Los Angeles Lakers: ESPN story shines light on Magic Johnson, team dysfunction
By Ronald Agers
The Lakers staff thought the meme team might not work out (I’m being kind)
Magic Johnson locked up LeBron James immediately during last year’s free agency. Okay, everybody was happy. Great signing. Now what?
After the LeBron James signing, to say that staffers wondered about the roster construction would be like saying the Titanic was a small leak.
"“We all had the same reaction that the basketball world did, like what the f— are we doing? Not only are we not getting shooting, but we’re also getting every basket case left on the market.”"
The Lakers surrounded LeBron James with multiple “playmakers” like Michael Beasley, Lance Stephenson, Rajon Rondo and JaVale McGee.
It has been reported that Luke Walton and his staff implored Magic Johnson and Rob Pelinka to hold on to Julius Randle and Brook Lopez and was rebuffed.
If any of this was true, Magic Johnson is to blame for the Lakers downfall during the season. To be clear, he had no right to chastise Luke Walton with the Lakers struggles. If Walton and the basketball staff was ignored while putting together a team that was interesting, to say the least.
Maybe Luke Walton was set up to fail.
We all know at this point that Walton was not Johnson’s hire and the plan was to replace him with Tyronn Lue. Johnson said as much on First Take and noted his firing was the major reason for his stepping down. But it is starting to come clear that Magic Johnson was in no danger of trying to put together a working relationship needed for the Lakers to succeed.
Many came to Luke Walton’s defense when the team struggled at times throughout the season. Others thought that Luke Walton was not the man for the job. With the Sacramento Kings hiring Walton basically as he was packing up his belonging shows the quality of the job he did this year.
The man had no chance of succeeding. Think about it. You have your supervisor basically giving you spare parts from a Chevrolet Cavalier to a build a Ferrari and he’s in partnership with your best player trying to get you fired.
How? I thought LeBron James’ camp was bold when they leaked out reports that the Lakers needed a coaching change, but Rich Paul took it to a whole new level.
Give the man credit, he has a lot of heart.