Magic Johnson is the newest member of the Los Angeles Lakers’ front office, and his hire has left many wondering what the future holds for Jim Buss. Based on Magic’s vision, you could easily conclude that it is not bright.
In an interview with Josh Peter of USA Today Sports, Johnson said his goal is to be in charge of the Lakers’ basketball operations department.
“Working to call the shots, because it only works that way,” he said when asked about his role with the franchise. “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.”
Buss is currently the executive vice president of basketball operations with the Lakers, and he said in July 2015 that he would step down in two years if the team had not made a deep run. The belief is that Lakers co-owner Jeanie Buss hired Johnson to take her brother’s day-to-day job, though Magic admits he has a lot to learn before he can take on that much responsibility.
“I’m going to school, for sure,” he said. “Because I know talent. This part (evaluating players) comes easy, watching people play and seeing how they play, whose game hopefully can translate to the next level, those type of things. You’ll find out more as you get to interview them later on, the draft and workouts we have pre-draft. Then you’ll find out a lot more.
“The main part for me is really learning the other part that I didn’t know, and that is to understand the CBA, the salary cap, where we are in terms of the salary cap and who’s a free-agent-to-be. You’ve got a lot of young players so you’ve got to learn when are their contracts coming up, if you can give them the max deal, give them an extension, all those types of things you’ve got to learn.”
When you see some of the tweets Johnson has sent about Jim Buss over the years, you can’t help but think the Laker legend would have never accepted the job if Buss was going to remain in his current role. Nothing that has been said to this point indicates Buss will be holding onto his responsibilities.
