Los Angeles Lakers: Magic Johnson does not owe LeBron James an explanation on exit

The Los Angeles Lakers bombshell involving Magic Johnson surprised everyone, including LeBron James, but he does not owe James an explanation for his actions.

Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James is slowly but surely showing his desperation these days. No matter what media reports say, he is shifting the narrative of blame to his go-to position that has been played out his entire career. That narrative is to anyone not named LeBron James!

The Los Angeles Lakers are a virtual dumpster fire these days. That’s not news, you say? No max-level free agent will come to play with LeBron James. Okay, we all know that, but there is something that we all need to pay attention to.

LeBron James is staring the same situation as this season in the face and he knows he is stuck. He can’t blame Luke Walton because he’s gone, plus he isn’t getting the coach he wants in Tyronn Lue. He has nobody in the Lakers front office that he can relate to (aka cater to his every whim) to get the improvements he needs. Right now LeBron James needs a fall guy.

Magic Johnson, come on down! You are the next contestant on Lake Show Life‘s new game show “The Blame Game”. Here’s your host LeBron James!

Okay, that might have been a little over the top, but bear with me. LeBron James has found a new millennial way of making himself look “gangsta” all while throwing people under the bus at the same time. It has been his show on HBO called “The Shop”.

Lake Show Life has been covering each episode up to this point with interesting results in every episode. The show has gained an identity with controversial comments.

The first episode was about LeBron speaking out for the greater good and not caring about the backlash that would come with it. I will give him credit for that episode, as in future episodes, he did exactly what he said he would do. Whether that be for better or for worse, you can be the judge of that.

Who thought the second episode would start a rap beef between Kanye West and Drake? In that episode, I thought LeBron James was ready for the season and was starting to mature talking about his greatest professional failure back in the 2011 NBA Finals. Looking back well, it’s now the second.

Now in retrospect, he was networking, setting himself up with heavy hitters in the entertainment field. Drake is the hottest Hip Hop artist alive and who knows, maybe it propelled him into that A&R deal with 2-Chainz album. At least it got him on stage with a multi-winning Grammy award winner.

https://twitter.com/BleacherReport/status/1051498140224827397?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1051498140224827397&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Flakeshowlife.com%2F2018%2F10%2F15%2Flebron-james-hits-hbo-airwaves-episode-2%2F

The third episode showed that LeBron James is looking for ratings. You see this was the episode when stated the NFL owners had a “slave mentality”. Even that brought a cautionary tale from Stephen A. Smith.

Now after hearing this, remember the “Decision” part of Stephen A. Smith’s message. Now his promotional conversation for his latest show was based around Magic Johnson, the former President of Basketball Operations of the Los Angeles Lakers.

It has been close to a month since Magic Johnson resigned without reportedly telling Jeanie Buss or anyone else in the organization. Will we ever know the true story? Probably not, but LeBron James took the opportunity to boost ratings on his HBO show. Let’s break down what happened here.

LeBron James again shows his media savvy and passive aggressive behavior

We are close to a month removed from Magic Johnson’s press conference. Since then, you haven’t heard a peep out of LeBron James since the season ended. Outside of watching Dwyane Wade‘s last game in Brooklyn, the only time you have heard from LeBron was that weight room display at the Staples Center.

He never answered Charles Barkley’s invite to come to the TNT studios.

He never answered Stephen A. Smith’s challenge to come on First Take.

Now we know why. If he shows up on these broadcasts, it would steal the thunder of his own show on HBO. I will give the man credit, LeBron James is a businessman. That’s why he is in a Lakers uniform in the first place. But if he was a real businessman he would know that Magic Johnson owed him no explanation or heads up no matter what the media says.

It didn’t stop him from breaking down what happened in his eyes on his platform. Due to the strong language, the video will be provided here while others can read the cleaned up version of the quote below.

"“Between my stretching sessions, my right hand comes up to me and say, ‘Magic just stepped down.’ And I’m like, ‘Man, get the f— out of my face, you’re bulls—-ng me.’ I check my phone, I look at it, the s–t happened. Personally, for me, I came here to be a part of the Lakers organization after having a conversation with Magic, so it was just weird for him to just be like ‘Nah, I’m out of here,’ and not even have, like: ‘Hey, Bron . . . kiss my a–. I’m out of here.’ It wasn’t even that.”"

