Los Angeles Lakers: Magic Johnson vs. Jerry West in the front office

Jerry West partnered with his coach, Magic Johnson partnered with his star

Jerry West and Magic Johnson both came in under similar circumstances coaching wise. Doc Rivers and Luke Walton were not their choices of coaches. Most thought when Jerry West was hired to take Doc Rivers front office power, Rivers would be done.

Well, we see that hasn’t happened. Doc Rivers has coached up a team that has had a revolving door of players transitioning the Clippers from the Lob City era. With the Chris Paul trade to Houston, West sent a message that the franchise was going to have an identity of competition with a positive direction for the future.

With a veteran coach in Doc Rivers, who seems to be a better coach with players that work hard and hustle every night, he made moves to his coach’s strengths. Now Doc Rivers has placed himself in contention for NBA’s Coach of the year.

More importantly, he knew to get a disgruntled superstar in Chris Paul out of the fold before the franchise got hamstrung for the next five years with a bad contract that would get worse over time. When he realized that Blake Griffin was not going to live up to the max deal he gave him that offseason, six months later, he was done.

Over time, reports were leaking out that the team’s locker room was fractured at the end of the Clippers celebrated run. So West created a plan and moved on.

Magic Johnson had a different approach with his coach or lack thereof.

Magic Johnson reportedly ignored Luke Walton with his requests of roster construction and consulted with LeBron James and formed a partnership with him instead. That partnership destroyed the locker room chemistry to the point that the effects may linger into next year if the Lakers don’t land a major free agent.

Instead of working with Walton, Magic Johnson admonished him less than ten games into the season that got leaked to the media.

Johnson then let it be known that Walton is not the type of coach that he wants. Then allows LeBron James to disrespect Walton by ignoring his calls from the sideline. There were also the leaks from LeBron’s camp saying they would prefer a coaching change. Then there was this.

What you see is a disgruntled superstar with a salary cap busting $154 million dollar contract on the downside of his career. He has alienated his teammates, coaches and more importantly the fans. But, the problem is this superstar may mess up a chance to land a franchise altering free agent based on the dysfunction caused by bad attitudes, ego and poor management.

I’m sure that the opinions will be divided and that is cool. To the ones that don’t agree that’s okay, but this article will explain why the free agents prefer the Clippers instead of the Lakers if things go south for the Lakers if those Leonard or Durant live in LA and play for the Clippers.