Lakers owner Jeanie Buss has no plans for now to hire a replacement for Magic Johnson, Tania Ganguli and Broderick Turner of the Los Angeles Times report.
Johnson blindsided the organization by stepping down as president of basketball operations two weeks ago. However, Johnson declared that he’s still playing an active role in organizational decisions.
“I love Jeanie,” Johnson said. “I’ve been talking to her almost every day. I’m trying to help. Listen, I may not be in there physically, but I’m still there.”
Johnson is still expected to help woo free agents this summer as the franchise seeks more star power to help LeBron James bring it back to prominence, according the L.A. Times story.
If the Lakers don’t replace Johnson, the power of GM Rob Pelinka will continue to grow. Pelinka is running the team’s search for a new head coach to replace Luke Walton, who was dismissed after the season. The Lakers have already met with former Cavaliers coach Tyronn Lue and Sixers assistant Monty Williams. They’re expected to meet with Heat assistant and Pelinka’s former college teammate, Juwan Howard, on Tuesday.
Woo away nobody is going there.
Am I the only who realizes Rob Lowe is running the Lakers now and he just changed his last name to Pelinka for disguise?!
Lmao I have thought they looked a like for a while now.
hopefully he returns in two yrs or sooner
Could Rob Lowe be any worse than Pelinka?
So, basically Magic has made this a home based job.
close, the new president of basketball operations for the Lakers is…. LeBron James
I wish there was more in the actual article about Jeanie not replacing Magic, but instead the most important part of the story is almost a throw away line
Magic isn’t in the offices much. Walton is gone. The new HC will be either LBJ’s boy, Pelinka’s boy or AD’s boy. Magic is going to try and bring a 2nd elite FA to the Lakers.
Other than the 10 mm salary, what’s changed-? No restrictions on collusion?
Boy oh boy who gets the boy. I doubt any coach is hired until all the candidates become available to interview. So any ‘list’ is incomplete. And it would be smart to wait until AD or a new FA can have some input, to avoid last year’s problem of a coach trying to get the new star (Lebron) to do something he’s not optimal at (a fast pace).
Again we hear Pelinka’s power is growing, like ominous music should be playing.
How do you replace someone that didn’t do anything…
How bad would you feel if you not only lost your job, but afterwards they decided to not even replace you? I could live with being fired for not doing a good enough job, but it would be much harder to realize that my entire job was basically useless.