I could go into the “stretching sessions” LeBron was talking about after the Lakers had shut him down for the season. Stretching sessions for the last game of the season that he won’t play in? But that’s for another article. I digress.

Again, this is a PR move by LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers to find a way to stay relevant in the NBA media. It’s getting so bad, both sides must be fighting to change their names to “Sports” just to get themselves in the paper.

This is another sad chapter of dysfunction played out in front of the NBA world.

The interesting part about watching the show was that Lonzo Ball, the guy that is playing on a rookie contract took it all in stride. To watch LeBron James have a drama-filled soliloquy on Magic Johnson’s actions and it gets followed up with Ball asking Kyle Kuzma “What’s up for tonight after the game?” shows the levels of maturity here.

Yes, Lonzo Ball is the smart one here.

LeBron James is setting a narrative for next year if things stay the same

The Los Angeles Lakers have hit close to rock bottom these days when the media tells the NBA world that Monty Williams CHOSE the Phoenix Suns over the Lakers in his coaching options.

Sure, the Lakers will say Ty Lue was the only real option, but perception will be the Lakers reality for the near future and they didn’t even lock him down. LeBron James knows this and he will be in the spotlight for the rest of his tenure in Los Angeles. Now he needs to get in front of it. How does he do that?

Talk about the circumstances that brought him to Los Angeles and attach Magic Johnson to it.

At this point, anyone that watched the Lakers after the trade deadline is rolling their eyes at this point.

The fact that Lonzo Ball is a part of this episode is funny to me. Maybe LaVar Ball was watching the episode laughing too. Especially after what he said on Undisputed around the trade deadline when Lonzo was on the block.

Maybe LeBron James is recruiting young players to like him for next season. Might as well, Lonzo stated during the show that he didn’t know LeBron really until after the deadline.

But the point here is to get his message out that if things don’t work out in the offseason in free agency, don’t go looking for him. If you are looking for someone to blame, it’s all Magic Johnson’s fault.

Instead of using his “team” to make moves in the front office and on the coaching front, use a TV show to get the word out. Think it doesn’t work? Check out what FS-1’s Chris Broussard had to say co-signing LeBron’s message.

Now LeBron James goes from Lakers’ fans scapegoat to the victim. The media can be used as a powerful tool when used correctly. Here’s where LeBron James is totally missing the boat.

LeBron James has underestimated his position since he left Cleveland!

LeBron James dynamic throughout his career has been different from many NBA players in this era. For some reason, the narrative is that teams have to fit their business plans around LeBron James instead of the other way around.

Think about James Harden, Kevin Durant and Stephen Curry, players that are legitimate superstars. Do they hold their franchises to specific ways of doing things for the franchise to be successful? No.

When LeBron James started his first tenure in Cleveland, he raised the accomplishments of the Cavaliers to an all-time high. Couple that with the fact that he was a hometown hero, LeBron James started to gain a level of power that he took advantage of.

He used that power to get coaches fired. He got players traded. He basically used his influence to gain power within the organizations that were weak in the front office.

In Cleveland, it was easy because of the influx of general managers in the front office. Dan Gilbert has never extended contracts of his GM’s. LeBron was the constant presence early in his career and took advantage of it.

In Miami, that was not the case, because Pat Riley was a fixture in the front office and was not going anywhere. At that time, LeBron James was not a “high-ranking official” in a sense in the Heat organization. The structure and plan were already set by the time James had gotten to Miami.

Dwyane Wade was the leader in the locker room along with Udonis Haslem. Wade had a long-standing relationship with head coach Eric Spoelstra. Couple that with Spoelstra’s ironclad backing of Pat Riley, LeBron James could not disturb the dynamic.

Maybe that’s why LeBron James would leave easily the best-constructed squads of his career to get back to Cleveland. It was not about winning at that point. It was about power. Something he has very little of in Los Angeles these days.

Since we are talking about LeBron James and his exits in his career, let’s take a look and see if he has any say so in how anyone decides to leave a franchise.

