Los Angeles Lakers: ESPN story shines light on Magic Johnson, team dysfunction

ESPN’s recent bombshell article gives another in-depth look to the inner workings of the Los Angeles Lakers and things are not pretty.

When Magic Johnson stepped down as the Los Angeles Lakers President of Basketball Operations one hour before the team’s final regular season game, there were shock waves throughout the NBA.

Remember when Magic Johnson was criticized for stealing the spotlight from Dirk Nowitzki and Dwyane Wade playing their final games in the NBA? I’ll bet Magic Johnson and the Los Angeles Lakers wish that was the only case today.

What’s amazing about this press conference is that it’s starting to lose the shock value by the week. Now it’s just considered the first scene in an increasingly sad reality show where the complete embarrassment of the Lakers front office is portrayed in front of the world.

Lake Show Life went into detail on how the business plan of the franchise needed to change with the resignation.

It was rumored that night that there was an ESPN story coming out that would put Magic Johnson in a bad light based on misconduct in the workplace. L.A. Times reported about the rumored piece ESPN was to release.

Magic Johnson strongly denied the potential report.

This probably was Magic Johnson’s thinking when he did his one hour exclusive interview on First Take last Monday.

One week later, the day Magic Johnson is part of the NBA Finals preview show with Stephen A. Smith, Michael Wilbon and Doc Rivers, ESPN dropped that bombshell article that was rumored on April 9th.

Baxter Holmes of ESPN laid out in detail what we all knew.

The Los Angeles Lakers situation can be summed up by a quote made by Michael Ray Richardson years ago describing the New York Knicks back in 1982.

"“…the ship be sinking…”"

With all due respect to Baxter Holmes and his piece, because it’s an informative and outstanding read, let’s ask ourselves this question. If Lakers fans were really paying attention, shouldn’t they know this already?

The dysfunction was not very hard to miss. All parties involved whether it be media, the team, LeBron James, the front office, knew the stench was all over the franchise. Baxter Holmes just showed exactly where the stench was at.

One week ago, Lake Show Life released an article wondering if Adam Silver should step in and intervene on the issues surrounding the Lakers. To say the article sparked controversy would be putting it mildly.

Maybe the article should be posted again.

Let’s break down the ESPN article.

Reportedly it seems there were two bosses employees had to deal with!

No, we are not talking about the pairing of Rob Pelinka and Magic Johnson. We are talking about Earvin Johnson and Magic Johnson.

According to the ESPN article, Johnson made it clear that mistakes would not be tolerated.

"In his remarks, Johnson expressed excitement about the task ahead, but he also made clear he didn’t accept excuses or mistakes, and that those who weren’t on board with the new management and their mission should leave, according to six staffers who were present. Pointing upstairs, toward his office, Johnson drove home his point. He had a large stack of resumes sitting on his desk — “a thousand” of them, multiple staffers recall him saying — and he could replace any of them at any time."

According to the employees that were interviewed for the story, it set the tone for an environment that has the words “bully” and “intimidation” floating around it.

"The message would set the tone for what many staffers describe as Johnson’s confrontational demeanor over the next two years. “If you questioned him on anything, his response was always a threatening tone,” said a Lakers front office staffer who interacted with Johnson directly. “He used intimidation and bullying as a way of showing authority.”"

This is not a good look for Magic Johnson, who was widely criticized for not being around for the day-to-day grind that his job as President required. Even worse, Magic Johnson named Rob Pelinka “specifically” as the guy doing the backstabbing.

According to this ESPN article, Magic Johnson really underestimated his relationship with his employees. The tenure of Magic Johnson led to a higher than normal turnover rate. The ESPN article stated 37 percent. That really is a staggering number.

One of the most shocking parts of the article detailed a couple of employees taking medication for anxiety attacks.

Two things that have to be noted here. First, no manager, whether it be the Los Angeles Lakers down to the smallest business in the world will get respect from its employees being absent for extended periods of time and coming in chastising after the work is done. It just can’t happen.

If the reports are true, Magic Johnson is dead wrong. Employees that walk away after decades of loyal service provides a HUGE red flag that things are wrong with the chain of command.

