Magic Johnson steps down as Lakers President of Basketball Ops

The biggest mistake, IMO, was for both parties (Magic and the Lakers to go down this path in the first place. From a business perspective, Magic would have probably been very good for Jeanie Buss and the Lakers. From a team-building perspective, there's little to no evidence that Magic knows what he was doing.

 

What a mess lol. I know it's only one side of the story but the dysfunction is so evident.

Lebron has to be regretting his decision now, I don't see anyway that another star comes there this offseason.

 

http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/26787295/magic-lakers-gm-pelinka-was-backstabbing

Full recap.

So... the teams in the hunt for the biggest names are the biggest clusters? That's encouraging.

 

Perhaps Lebron James could take some time out of his busy playoffs schedule and tweet about this mess?

Would love to get his thoughts on all this.

 

Kawhi will be making a big mistake if he joins the Lakers circus. Kyrie will fit right in.

 

Overall, it will all fall back to ownership. Ultimately they build the culture and force these hiring decisions onto themselves.

Magic looked like he made it clear that he would be more or less a less active participant, and that's pretty much what they got, regardless of how he feels about the criticism. Ownership accepted that and put their own pressures - hence the fiasco.

 

LeBron is in playoffs mode. No time to pay attention to these petty matters.

 

If it wasn't for Magic Johnson being thirsty for attention, sensitive, and scorned, I'm not so sure we would care about this mediocre franchise. To quit the way he did and then give this interview the same day the Lakers introduce their new coach is a look people forgive only because of who he is. It's clear he only did this to get back at the people who dared say the truth about him and his hand in a project that failed.

 

Amazing interview. Magic is refreshingly open and honest. So many things he said here that no other person would ever let out. I'm not saying he is right, or wrong, but it's amazing how much he said. And it's ironic in that if you put Magic next to Rob Pelinka you would never guess which one was HIV-positive.

 

Magic is a businessman, an incompetent POBO and a very direct and honest dude. His brand has been damaged over the past couple months, I see no problem with him trying to restore it, especially if the lakers knew he was gonna be part time. Of course he had a motive, but I see no problem with it.

Numerous people have come out and said Pelinka is a snake, a guy who is currently in charge of the lakers and has Magic’s old job. Magic has the right to clear the waters

 

Glad Pelinka is not our GM. Holy moley.

 

Rob Lowe is that you?

 

Pelinka said the truth. Magic was an absent president. Phil Jackson was the same way. Even Magic admits that what Pelinka was saying was true.

Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.

That's Magic here. Again, someone states the truth about him. Embarrassed, he quits abruptly. Then, he has an interview on the same day a new coach is introduced.

You would have done the same? I would expect children to act better.

 

This whole thing makes the owner look like she's in way over her head.

Magic gets hired and is told he can make the big decisions, and that he can be a part-time worker.

Pelinka is hired to handle all the complicated math and such.

Turns out the owner really doesn't want Magic to make the big decisions. She just wants him to recruit all the superstars, I guess.

I'm now just waiting for LeBron to explode.

 

If Magic actually takes over a whole month vacation straight, then the job is just not meant to be for him, especially for an organization that is trying to turn it around.

 

what does ja rule think about all this?

 

All the while Kobe is in the background with possibly one hand on the puppet strings of Pelinka.

 

A few thoughts:

1. The Lakers organization seems to be incredibly insular. There seems to be a group of Lakers Legends who orbits around ownership and anyone without long-standing Lakers connections have a hard time getting hired and staying hired. Look at all these names involved with Lakers in recent years: Magic, Pelinka (Kobe's agent), Luke Walton, Byron Scott, Kurt Rambis, Phil Jackson (post-Knicks humiliation), all manners of Buss family members. I know the new coach Vogel and assistant coach Kidd do not have these connections, but I wonder how much they need to navigate around all these Lakers legends.

Back when D'Antoni was coaching them, Lakers TV analysist Byron Scott and James Worthy would b**** about coaching every night. Once Scott was hired to coach, James Worthy was still on TV but he wouldn't make one peep about coaching. The same thing happened again when Magic, Byron (back on TV!), Worthy & co. b****ed about Jim Buss and Mitch Kupchak over and over again until he no longer ran the team.

2. Magic Johnson has his own business empire to run. He was never gonna be able to be a full-time President of Basketball of Operations, which is not a part-time job, not even a 40 hrs a week job-- more like a 24/7 job if you ask guys like Daryl Morey how much he works. If you are not there like literally all the time, it makes it so much easier for people to talk behind your back-- because you are giving them too much "behind your back" time and people very much gossip in this business.

The whole "part-time front office leader" thing just can't work even if your other job is with the same organization-- ask Doc Rivers, Stan Van Gundy, Tom Thibodeau how coach/GM worked out. Magic (rightfully) having to spend too much time managing his other business interests is an even more extreme case of this.