Big Mac

May is Indy 500 month in Indianapolis. With drivers revving up to shoot for record 200-m.p.h. laps in trials last week and the Speedway crowd already filling downtown hotels, it was a marvel that any other sport made the local papers, let alone the front page. But there, smack on page one of the Indianapolis News--for five consecutive days--was a series on basketball. The subject: Indiana Pacer Forward George McGinnis, known to the 17,000 fans who have been packing Pacer games recently as "Big Mac," "Baby Bull," or just plain "McGinnis the Magnificent."

The nicknames may not be surprising for someone who stands 6 ft. 8 in. and weighs in at a taut 235 Ibs. But McGinnis has earned them all. He has carried the young, inexperienced Pacers to the final round of the A.B.A. playoffs that begin this week against the Kentucky Colonels. At the same time, recruiters from the New York Knicks and Philadelphia 76ers are trying to lure him to the N.B.A. With good reason: Big Mac, 24, is rapidly becoming known as the most valuable forward in basketball.

With the sinewy shoulders of a tight end, the arms of a shotputter and the cat-quick moves of a guard, McGinnis is virtually unstoppable on the court. Certainly no one could contain him this year; he finished the regular season as the A.B.A.'s leading scorer (29.8 points per game), second leading ball thief (2.6 steals), third leading playmaker (6.3 assists) and fifth leading rebounder (14.3 per game). He charges around the court so hard that he sometimes bursts the seams of his size 14 1/2 sneakers. During a recent game with the Denver Nuggets, officials had to stop play for 20 minutes while workmen replaced a steel rim that McGinnis had bent out of shape with one of his slamming dunk shots.

When he is not twisting rims, McGinnis is usually bending other players. "I like physical contact," he says. "I like to take smaller guys inside where I know I can overpower them." When you collide with McGinnis, says Pacer Reserve Forward Darnell Hillman, "you wonder whether you've run into the backboard support." When finesse rather than force is required, McGinnis is equipped for that too. He has a graceful, accurate jump shot that he puts to good use for the A.B.A.'s 3-point baskets from 25 ft. out, and he often dribbles the ball the length of the court to set up the offense. Indeed, his only weakness is a penchant for drawing offensive fouls.

The softspoken, easygoing son of an Indianapolis construction worker, McGinnis learned his basketball on a dusty playground not far from the one where former N.B.A. Superstar Oscar Robertson honed his game. He went to the Pacers after only two years at Indiana University, and has learned to enjoy the amenities that come with his $200,000 annual salary: a three-bedroom bachelor apartment, a stable of four show horses, a red Jaguar and a 19-ft. Chris-Craft.

McGinnis professes to be "happy in Indianapolis," but he will be free to move on when his contract expires at the end of the season. "If Philly or New York offers more," he concedes, "I wouldn't hesitate to leave."

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