The Lakers Reality Show
- Thread starter wade boggs chicken dinner
- Start date
So the lakers are going the Red Sox route and stabbing a former employee/player in the back on the way out.
Totally not a toxic work environment
Also says he didn’t tell Jeanie BUSS or Rob Pelinka that he was stepping down before he had his impromptu press conference.
He is just rambling on forever now. It sounds like he lifted a huge boulder off of his shoulders.
Really? I didn't even watch this and I'm sitting here wincing. Maybe awkward is the epitome of "fun to watch" for you, but to me this is painful.
He feels as if he was taking daily injections of humiliation, and that hurt a lot, but now with this move he's miraculously cured.
(no it's not too soon)
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Based on Magic not telling anyone, I don't think it's a stretch to think the environment is somewhat Magic's creation.
Adrian WojnarowskiVerified account @wojespn 25m25 minutes ago
Lakers coaching staff fully expected to be fired in hours after the final game of the season. They had believed they were gone for months. Now? Magic quits in public, saying he's too scared to tell Jeanie Buss face-to-face. What an embarrassing episode for a historic franchise.
Buss and the Lakers will do what they always do. Reach out to Jerry West to save them, and when he turns them down, hire Phil Jackson.
Blindsided. Much the way Paul George did them.
Adrian WojnarowskiVerified account @wojespn 6m6 minutes ago
Magic Johnson and Rob Pelinka visited with LeBron James and agent Rich Paul on Saturday, league sources tell ESPN. Johnson offered no indication that he was on the brink of bailing on the Lakers, sources said.
Adrian WojnarowskiVerified account @wojespn 6m6 minutes ago
Magic Johnson and Rob Pelinka visited with LeBron James and agent Rich Paul on Saturday, league sources tell ESPN. Johnson offered no indication that he was on the brink of bailing on the Lakers, sources said.
From the overthinking everything department:
I'm betting that Buss told him that he couldn't fire Walton or maybe put a condition on it (even though she publicly backed Johnson). Magic made a comment about handcuffs coming off. Then he met with Team Lebron and they probably put some things out there they'd like to see which conflicted with what Buss gave him as working guidelines. He realized that no matter what someone is going to be bent out of joint - and this GM thing isn't as easy as it looked like it could be. He is really good at being Magic, and that's more fun than being a buckled down GM.
If he really didn't let Pelinka/Buss know in advance of his press conference - that is obviously a really uncool way to handle things.
+1 on the Great thread title comment...
I'm betting that Buss told him that he couldn't fire Walton or maybe put a condition on it (even though she publicly backed Johnson). Magic made a comment about handcuffs coming off. Then he met with Team Lebron and they probably put some things out there they'd like to see which conflicted with what Buss gave him as working guidelines. He realized that no matter what someone is going to be bent out of joint - and this GM thing isn't as easy as it looked like it could be. He is really good at being Magic, and that's more fun than being a buckled down GM.
If he really didn't let Pelinka/Buss know in advance of his press conference - that is obviously a really uncool way to handle things.
+1 on the Great thread title comment...
Hilarious.
Adrian WojnarowskiVerified account @wojespn 5m5 minutes ago
Luke Walton has two years left on his contract, but only next season is guaranteed, per source. Lakers hold option on 2020-21 season. Johnson planned to fire him, but stumbled into his own resignation on the way. Somehow, Walton survived Magic Johnson. He didn't see that coming.
Adrian WojnarowskiVerified account @wojespn 5m5 minutes ago
Luke Walton has two years left on his contract, but only next season is guaranteed, per source. Lakers hold option on 2020-21 season. Johnson planned to fire him, but stumbled into his own resignation on the way. Somehow, Walton survived Magic Johnson. He didn't see that coming.
He bailed before he whiffed this summer in free agency, plain and simple. Magic is an atrocious executive.
I won't defend the job Magic was doing, nor the level of commitment he brought to the job. But working as the puppet "coach" or "GM" for a Lebron team has to be brutal for anyone with any combination of pride and competence. And even worse when he's at age 36 and getting older.
This could not be happening to a better organization.
