Magic Johnson dropped a shocking bomb on Tuesday night by announcing he was stepping down as the Los Angeles Lakers’ President of Basketball Operations. Johnson announced the news to the media, saying he hadn’t even told Jeanie Buss or Rob Pelinka because he couldn’t face her and tell her the disappointing news.
Johnson’s announcement comes on the final day of the regular season for the Lakers, which will mark their sixth straight season without making the playoffs. It also comes right before the expected firing of Luke Walton and could result in a major change of direction for the franchise.
For months the expectation has been that Walton would be fired. But Johnson said he couldn’t be the bad guy and fire Walton, which played a role in his decision to step away.
End of the day, Magic Johnson claims he has too much love for Jeanie Buss to hurt someone she loves in Luke Walton. A high-stakes basketball version of the Gift of the Magi. Stunning.
— Dave McMenamin (@mcten) April 10, 2019
Buss has always supported Walton and fought for his job, though she was willing to give the front office the power to fire him. Now that Magic is gone, the decision may fall to Jeanie or Pelinka, one of whom supports the coach. It’s conceivable that he could keep his job.
Though there is now a chance Walton keeps his job, we probably still should not consider it likely.
LeBron James is the franchise’s superstar and his team has long supported a change of coaches. Even LeBron has seemingly shown disrespect to Walton during the season. As long as James is on the team, the Lakers would probably be best off hiring a coach he supports.
