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

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.

Jerry West came in with a plan and stayed the course, Magic Johnson cut corners

People forget these days that the Clippers were known as “Lob City” the hottest ticket in Los Angeles in recent years. It’s amazing that not one member of the most exciting era in Clippers history is there anymore.

Who led the destruction of Lob City? Jerry West. I was one of many NBA fans that wondered if the Clippers had lost their collective minds after making the playoffs six straight years.

But, I remembered the reputation of the greatest basketball mind in the game. Jerry West always had a plan.

"“This was not a championship-caliber team,” he said. “Chris Paul, a tremendous player. chose to leave here (and the Clippers granted his trade request by sending him to the Houston Rockets in a multi-player deal), and when it happens, it opens up everyone’s eyes, OK? “What can we do to make us better? Or, what can we do to make us more sustainable?”"

Being more sustainable means not paying an oft-injured Paul a four-year $160 million dollar max deal, which Houston is now paying, and flipping him for Patrick Beverley, Lou Williams and Montrezl Harrell to set a culture of professionalism and defensive intensity that has become the identity of the team.

Trading Blake Griffin to Detroit provided even more flexibility by unloading his max level contract, coupled with DeAndre Jordan‘s expiring contract. Plus, the Clippers have draft picks in their cache.

Why do I mention these draft picks as a major point? Because according to Jerry West,

"“I’ve always felt that drafting is the life blood of any organization.”"

Let’s talk about West’s counterpart…Magic Johnson.

The Anthony Davis trade saga showed the business plan of Magic Johnson. The main (or maybe the only) goal for the Lakers is to get two max-level free agents. At the time, the plan was to get LeBron James and Paul George in the fold until George shocked the NBA world by signing a long term deal with the Oklahoma City Thunder without even meeting with the Lakers.

But that wasn’t a major issue in my opinion. The Lakers drafted very well selecting Brandon Ingram and Lonzo Ball in back to back drafts with the No. 2 overall pick in consecutive years, and Kyle Kuzma. The Lakers could have developed the young players with the supposed leadership of LeBron James and made a run for the playoffs. Then in the offseason, try to sign a max level free agent.

Here’s where things get confusing for Lakers fans and the media alike. The plan going forward, from what I saw, was LeBron James would hold the fort while Kuzma, Ingram and Ball continued to improve and gain experience. Now only one more thing needed to be done.

The Lakers had to fill out the roster.

Based on the video earlier, Magic Johnson had a point. He wanted tough guys that were going to compete and do multiple things besides stand out on the perimeter and wait for LeBron to pass them the ball.

He wanted multiple playmakers that can do multiple things all while keeping salary cap flexibility. That’s why he signed Michael Beasley, Lance Stephenson, Rajon Rondo and JaVale McGee. These are all veterans that provided cap flexibility on one-year deals.

Things went wrong when Magic Johnson and the front office panicked and changed course without looking at the ramifications of messing with the combustible chemistry that was already risky from the start.

Let’s go deeper into how this year’s trade deadline played out.

The negotiations that will affect franchises for years to come

The difference between the trade deadline deals were like night and day! Literally and figuratively, because the Clippers made their huge trade in the middle of the night while the Lakers’ Anthony Davis trade negotiation went on 24/7 to the point it deserved it’s own television network. After their respective trades scenarios were over, they had a deal of their own.

Here’s where Magic Johnson got his clock cleaned by Jerry West.

The Clippers traded Tobias Harris, Mike Scott and Boban Marjanovic to the Sixers for a rookie Landry Shamet and two future first round picks. Also, the Clippers received Wilson Chandler and Mike Muscala (Remember him? Keep him in mind!) and two future second round picks.

This was a shock to many in the NBA circles. Wanna know why? It was done in the middle of the night around 2 AM EST. Nobody knew about the negotiations. What was even crazier about the situation was that Tobias Harris just hit a game winner hours earlier.

The deal was done because the Clippers knew Harris wanted close to a max level deal that they weren’t comfortable with. They wanted the flexibility to chase max level free agents in the offseason.

The Lakers trade negotiations were a reality show for all sports networks. Not a day went by without a report talking about if the Lakers made phone calls, or how many players were being included in the trade to land Anthony Davis.

Then the story changed to if the Pelicans picked up the phone. Anthony Davis’ father then got involved. Then Rich Paul, LeBron James’ agent made statements. You get the point. By the time the saga was over, so was the Lakers season. We all just didn’t know it yet.

Then that trade between the two executives.

In a trade that will stick with Magic Johnson until he delivers on a major free agent, the Lakers traded Ivica Zubac and Michael Beasley to the Clippers for Mike Muscala. Then the Clippers promptly waived Beasley and obtained the Lakers best center for a cheaper price than they would have paid Muscala.

It was understood that the move was opening up a roster spot for Carmelo Anthony. Only Anthony never made it to the roster and neither has Muscala’s jump shot.

Now the Clippers have even more cap space than the Lakers at this point to go after say, Anthony Davis, Kawhi Leonard, Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving…you know all the players that the Lakers are bidding for in the offseason.

Finally what sets the two teams in Los Angeles apart.

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.