Los Angeles Lakers: Magic Johnson appears on ESPN’s First Take

Magic Johnson resigned from being the Los Angeles Lakers President of Basketball Operations over a month ago and is finally speaking out.

On Monday morning, Los Angeles Lakers legend and former President of Basketball Operations, Magic Johnson, went on the ESPN talk show “First Take”. In a very candid interview, Magic spoke about what he referred to as “his truth.”

Magic confirmed Laker fans’ worst fears about the current front office situation with the team as it goes into the most important offseason in franchise history.

Since he abruptly resigned before the Lakers last game of the season, no one from the Lakers brain trust discussed Magic’s departure. With a national platform and no rebuttal, Magic shined a light on the machinations of the organization and it wasn’t pretty.

As to what caused the resignation this is what Magic had to say:

“The straw that broke the camel’s back was I wanted to fire Luke Walton…When we (Jeannie Buss) went back and forth and then she brought Tim Harris (Lakers COO) in the meeting and Tim wanted to keep him because he was friends with Luke…wait a minute I only answer to Jeannie Buss now I have Tim involved, now I have to go.”

Magic spelled it out plainly that he didn’t have the power he thought he would and decided that he could not function in that environment.

On his relationship with Los Angeles Lakers GM Rob Pelinka:

“If you’re going to talk about betrayal, it’s only with Rob…”

Magic left no mystery about how he felt about his former subordinate, he pointed the finger at Pelinka saying the “backstabbing” going on in Magic’s mind came from Pelinka’s desire to have Magic’s job.

On the front office decision making process Magic said this:

“It’s too many people at the table and what happens everybody gets to share their opinion, it’s too much information coming at her (Jeannie Buss) and then when I say ‘hey we have to do this’ she can’t make a decision…Her love and respect for those people often caused us to not make the right choice or there’s no decision.”

Again, Magic made plainly obvious what has been reported, the chaos in the front office has had a paralyzing effect on basketball decisions and is detrimental to the organization.

Magic was not completely negative. He was positive when it came to LeBron James:

“It’s gonna happen…Lebron gon’ win that chip. He’s gonna be in that room recruiting, Lakers gotta decide it’s gotta be Jeannie, LeBron, and Rob and probably Frank (Vogel), that’s it!”

With that, Magic left, bringing an end to a candid interview that leaves a lot of questions in the air about how the Lakers organization will go moving forward.

Regardless of how Laker fans feel about what Magic said, the reality is that all of this falls at the feet of Jeannie Buss. If she doesn’t start making changes to the way things are done then the Los Angeles Lakers may be down for a long time.