Dr. James Naismith first nailed up a pair of peach baskets to keep his football players from getting bored in the winter.

“The whole celebration is tremendous,” Johnson said. “A lot of people are going to come and enjoy the whole weekend because it is a new building. A lot of the ex-players are my friends, so that’ll be great. There’s nothing like a reunion.”

Also to be enshrined are the Harlem Globetrotters, Philadelphia 76ers and former Kansas University coach Larry Brown, North Carolina State women’s coach Kay Yow, Arizona coach Lute Olson, and Drazen Petrovic, the NBA star and two-time Olympic silver medalist who died in a car accident in 1993.

Jim O’Connell, college basketball writer for the Associated Press, and CBS announcer Jim Nantz will be honored with the Hall’s Curt Gowdy Award, presented to members of the print and electronic media for outstanding contributions.

Johnson’s reunion will include yet one more name from his past. Allowed to pick any Hall of Famer to present him a pool that includes his idol, Julius Erving, and former teammate Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Johnson picked Larry Bird, his nemesis from the 1979 NCAA title game and three NBA Finals in the ’80s.

“When they told me I get to decide who, Larry was the guy who came up. The only name,” Johnson said. “I think we helped make each other the pros that we were. We helped raise each other’s level of play. We helped each other be the best that we could be.”

Magic Johnson, seen in this file photo from the 1992 NBA All-Star game, will be inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame today in Springfield, Mass.

The new Hall of Fame, the Hall’s third home, boasts a 10-story sphere that can be lit up to look like a spinning basketball. Inside, fans can learn about the game, take shots at peach baskets or modern hoops and view memorabilia from the jersey Wilt Chamberlain wore for his 100-point game to the bloomers worn by the Smith College women’s team in the 1890s.

Inside the dome is the Honors Ring, where the 247 members are depicted and described on a balcony overlooking a full-sized court. A room is styled after the Springfield College gym where Naismith invented the game.

There are more than 900 artifacts and 70 TV monitors where visitors can watch the sport’s greatest games, including no fewer than four featuring Bird and Johnson, from the ’79 title game between Michigan State and Indiana State to the 1992 Olympics with the original Dream Team.

Johnson first retired from the NBA when he tested positive for the AIDS virus in 1991.

At the time, it was assumed he didn’t have long to live. But thanks to rigorous workouts and a strict regimen of medication, Johnson remains symptom-free 11 years later.

Brown has won more than 1,200 games and posted a winning record in 26 of his 30 seasons coaching six NBA teams, two in the ABA and two more in college. He won an NCAA title at KU in 1988, and led the 76ers to the NBA Finals in 2001 after being named the league’s coach of the year.