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Magic Johnson steps down as President of Basketball Operations


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13 hours ago, Surly Bevo said:

Battling HIV is tough work

That is what it looked like to me watching his press conference. I think the disease has progressed, he looked sick and sad, like he had been given really bad news.

Edited by HtownHorn
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13 hours ago, UTDD said:

Wow, what a mess the Lakers are right now.

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13 hours ago, Zavala said:

Hilarious.

I unironically hope the Clippers take over LA for the next 30 years. Just as long as they dont win a 'ship

I’d love to see the Clippers win a title just to increase “Lakers fan’s” misery. 

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Earv is a complete buffoon. Lazy, unprofessional and zero persistence. Guy quits as soon as he comes up against any form of resistance - nba coach, tv host, now nba exec -- shit gets the slightest bit difficult and he leaves.

Looks like a mess in the moment, but this is the best possible outcome for the Lakers organization. Plus they'll still have access to his wildly insightful Twitter takes.

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I have reserved comment on this as my focus was on the UCLA HC situation.  But I think this is a really good thing.  I have no doubt that Magic's heart has always been in the right place with this, but he just doesn't have the experience or the makeup to do this job.  We need a long-standing seasoned pro to run the front office.  Pelinka had no experience prior to this either.  To put this franchise in the hands of newbies was a major mistake.  Bring in Griffin, blow Pelinka out (he has his share of enemies in the league) and let the pros do what they do.  

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1 hour ago, TommyGufano said:

Guy quits as soon as he comes up against any form of resistance - nba coach, tv host, now nba exec -- shit gets the slightest bit difficult and he leaves.

 

Would have been nice if one of the reporters had brought this up in the press conference, but they were too busy lobbing softballs and laughing.  

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Didn’t he say he would leave in 2 years if they were striking out on free agents? I know Lebron went there but he was probably going to LA regardless. Magic hasn’t really done anything except tamper with signed players. 

I don’t think this should be a surprise to anyone based on what he said when he took the job. 

Edited by Jhawk
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Earv is a complete buffoon. Lazy, unprofessional and zero persistence. Guy quits as soon as he comes up against any form of resistance - nba coach, tv host, now nba exec -- shit gets the slightest bit difficult and he leaves.
Looks like a mess in the moment, but this is the best possible outcome for the Lakers organization. Plus they'll still have access to his wildly insightful Twitter takes.

You may be right when it comes to basketball endeavors but he has been excellent in the business world. He started his movie theater chain, owned more than 100 Starbucks, several Burger Kings and 24 Fitness franchises. The vast majority of these in “urban” locales. Reportedly worth around $650 million.
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  • 1 month later...

I'm not sure how the Lakers could have hired a guy with a worse reputation than Rob Pelinka. He's known for two things: (1) being Kobe's agent and (2) the Carlos Boozer / Cleveland bullshit handshake fiasco. People in the league still have major hard feelings over that. Nobody trusts him. Half the GMs in the league won't take his phone calls, allegedly.  I find it the least surprising thing ever that he did Magic that way. What a joke. 

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1 hour ago, Kermit said:

Dude, make it stop! I can’t take this pleasure anymore! Just kidding. This just keeps getting better and better. I can’t wait for the inevitable “Lebron wants out” rumors. 

Honestly, I would be OK with trading him.  I don't see this team doing anything of significance in terms of free agency, and trading everything away to get AD would end disastrously.  The haul you could get for LeBron from a team that is close would be immense, I would figure.  It would mean a few more years of wandering the desert, but in this town it's championship or bust, and I don't see championship happening.

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Everything is fine. Word on the street is that insisting on having Jason Kidd on the staff was to make them the favorites to land Giannis in 2021.* Book it!

*I'm not shitting you, that's what people are talking about out here.

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27 minutes ago, aggie08 said:

Everything is fine. Word on the street is that insisting on having Jason Kidd on the staff was to make them the favorites to land Giannis in 2021.* Book it!

