Los Angeles Lakers: Analyzing the resignation of Magic Johnson

With the dust settling after his surprise resignation, let’s break down Magic Johnson leaving the Los Angeles Lakers.

When Magic Johnson shocked the NBA world and resigned from his position as President of Basketball Operations for the Los Angeles Lakers, I knew something was up. It wasn’t the fact that he resigned that didn’t set right with me, it was HOW he resigned that raised antennas. Most other sports pundits dived into his job performance and the roster construction of this past season. I wondered about what he was saying in the press conference…or what he was NOT saying in the press conference…

This is a small snippet of the press conference, but the first thing that made no sense was that he had a good positive three-hour meeting with Jeanie Buss. To all that have worked and retired or are currently in the work force, I have a question. When have you ever quit after having a good positive meeting with your boss? I’ll start the dialogue with never in my career, but I digress.

Notice in that video, Magic Johnson mentioned that Serena Williams wanted his help on an advisory board going forward. Most powerful businessmen rarely talk about their intentions going forward. At times, it looked like he was letting it be known he did not need the “backstabbing and the whispering” and wanting to have “fun” again. What does that tell us? Possible business arrangement (also read…options) coming in the future? Mentorships? Social media? We’ll get to that in a minute.

Maybe he never left. Magic Johnson was on camera with TMZ Sports talking in good spirits like nothing had changed. He even went as far as to say that he still talks to Jeanie Buss everyday trying to do what he can to help the Lakers get back to the championship.

Or is he playing chess while the Los Angeles Lakers are playing checkers? Maybe he sees the bottom falling out and he’s getting out while he still can. Maybe someone reneged on business arrangement that was set up in the beginning? At this time, who knows?

I have to give a shout out to ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith because he knew things weren’t right either…

It didn’t take a rocket scientist to realize that Rob Pelinka was not on his list of people that he enjoyed working with. That’s because…he wasn’t. Then this recent tweet got me to thinking…

https://twitter.com/MagicJohnson/status/1121440636215779328

Some of the truth has already come out sir. Lake Show Life goes over what has come out so far…

There is a certain business protocol about sending emails Jeanie Buss keeps ignoring

Let’s go back to the day after Magic Johnson’s resignation. At this time, everyone is trying to figure out why one of the most famous Lakers in history would walk away from one of the most powerful executive jobs in all of sports. Stephen A. Smith had this to say then…

Don’t you love Max Kellerman’s take on how Magic Johnson looked in this situation compared to Stephen A. Smith? Well let’s fast forward a few weeks shall we? I guess the eye of the storm Stephen A. Smith is talking about is getting bigger.

Bleacher Report’s senior writer Ric Bucher was on Colin Cowherd’s show last week talking about Jeanie Buss and Rob Pelinka and their “business acumen” when it applies to sending emails and how they can get into the wrong hands.

Let’s just say that Ric Bucher is telling the truth here. Do you have any idea how ridiculous this is? Let’s just forget that this is a sports article for a second and just talk business 101. Emails can easily be traced. It doesn’t matter if Magic got these emails or not. But common sense should kick in on the fact that all high-ranking officials of any company would have automatic CC’s on corporate emails. Magic Johnson was “supposedly” number two in the front office hierarchy. Wouldn’t Rob Pelinka or Jeanie Buss think that Magic would have access to these emails?

Since Bucher’s statements on air, The Athletic’s Bill Oram and Sam Amick states that this is not true.

Lakers fans can guess who is right (Kind of like the guessing of this entire Lakers front office situation…) but this is not the only email issue the Lakers have had recently.

Well it seems the L.A. Times can get access to the Buss email cache’…

Nathan Fenno of the L.A. Times found some emails back in 2017, concerning a possible move back to the Western Forum. It seems that the Madison Square Garden Co. now owns the Forum in Inglewood and the Lakers were exploring a move back in 2025.

In the emails, were Jeanie Buss and her top advisor, Linda Rambis…

Here’s where it gets good. For all Lakers fans that don’t think the Clippers are relevant in Los Angeles, why don’t you check out Buss’ email concerning the owner, Steve Ballmer.

It is important to note that this email was found before LeBron James came to the Lakers and during the pursuit of Paul George from the Pacers. This email was written around the time the Lakers got that $500,000 dollar fine.

I could discuss the potential jealousy here considering the Clippers, but we’ll save that for a later date. This discussion is about the recklessness of these email chains that could put Enron to shame.

Magic Johnson is a “Business”…MAN

It seems that Magic Johnson has something that a lot of people don’t have when it comes to employment. That something is called options. Disney has stations to sell because of Federal FCC regulations. How big is Disney? They are the parent company of ESPN, the world-wide leader of sports. Hold on to that point.

It seems two Hip Hop icons are looking make a run for those 22 stations. Ice Cube and LL Cool J wanted to acquire these stations to “change the narrative” of how sports is covered.  21 of those stations are Fox regional sports stations around the country and the YES Network station in New York.

These two had been working this business arrangement since 2018. $71 billion dollars is a ton of money and the investment group has to be credible with powerful businessmen and women for a business deal of this magnitude. Especially in the media world. Well it took them a while but…

Now guess who is part of the investment group? Let me give you a clue. It’s not Rob Pelinka or Jeanie Buss…

Before we move on, let me say this, Magic Johnson is one of the biggest and most powerful figures in NBA history. His business portfolio can be challenged by no one outside of Michael Jordan. Johnson used to own 4.5% of the Lakers before he sold his share over the frustration of how the Lakers were being run. He owns part of the Dodgers. He had a Starbucks investment before he sold it. Remember the movie theaters?

There is no way Magic Johnson is the weak quitter that many fans and members of the media paint him out to be. Most will point to the roster construction this year with the questionable personnel.

What people will forget is the Lakers were in the exact same boat when he started with no cap space and free agents were not coming. The Lakers now have LeBron James locked in for three years (For better or worse) and cap space to work with. He took the Lakers as far as he could with the influence he had (Which obviously not what most executives are supposed to get) and left.

Remember all of those big names to replace Magic? 

All those big names like Jerry West, who the Lakers basically dismissed back in 2017 when he was interested. The only reason his name came up was he basically ran circles around the Lakers front office building the Clippers to a playoff team this year.

Lake Show Life basically broke down his performance outclassing Magic with his moves during the trade deadline  and his capitalizing on the Lakers unloading of Lou Williams. 

Then they floated out Pat Riley’s name for the media to report. Did anybody really believe that Riles was going to leave all of that power in Miami to come to L. A.? For anyone that really thought the Lakers had a shot, here you go.

Let me add-on to this. Lakers fans must have forgotten how close Riley is to Magic. My recommendation is watch the 30 for 30 episode about Magic’s HIV announcement documentary. After you watch it, you will realize the Lakers had absolutely no chance. We can also talk about that millionaire 13 percent tax he would have to pay instead in lieu of Florida’s no state tax that he has been enjoying for years.

I’m not even going to discuss Bob Myers. Like he’s going to leave the Golden State Warriors?

Now it seems that Rob Pelinka is staying on as GM while the new power couple, Linda and Kurt Rambis are holding down the fort in the front office. Magic knew that things are going to get worse and the Lakers are not going to make the changes needed to right the ship.

Over the next few weeks leading into the draft, the infamous press conference will make more sense.