Magic Johnson Discussion

She uses her heart, personal relationships, and emotions way too much to run a successful franchise. They get in the way and cloud your judgment. Magic brought this up, but it's also why he was hired. It's why she wavered with Luke. And it's why she refuses to hire non Lakers, not friends. We could've gone out and gotten the best available and right the ship. But nooo, instead she doubled down on her blind loyalty.

 

I don't know about that, he's proven to be pretty successful in his career and business endeavors.

 

Recap of everyone Magic Johnson threw under the bus (in order) during his 45 min interview:

1) Jeanie Buss: too emotional, listens to too many people, gives too many people power, needs to sell the team preferably to me

2) Rob Pelinka: the backstabber, talked behind my back

3) D'Angelo Russell: too much drama that needed to be traded

4) Joey Buss: wants more power but need to be mentored by me first

5) Jesse Buss: wants more power but need to be mentored by me first

6) Luke Walton: bad coach, I really wanted him fired and had 3 meetings about it

7) Pat Riley: he quit the Lakers almost like the way I quit the Lakers

8) Kobe Bryant: one of the many people who advises Jeanie, he is best friends with Rob...

9) Linda Rambis: one of the many people who advises Jeanie but not as qualified as her husband

10) Tim Harris: he shouldn't have any power in basketball decisions

11) Frank Vogel: not as good as Tyronn Lue

12) Ric Bucher: never heard of those emails he reported that I supposedly have read

13) Del Demps: spilled the beans on me wanting to trade all our young guys for Anthony Davis to the media

14) Brandon Ingram: one of the guys I wanted to trade and took it personal

15) Kyle Kuzma: one of the guys I wanted to trade and took it personal

16) Lonzo Ball: one of the guys I wanted to trade and took it personal

17) Ivica Zubac: couldn't even get mins in the playoffs, only good because of Lonzo

18) Julius Randle: not worth a 2 year contract, he played better in New Orleans but no regrets

19) Magic Johnson: I'm not a regretful person but my only regret after all this was not signing Brook Lopez and getting more shooters, but no regrets on quitting the Lakers

In summary, Magic threw the whole Lakers organization under the bus.

 

trashing an already ugly situation doesn't and then turning around to say "lets support Rob" and make sure team executes doesn't equte to "Mr. Laker".....thats like someone saying my ex was a total duche, cheated on me, treated me badly etc. but she/he "was the love of my life"

 

We’ve officially become Knicks West. What a mess. Magic threw all the Buss’s under the bus.

 

Right. Like my millioner friend, who came to New York with nary a shirt on his back. Bought two apples for 2 cents. Washed them and sold for 4 cents. Then he bought more apples and washed them until his uncle dieds and left him 55 million dollars.

Dude, he's been an icon ever since he played. Beloved. He managed to leverage that love into business endeavors that brought him money.

However, just from listening to the man talk you can tell he is a simpleton, to an extent. Certainly not one to be admired for his brains.

 

Easier said than done with our upstairs limitations and incompetence. Nothing about their actions, decisions, or lack thereof instill confidence that they are capable of doing anything except taking on more water in this ship.

We are one piece away (plus a couple solid bench additions and a shooter) from being in the mix. But our front office has a much better chance of f***ing this all to hell than they do of connecting on the homerun.

 

You forgot Nick Young. Called him "Shaggy P" instead of "Swaggy P."

 

Fortunately Kawhi probably only cares about that New Balance deal. We got this!

 

Leaders are not always viewed benevolently. I don't think he trashed anyone except Rob, and even then complemented him on his work in the FO. I think he is pushing the team to focus on "The Laker Basketball Club" not the bevy of outside interests that accompany the Laker Brand. We'll see ....

 

those are called "back handed" complements if you didn't know

 

As you can see from my Sig, I'm a rookie on this forum but do have some basketball accumen. It's been evident from the post Dr. Buss era that the Lakers had lost focus on the basketball side of the Laker brand (highlighted by the LaMarcus Aldridge free agency pitch). It's going to get ugly for the next couple of weeks as the media and talking heads try to twist and spin the state of the team while the Lakers appear to be under duress. We have the draft/trade and free agency season upcoming and have to execute from a basketball perspective first and foremost.

 

I don't know Magic personally Khrmp, but he hasn't demonstrated to me in his 40 years as a Laker that he is not sincere.

 

Speaking of sincere .... thanks Magic!

https://www.yahoo.com/sports/magic-...he-lakers-on-esp-ns-first-take-161347620.html

Sincerely

Lakers Fans everywhere. You're the best. Impeccable timing. Go Lakers!

 

Unless the reports were wrong, the word was Magic was never around. So, when you are the boss and never around, and the people around you are doing all the work, those people will feel entitled to make the decisions at that point.

Magic should have come in as a consultant A LA Jerry West. He could have still done his waiting outside Lebron's house like some stalker and sold him on the Lakers and still sucked the teet off players on his Tweeter.

Rob Pelinka is an agent, a cap master and a killer. That is why Kobe and him get along. More than one way to skin a cat but the way Pelinka does it is more Mamba than Magic's 80's, "We are the world", set up.

Lakers need to focus on building a team here. All this soap opera horse**** needs to be put to the grave. They tried to do this to the Patriots last year with the in fighting between who wanted who at QB in 3 years and everyone brushed it off and went on to back to back Super Bowls and happy endings.