*I'm not shitting you, that's what people are talking about out here.

good grief

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1 hour ago, aggie08 said:

Magic has never had much problem kicking guys on their way out, has he?

Seems like it.  What a mess out in Los Angeles.  I'd rate Jerry Buss as maybe one the best owners the NBA has ever had, and now the organization looks fairly dysfunctional.  I tend to believe personally that it is probably true that Pelinka is an opportunistic scumbag and took advantage of his situation to try and take out Magic, but I also tend to believe that some of what he was saying (work ethic about Magic) was also true.  

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3 minutes ago, dingleberryswitzer said:

Anyone that ever saw magic on his talk show knows he's not the brightest tool in the shed.  I honestly thought he was there at the Lakers just as a public figure to trot out on TV and try to attract free agents.  I had no idea he had any actual basketball or business related duties.  

and that's the beauty of it.

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37 minutes ago, dingleberryswitzer said:

Anyone that ever saw magic on his talk show knows he's not the brightest tool in the shed.  I honestly thought he was there at the Lakers just as a public figure to trot out on TV and try to attract free agents.  I had no idea he had any actual basketball or business related duties.  

Exactly. No sympathy at all for him. Yeah, it seems like Rob is a mega douche, but Magic was the President of Basketball Operations for the Lakers...of course dudes want your job. And if you're not putting in the work and resting on being able to say, "I'm Magic Johnson," you're gonna get got.

His defenders repeat over and over again what a great people person he is, how his smile lights up every room...but you never hear the words "professional" or "classy."

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Anyone that ever saw magic on his talk show knows he's not the brightest tool in the shed.  I honestly thought he was there at the Lakers just as a public figure to trot out on TV and try to attract free agents.  I had no idea he had any actual basketball or business related duties.  


Magic didn’t know he had those duties either.
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12 hours ago, dingleberryswitzer said:

Anyone that ever saw magic on his talk show knows he's not the brightest tool in the shed.  I honestly thought he was there at the Lakers just as a public figure to trot out on TV and try to attract free agents.  I had no idea he had any actual basketball or business related duties.  

He apparently didn't even know he had an office.

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So from what I gather, Magic wanted to do an incredibly difficult and demanding full-time job on a part-time basis (Jeanie Buss said yeah no problem!) and yet retain all the power and decision-making responsibilities. And when Pelinka started going around saying, “hey what the fuck? we’re letting the guy who works 25 hours a week make head coaching decisions??” - Magic felt backstabbed and betrayed.   

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On 5/20/2019 at 11:22 AM, Mitch Cumsteen said:

I'm not sure how the Lakers could have hired a guy with a worse reputation than Rob Pelinka. He's known for two things: (1) being Kobe's agent and (2) the Carlos Boozer / Cleveland bullshit handshake fiasco. People in the league still have major hard feelings over that. Nobody trusts him. Half the GMs in the league won't take his phone calls, allegedly.  I find it the least surprising thing ever that he did Magic that way. What a joke. 

Yep.  The issue is ownership.  The Buss kids have or are proving they're clueless.  They hire Pelinka because he's Kobe's boy.  They hire Magic because he's Lakers royalty.  They listen to Kurt Rambis and his wife because Jeannie likes to get mimosas with her.  Yet, the power structure is convoluted and complicated...... yet, Jerry West (the smartest guy in the basketball room for 3 decades) isn't called and quietly is extended by the Clippers.  smh.

19 hours ago, CurlyDumps said:

So from what I gather, Magic wanted to do an incredibly difficult and demanding full-time job on a part-time basis (Jeanie Buss said yeah no problem!) and yet retain all the power and decision-making responsibilities. And when Pelinka started going around saying, “hey what the fuck? we’re letting the guy who works 25 hours a week make head coaching decisions??” - Magic felt backstabbed and betrayed.   

Ugly Rob Lowe is an idiot though.... so you have a part-timer who knows basketball and a full timer who everyone hates and doesn't know much basketball.  It's the best of both worlds!

 

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