Did he call Dan Gilbert and tell him that he was going to Miami or did he find out on TV? 

Now, every sports media outlet is discussing the same narrative about did Magic Johnson owe LeBron James a heads up before he stepped down.

The reports say that Magic Johnson met with LeBron James, Rich Paul and Rob Pelinka over the previous weekend and had said nothing about quitting. LeBron had something to say during the show about the execution of what Magic Johnson’s career moves.

Boy does he have a short memory.

Magic Johnson had an impromptu press conference. LeBron James had an ESPN special! He had an entire show that ran on for 30 minutes that ended with his decision to go to Miami. He had the Heat, the Cavaliers, Chicago, New York and even the New Jersey Nets waiting to hear his decision (I know the Nets right?).

To this day, up until this disastrous season with the Lakers, this is considered by many the only misstep of LeBron’s career. The hype leading up to the event set a trend of the hoopla that is surrounding so many potential free agents this summer.

That and the apparent need to build up super teams that have been the blueprint of LeBron James’ constructed teams for eight straight years before coming to Los Angeles.

No one knew the possible effects of that one event and how it would affect NBA history. Recently, LeBron and his management team produced a documentary (notice the trend here?) looking back at that event.

Four years in Miami, two titles, then an embarrassing beatdown NBA Finals loss to the San Antonio Spurs. He left, right?

LeBron James took his talents back to Cleveland earlier than people think

The one phrase that will haunt LeBron James if he keeps using it will be the “championship mode” or “playoff mode” narrative. We all remember the “playoff mode” that he needed to apply earlier than usual this year. How did that work out?

Now he talks “championship mode” during the show. History shows he does not always practice what he preaches. According to Bill Simmons, LeBron James looked “detached”.

"During Game 5 of the 2014 Finals, something happened that few people noticed because San Antonio played so wonderfully. Trailing by seven after halftime, LeBron came out for the third quarter and wouldn’t shoot. Every pass was sent with a little extra zip, as if he were telling Micky Arison and Pat Riley, here’s the team you stuck me with. Watching it in person, you could tell he was tired and pissed, but you couldn’t tell if it was because the season was slipping away … or because of something deeper. He wasn’t openly sulking, but he wasn’t rallying everyone, either. He looked detached again. Much like Games 5 and 6 of the Boston series in 2010, actually. The Spurs quickly extended their lead to 20, with LeBron attempting one shot in Miami’s first 14 possessions. If he wanted to prove a point, he certainly proved it. Midway through the fourth quarter, trailing by 18, he missed a 3 and didn’t even run back on defense."

Seems like LeBron James checked out when things got tough. At least that’s what some members of the Miami Heat organization thought.

Remember what the plan was back then? The Miami Heat was going to win not one..not two…

As you can see, plans change. Can’t Magic change his or do the rules apply to just LeBron?

LeBron James made a decision not based on winning championships and got caught

Look LeBron James came to Los Angeles to get his media business off the ground. That is obvious considering this article is about one of his shows. One of his partners, Maverick Carter, is one of the hottest new producers in L.A. But LeBron James really needs to back off with the comments about winning championships.

LeBron James could have easily signed with the Philadelphia 76ers. Think about LeBron teaming up with Ben Simmons and Joel Embiid. That trio leads the Sixers to the Finals with ease. He didn’t want to do it.

He could have signed with the Houston Rockets. That’s a perfect scenario for LeBron James playing with his best friend, Chris Paul. With James Harden lighting up the scoreboard, this is a super team that would challenge the Warriors. Didn’t do it.

This was a miscalculated move by LeBron James, who missed numerous red flags that he should have noticed.

Magic Johnson did get the credit for recruiting LeBron James to come to Los Angeles, but it is a foregone conclusion that it wouldn’t have mattered. James was coming anyway.

The problem is the Lakers fans want to see championships in this four-year tenure and it doesn’t look like it’s coming.

LeBron James keeps saying that he makes moves that are best for him and his family, well so did Magic.

He was the boss, you are the basketball player, which means no matter how many sports pundits say to the contrary.

Magic Johnson doesn’t owe you anything. Next up, these type of conversations will start.

Book it!!!!!