Why would Jerry West want to go back and deal with that tire fire? The Buss family forced him out and I don’t see any reason why he would want to come back and try to save them.
Plus I assume Balmer could triple any offer the Buss family makes and it wouldn’t even be a rounding error in his finances. If I was West, I wouldn’t go back for anything short of an ownership stake in the team.
I wont argue West is an all timer.
But the point was just made that being a GM takes a tremendous amount of time and energy.
West is 80yos. His Clipper gig (executive board member) probably entails showing up once a week and offering advice.
If what the Lakers want is Marv Levy 2006 then more power to them.
But the point was just made that being a GM takes a tremendous amount of time and energy.
West is 80yos. His Clipper gig (executive board member) probably entails showing up once a week and offering advice.
If what the Lakers want is Marv Levy 2006 then more power to them.
Grudge stuff aside (and those are good points) he gives them credibility, which the team sorely lacks right now, even if he's not running the day to day.
On balance, though, I have to agree that the nays probably carry the day here.
Isn't Jerry West's son Ryan already on the staff and very highly regarded as a front office guy? Promote him and see if he can do the job. It's unrealistic to think he can match Jerry's success, but at least he's not 80 years old and employed by another team. It's time the Lakers starting thinking ahead instead of backwards. Thinking that Magic, Kobe, or Phil can solve all their problems with some sort of Laker exceptionalism is kind of how they got in this mess in the first place.
Twitter (Incarcerated Bob) speculating that some big news will drop soon, not health related, that precipitated this move by Magic.
I know he's not always a reliable source and may even deserve the silent treatment. Worth watching I suppose.
Edit.....silent treatment is code for how people here deal with that Doctor's info that is always wrong.
I know he's not always a reliable source and may even deserve the silent treatment. Worth watching I suppose.
Edit.....silent treatment is code for how people here deal with that Doctor's info that is always wrong.
I only caught part of the conversation, but on SiriusXM NBA Radio this afternoon, Eddie Johnson was talking about Magic and he referenced Shaq being absolutely plugged in to players around the league and that there was apparently some talk that Magic was told through the grapevine that the LAL are likely not going to be in play for the big FA like they thought.
Now, as a Celtics fan I can spin that to them hearing that if AD goes somewhere, like, I don't know, Boston, he may be amenable to staying.
Either way, it's a fun rumor mill when the LAL are involved.
Now, as a Celtics fan I can spin that to them hearing that if AD goes somewhere, like, I don't know, Boston, he may be amenable to staying.
Either way, it's a fun rumor mill when the LAL are involved.
Sam Amick's piece on the Athletic included the following:
"And then, of course, there was the ESPN elephant in the room. For months, there had been rumblings that the Worldwide Leader was working on a story which would be extremely unflattering for Johnson and that focused on his mistreatment of employees."
https://theathletic.com/916154/2019/04/10/magic-show-flop-why-the-lakers-legend-should-be-embarrassed-about-his-exit/
I love all these names being tossed around, Riley, Sam Presti, Bob Myers, Jerry West, why do people just assume that the Lakers are going to land these ringers who have great jobs already? Because they are the Lakers? Isn't that what got them in this problem in the first place, they just assumed being the Lakers would lead to people wanting to come to them? If they could get an ace front office person to leave their job and come work for them, why the hell did they bring Magic in?
Lebron, cap space for a max contract, a lottery pick and multiple recent lottery picks to go with some of the largest revenue streams in the league, plus you would be in charge the most important sports team in America’s second largest city.
Myers, in particular, seems to be a real possibility.
This is qualitatively different from the Knicks' job: Jeanie has a ton of faults and seems to be a slight negative as an owner because of her weird buy-in to the Lakers' mystique, but she left Magic and Pelinka to their own devices without much interference. She's not Dolan. Simply because of that, it's a pretty attractive job, given all the other factors that Gunfighter mentioned.
Riley in particular makes a ton of sense if he wants it, and to come back full circle 30 years after he left. Obvious LeBron fit and would get the LBJ stamp of approval and the star executive power needed in that job.
Nah, the ones he had needed to be more committed to the job. Full-blown aids, if you will.