Los Angeles Lakers: Magic Johnson vs. Jerry West in the front office
By Ronald Agers
The Los Angeles Lakers are falling behind the Los Angeles Clippers and it is because of Magic Johnson losing the front office battle against Jerry West.
I know that the legions of Los Angeles Lakers fans in Los Angeles are in a state of shock these days. I know it hit the Lake Show Life staff hard outside of Andrew Stevens III, who went on record saying that it would take a “miracle” to make the playoffs before the All-Star break.
The seismic shock around one of the NBA’s most iconic cities centers around two realities.
One, the Los Angeles Lakers are not going to the playoffs and are in danger of winning fewer games than last year, even though they signed LeBron James in the offseason.
Two, the Los Angeles Clippers are going to the playoffs despite trading their best player in Tobias Harris and a capable backup center in Boban Marjanovic. At the time of this writing, the Clippers have more wins at this point of the season than all of last season already.
It’s time to face facts Lakers fans. The Lakers are not the best franchise in Los Angeles anymore. This is a fact that, based on history, I know plenty of people will disagree and dismiss.
Sure, you can call it hating, but facts always trump feelings any day of the week.
The difference starts and ends in the front office with two of the biggest names in NBA history in Magic Johnson and Jerry West. The business model of these franchises can be easily explained by a famous phrase by former Chicago Bulls executive in the 1990’s that got taken totally out of context by Michael Jordan and may NBA fans to this day.
“Organizations win championships…”
But here is the actual quote of what Krause meant.
"“What I said was, correctly, ‘Players and coaches alone don’t win championships. Organizations do.’ That’s true,”"
Jerry Krause had to live that statement down until his death back in 2017 at the age of 77. Basically, because Michael Jordan changed the narrative of what Jerry Krause meant and used it to drive Krause’s reputation into the ground never to return.
He even took time out of his Hall of Fame Speech to remind the world in the only way he knew how.
"“(Krause) said, ‘Organizations win championships’. I said ‘I didn’t see organizations playing with the Flu in Utah’.”"
Twenty years later, I think Jerry Krause would have run circles around the NBA executives that we have in the league today. He was absolutely right and after Michael Jordan’s ill-fated run as president of basketball operations in Washington with the Kwame Brown pick and a 7-59 record as an owner of the then Charlotte Bobcats, he would have to agree that it’s a group effort.
I saw this post on social media that compares Magic Johnson, the Lakers executive to Jerry West, the executive of the Clippers.
I have an understanding of the media and how editing video can manipulate a narrative to make a person’s point. Jerry West’s comments came from a Stephen A. Smith’s radio show that week.
I took the time to listen to the entire interview. It did bring insight to why the Lakers were doomed to fail this year while the Clippers have thrived and is set to have a brighter future in the offseason.