Number two, it is very sad that this situation caused physical and/or mental harm to said employees in the article. Employment is stressful enough without someone adding unnecessary and unfair treatment on the job. People make mistakes no matter what. Nobody is perfect.

Magic Johnson was quoted as not making mistakes. Umm, do we really need to go into the roster?

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.

Rich Paul actually complained to Adam Silver about Luke Walton while he was eating dinner!

Okay, if you actually paid attention to LeBron James’ career, getting coaches fired is definitely a part of the man’s history. When Lake Show Life broke down LeBron’s entire coaching cancellation carousel, it was written with the understanding that Luke Walton tenure would be a year at the most.

LeBron James has his ways of controlling the narrative. This is no secret. He has his ways of getting his message across. Have you heard anything from him directly about the chaos surrounding the Lakers? No. How about Magic Johnson’s resignation? No.

He’ll take that to his HBO TV program, The Shop! Hey folks, in the media May is known as the rating period. Gotta get those numbers up. That’s why I stated that Magic Johnson did not owe LeBron James an explanation.

Now it seems that Rich Paul takes LeBron’s issues to the top of the food chain.

No, not Jeanie Buss! Adam Silver, the NBA commissioner. Yes Lakers fans, it’s true. According to the ESPN piece, Rich Paul actually went to Adam Silver while he was having lunch with Maverick Carter, LeBron’s business partner, about Walton’s minute distributions, substitution patterns and lineups.

Lakers fans this happened in November, November!

Couple this with the Anthony Davis mess that went on in February, Rich Paul seemed to irritate Jeanie Buss. Even to the point that a decision was “considered” to trade LeBron James.

Why? Rich Paul.

Many Lakers employees deemed it strange for Rich Paul and Klutch Sports to have access to areas not normally given to agents. Chartered flights with the team was an issue that was disputed by Paul. He said he only did it on one occasion. Others said it was more. Who knows?

What it does show is that the power struggle within the organization is real. Lake Show Life laid it out in detail with the possible corporate takeover that LeBron James was practicing. Then the report discussed the issues throughout the entire organization. To put this in perspective, it was covered when Luke Walton stated that things were “good”. 

Looking back, it can easily be seen why the Anthony Davis saga destroyed the locker room. There is no trust in this organization. The Los Angeles Lakers have to get somebody in the organization that commands respect based on trust.

According to ESPN, Rob Pelinka just is not the guy!

One misinformed story gets Rob Pelinka back in the news, again

Rob Pelinka has been scorched and raked over the coals over his experience, his relationship with NBA executives and of course Magic Johnson. But the one thing that gets stuck with Pelinka is his “creditabilty”. The only positive that Rob Pelinka has going for him right now is Kobe Bryant.

Now even Kobe Bryant is getting sick!

The ESPN article talks about a story Rob Pelinka told when Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson visited the Staples Center.

"“There was one time when Kobe, who I worked with for 18 years, was going back to play in Madison Square Garden, and he had just seen ‘The Dark Knight,'” Pelinka said. “Obviously, you guys saw that movie, and he’s like, ‘Hey, hook me up with dinner with Heath Ledger, because he got so locked into that role. I want to know how he mentally went there.’ So, he had dinner with Heath, and he talked about how he locks in for a role. “And Kobe used some of that in his game against the Knicks.” “The Dark Knight” was released in July 2008, six months after Ledger died. A source with direct knowledge said no such arrangement was made and no dinner ever took place."

Let’s forget the Freudian slip here. Let’s talks optics. Lakers fans have flooded the comments section with potential free agency ideas and trades. I shoot all of them down. I realize that it could be frustrating. To those people I have frustrated, I say the same thing; do you really trust this guy to negotiate a big deal?

Trust me Lakers fans, the NBA executives don’t. He blew the coaching search. He did not show any leadership speaking out at least to say the Lakers have a plan and will move forward. He could have been lying but it wouldn’t have been as big as the one you just read.

With Jeanie Buss still not speaking, this will be a fluid situation. Lake Show Life will be on top of it and provide updates throughout the summer.