Lakers legend Magic ready to call the shots for club
LOS ANGELES: Retired Los Angeles Lakers legend Magic Johnson, hired by the NBA club as an adviser to co-owner and president Jeanie Buss, is ready to “call the shots” for the team.
The 57-year-old former guard won five NBA titles in his 13 seasons with the Lakers in a career cut short by his being diagnosed with HIV in 1991. He played in the 1992 NBA All-Star Game and briefly again for the Lakers in 1996 before finally calling it quits.
The Lakers announced last week that Johnson would assist Buss “on all business and basketball matters, collaborating with coaches, evaluating and mentoring players, assessing future franchise needs and helping ownership to determine the best path for growth and success.”
But Johnson told USA Today he hopes his role will be the man in charge as he tries to rebuild a club that has missed the playoffs the past three seasons after winning an NBA crown as recently as 2010.
“Working to call the shots, because it only works that way,” Johnson told the newspaper.
“Right now I’m advising. I get that. But at the end of the day, then we all got to come together and somebody’s got to say, ‘I’m making the final call,’ all right? And who’s that going to be? So, we’ll see what happens.”
The Lakers were off to an 18-37 start this season after posting their three worst seasons since moving from Minneapolis in 1960 – 27-55 in 2013-14, 21-61 the following season and 17-65 in the 2015-16 campaign. But the Lakers have also won 16 NBA crowns, one shy of the record 17 taken by the Boston Celtics. — AFP