Los Angeles Lakers: Jeanie Buss is wise to have faith in Magic Johnson

Los Angeles Lakers owner, Jeanie Buss, recently talked about her faith in Magic Johnson.

The Los Angeles Lakers were able to begin turning their franchise around when they brought in Magic Johnson to be the President of Basketball Operations. Even though Johnson didn’t have front office experience in the NBA, he has a wealth of knowledge about the game.

Johnson was a superstar for the Lakers during his playing days, and his goal was to bring the Lakers back to being a title contender. While building a team to be a title contender takes time, Johnson has done a very nice job so far in the NBA Draft and in free agency.

Recently, Lakers owner, Jeanie Buss talked about bringing in Johnson and the faith that she has in him to turn the franchise into a winner once again. Here’s what she had to say on the Rich Eisen Show, via Dan Feldman of Pro Basketball Talk.

"“I have complete faith in Magic Johnson in terms of his ability to be a leader, to know how to put together a winner. And I have patience. And I think what he’s done has exceeded my expectations, how quickly they’ve kind of turned around the roster.”"

Since becoming President, the Lakers have seen a lot of changes under Johnson. He has been able to help build a strong young core of players with a great draft in 2017, which was his first as the President. Also, he was able to clear some of the bad contracts that he inherited in order to create cap space for this summer.

Johnson was able to deliver on his promise of landing a superstar, as LeBron James signed with the team in July. Now that the Lakers have a superstar in James and a great young core, they are built to win both now and in the future.

For Buss, the decision to bring in Johnson certainly was the right one for the franchise. They should be snapping their long playoff drought this coming season, and could make some noise in the playoffs depending on how the team gels and develops.

Having faith in Johnson has certainly paid off for Buss and the Lakers. With the greatest player in the game now on the team, another banner could be going up in Los Angeles in the next few years.