Lakers HAVE to focus on free agency and the draft. Get Garland in here and go after Kawhi. Forget Anthony Davis. That will be a distraction that has already proved futile, plus you would continue to alienate your current talent who will resent you further. If Klutch, pfft, joke, and AD really want to be Lakers, wait 12 months when you do not have any distractions. I would tell AD to play out the year in NO, play hard and well and than make the decision next year.

 

I think that this is fodder for media which Magic certainly supplied ammunition. The message to the front office and fans is that we are positioned well and need to focus on getting this Summer right. Get the basketball side in order and all the noise will subside.

 

This is going to be a make or break summer for Jeannie. I'm on record saying that Magic boxed himself in with the multiple "Superstar" strategy. That may eventually pay off but the team has a lot of available options with its assets. They need to focus on putting a winning team and culture on the floor.

 

Having grown up in the 80s, Magic Johnson has been my favorite person for basically my whole life. Now, I'm genuinely disgusted by the way he handled his time in the FO, and I feel like he really damaged the team in the process. He's not the source of all the Lakers' problems by any stretch (frankly, I think we need new ownership, yesterday), but you almost have to marvel at the way Magic handled everything (his abrupt departure, his interview today) as if designed to inflict maximal damage. And the fact that he did all this going into a critical off-season for us . . . I'm truly disgusted. It's going to be a while before the thought of Magic Johnson makes me smile again.

 

Adding onto Jordan-esque with a more detailed Recap of the Magic talk on first take:

1) Jeanie Buss: too emotional, listens to too many people, gives too many people power, May need to sell the team if that opportunity arises because of all the super billionaires entering the NBA as owners and running teams like corporations now rather than family businesses. Said it can be done to run as family business but landscape has changed and Jeanie needs to empower people to do their jobs and not have so many talking heads in every single
Decision which has sometimes led to BAD decisions that Lakers have made

2) Rob Pelinka: the backstabber, talked behind my back; told ppl with .Org AND outside of .org that magic wasn’t showing up to office or working hard; said he was grooming Rob to become PBO cuz he told rob he was “out” after 3 years.

3) D'Angelo Russell: too much drama that needed to be traded due to swaggy P stuff

4) Joey Buss: wants more power but need to be mentored by me first

5) Jesse Buss: wants more power but need to be mentored by me first

6) Luke Walton: bad coach, I really wanted him fired and had 3 meetings about it; Jeanie was emotionally tied to him

7) Pat Riley: he quit the Lakers almost like the way I quit the Lakers

8) Kobe Bryant: one of the many people who advises Jeanie, he is best friends with Rob... might angle to buy Lakers, and magic is also down to buy lakes if they become available

9) Linda Rambis: one of the many people who advises Jeanie but not as qualified as her husband

10) Tim Harris: he shouldn't have any power in basketball decisions and was in meeting regarding Luke; didn’t wanna fire him cuz he’s friends with him

11) Frank Vogel: not as good as Tyronn Lue but thinks he’s a good coach

12) Ric Bucher: never heard of those emails he reported that Magic supposedly have read

13) Del Demps: spilled the beans on magic wanting to trade all our young guys for Anthony Davis to the media; thinks that Trajan Langdon and Griffin were “great hires” and also said Gentry is a great coach for Zion and will help him develop skills that he doesn’t have yet (I’m not sure I agree here lol, Gentry is meh)

14) Brandon Ingram: one of the guys I wanted to trade and took it personal; thinks Ingram is the most special player and that he’s gotten way better playing with Lebron

15) Kyle Kuzma: one of the guys I wanted to trade and took it personal; thinks Kuzma got better from playing with Lebron

16) Lonzo Ball: one of the guys I wanted to trade and took it personal; thinks Lonzo is the real deal and is very close with Lebron; said that when Alan Foster BBB news came out, Lonzo called Lebron first - Magic also REALLY raved about the young core multiple times and he made it a point to how special they are (referring to BI/Kuz/Zo)

17) Ivica Zubac: couldn't even get mins in the playoffs vs GS, only good because of Lonzo and Lebron; said they needed to get rid of him anyway cuz lakers needed max salary cap space and he neeeded to be renounced and also said Zu has a long way to go to be special; said they traded him to get more shooting and it just didn’t work out

18) Julius Randle: couldn’t give Randle a 2 year contract, he played better in New Orleans but no regrets; also said he wouldn’t fit with Lebron cuz of spacing.

19) Magic Johnson: I'm not a regretful person but my only regret after all this was not signing Brook Lopez and getting more shooters, but no regrets on quitting the Lakers

20) said that he would have targeted Kawhi and Kyrie as the top 2 this summer. Says KD is likely gone to NYK. Disagrees that clippers have the upper hand - said that once Kawhi sits down with Lebron and Jeanie it’ll be tough for him to turn them down. Also said he would have targeted a shooter with the MLE and would want to get more shooting as he made mistakes in the past not getting shooters (no f***ing s*** Sherlock).

21) said there’s no way the Lakers are trading Lebron and that lakers led league in merchandise sold and viewership was up 31% last year with Lebron and they’ve always sold out every year with tickets

In summary, Magic threw the whole Lakers organization under the bus but he was very complimentary of LeBron, the young core and of course the Laker brand overall - said that if they nab one superstar this summer, the Lakers are back and that there's really only one special team in the league and that's the Warriors...after that, it's wide open (I think he's right about this actually with the exception of the Bucks maybe)