Los Angeles Lakers: How one writer would run the Lakers
By Ronald Agers
My list of demands needed to do my job to get the Lakers in the right direction!
There have been many comments about how Ms. Jeanie Buss has run this organization. Some of them have not been kind and way out of line. The one thing I know about the lady is that she is business savvy and she wants the Lakers back to the level when her father was running the Los Angeles Lakers.
If that is really the case, she will listen closely to what I have to say because a lot of what is going on is not pretty. No matter how hard everyone in the organization tries to hide it, the NBA world knows.
After securing my multi-year deal (the millions in salary will not be disclosed but let’s talk Jerry West level) that will make sure that the cost of living won’t make me homeless, I will ask for one thing that is a deal breaker and I will not guarantee my work until I get it; autonomy.
Every basketball decision will be run by me before the Lakers make any moves. Period. No negotiations. Oh, by the way, my father Walter Agers will be my assistant and avenging angel. As a retired manager of two Fortune 500 companies, if anyone knows how to provide structure to an organization, it’s that man.
The Lakers, right now, need structure with defined roles and to be held accountable. Give him 90 days, the front office will be run like a well-oiled machine, trust me.
As Mitch Kupchak stated before, there is a serious rift in the Lakers’ front office. This team stinks for a reason and it is because the Lakers’ brass is not on the same page. They’re not even in the same book or publishing company. That will change.
If Jeanie Buss is as savvy a businesswoman as everyone says, she will understand that it makes no sense to give the keys to the franchise without letting me in the front seat to drive while paying me millions to do it. I will break down the mistakes in this meeting.
Let’s start with the coach, Luke Walton.
The cracks started to show when Ms. Jeanie Buss mentioned on numerous occasions that Magic Johnson will be making all of the basketball decisions. That was not true. Magic Johnson did not want Walton as the head coach of the Lakers.
It was his right as the head of basketball operations to fire Walton and get his coach in. Jeanie Buss protected Walton all season long. What’s worse everyone knew it.
At this point, I would turn on a monitor and this would be playing.
"”Since Magic has taken over, they had been hoping to get their own coach in at some point. We saw it play out in the meeting they had earlier in the year where Magic really went after Luke,” Wojnarowski said. “If they’re going to be able to go to Jeanie Buss and sell her on replacing Luke Walton, they better be trying to do it off a season where they missed the playoffs or off of a long losing streak. Because she has been fiercely loyal to Luke Walton. “That was her hire in every way, and so far she has kept management off of him. They’ve allowed Magic and Rob Pelinka to change everything there, they haven’t been able to touch Luke Walton.”"
When ESPN lets the cat out of the bag, the game is over. You are caught. This will not happen under my watch.
I want my people that I feel comfortable with to work with me. Magic Johnson was hamstrung and now the Lakers are in a bad situation that will play out until a coaching decision is made. What’s even worse, Jeanie Buss still KEEPS saying all coaching decisions belonged to Magic Johnson.
With Ronald Agers taking over, there will be no questions, no mixed messages and no media catching her in uncomfortable positions to be compromised. When she says ask Ronald Agers…
She ain’t lying!