Lakers owner faces defining moment
Jeff Zillgitt: With Magic out, Jeanie Buss has some big decisions ahead
The clock is ticking on the prime of LeBron James’ career. It would be a shame to waste it on front office disarray.
Jeanie Buss, the controlling owner of the Lakers since 2013, has reached a pivotal point in her tenure as owner and chief decision-maker of the fabled franchise.
Her next decision will be a defining one for her and the organization. Who does she hire to run basketball operations?
The biggest lesson she can take
“I would have to affect someone’s livelihood and their life . ... That’s not fun for me. That’s not who I am.” Magic Johnson
from the Magic Johnson debacle that ended with his abrupt and unexpected resignation Tuesday is this: The Lakers are no longer a family business in the way it was when her father, deceased Jerry Buss, owned and ran the team.
Jeanie was influenced by the allure of the Showtime Lakers and the success of Jerry West, Pat Riley, Magic and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and then later with Phil Jackson, Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O’Neal and Mitch Kupchak and the Lakers’ 16 NBA championships. She and Jackson were in a relationship for seven years.
Hiring Magic as president of basketball operations and former agent Rob Pelinka, who used to represent Bryant, as general manager were mistakes.
She needs to go outside the Lakers’ family and hire a front office executive who knows how to operate in today’s NBA, someone who understands the modern NBA and all that goes into winning. In the NBA of 2019, the Lakers’ allure isn’t enough. The championships and prestige certainly help, but the Lakers need someone who can recruit in free agency and possesses the kind of trust required to make impact trades.
That wasn’t Johnson, and it might not be Pelinka, either.
Johnson isn’t cut out for this line of work, not in a permanent role with an NBA team. He was going to fire coach Luke Walton.
“I would have to affect someone’s livelihood and their life. And I thought about that,” Johnson said Tuesday. He couldn’t bring himself to do it. “That’s not fun for me,” he said. “That’s not who I am.”
So he resigned, saying he valued his friendship with Buss and her friendship with Walton too much to get in the middle and alter lifelong relationships.
Also, Magic couldn’t be Magic. He couldn’t connect with Ben Simmons to help the 76ers guard with his game and couldn’t congratulate players, such as Russell Westbrook or Dwyane Wade, because of the league’s anti-tampering rules.
Johnson relishes his role as ambassador to the game of basketball, free to tweet and communicate as he sees fit without regard to league rules.
“I was happier when I wasn’t president,” he said.
The delivery of the news was unplanned and unscripted, very Magiclike. But the abrupt and uncouth vanishing act — you just don’t step down like that, without informing your boss first — leaves the Lakers in chaos, the opposite of what Johnson was hired to do. He was supposed to bring stability, to ensure the Lakers return to championship contention.
Now, they will miss the playoffs for a franchise-record sixth consecutive year.
While the Lakers are in better shape with the free agent addition of James in 2018, they remain far from a contender. Much work remains with that roster.
Johnson had little experience building a team, and Pelinka had even less. The combo had name recognition and obvious familiarity with the game, but not the kind of hands-on experience and track record required for this situation.
They built a flawed roster and failed in the trade-deadline market when they tried to acquire Anthony Davis — who shares the same agent, Rich Paul, as James — from the Pelicans. And they needed to strike it big so that what remains of the prime of James’ career isn’t squandered. There’s still time to make it work.
Which brings us back to Jeanie Buss. It was her decision to bring in Johnson and Pelinka, and it’s her responsibility to make sure the right front office and coaching personnel are in place.
Buss understands the Lakers’ role as a flagship NBA franchise and a professional sports team’s role as a civic trust. But the Lakers have missed the playoffs for six consecutive seasons, unheard of in Hollywood, and since Jackson’s last season in 2010-11, the Lakers have had four coaches.
Maybe Walton is the right coach.
Maybe he’s not.
But Buss must understand that a front office wants to select its coach and not be worried if firing one coach will upset the owner.
Johnson clearly didn’t feel comfortable canning Walton. With that the case, how can Pelinka feel comfortable doing so?
Buss is also in a difficult position with Pelinka because of his relationship and her relationship with Bryant, who is on the Mount Rushmore of Lakers players along with Magic.
Buss needs an experienced front office person who has autonomy to hire and fire without concerns of how it will impact long-term Lakers relationships.
Does that mean going after someone like Oklahoma City’s Sam Presti, Toronto’s Masai Ujiri or San Antonio’s R.C. Buford? Yes, it does.
As James enters Year 2 of his fouryear, $153.3 million deal with the team, Buss is on the hot seat in the Hollywood lights.