Stepped down as President of Basketball Operations
In 2017, the city of Los Angeles rejoiced when controlling owner Jeanie Buss fired her brother Jimmy from his role of top executive of the Los Angeles Lakers (along with Mitch Kupchak) and appointed long-time legend Johnson as the President of Basketball Operations. He was set to spark a new era in LA after years of struggle under Buss’s managing.
His first move was to hire a new General Manager to help him in the job, and he chose former Kobe Bryant’s agent Rob Pelinka.
He knew he would face some tough times in the beginning and that success was not around the corner due to the mess left by the previous front office. So he worked to reassess the situation and he did pretty well, setting the path in a little more than a year, for great stars to come to LA.
He managed to take rid of the ridiculous contracts given to Timofey Mozgov and Luol Deng. Although at the expense of many young players collected through hard years, Magic paved the way for the greatest player in the world to join the Lakers. In the summer of 2018, he signed LeBron James to a four-year contract.
President Johnson seemed to have done everything that was expected from him and brought the Lakers back on a course of great success for the years to come, but in April 2019, he unexpectedly resigned from his role as President of Basketball Operations.
Many reasons were given for the decision, both officially and unofficially.
Magic cited his need to return to his role as ambassador of the NBA, something the executive role would not allow him with all the restrictions over tampering. He hinted to some back-stabbing, probably referred to Rob Pelinka, who, people said, was aiming to the ultimate decision power in the front office.
Differences with Jeanie Buss, with whom he did not want to fight, for the vision of the franchise have been cited as a reason for his resignation.
Other claims pointed to him being too tough on employees, who felt too much pressure, and reports cited him never showing up in his office, taking his duties as a part-time job.
Whatever the reasons were, he felt it was better for himself and for the success of the team to leave his assignment and leave the handling of the roster to Rob Pelinka.
Right or wrong about his decision, Pelinka succeeded masterfully, acquiring Anthony Davis a few months later and building a championship-caliber team.