Magic Johnson is worth hundreds of millions of dollars thanks to endorsement deals, successful real estate ventures and more, and only someone with a financial situation similar to his would walk away from the type of money he was making with the Los Angeles Lakers.
On the latest episode of his “Tampering” podcast this week, Sam Amick of The Athletic reported that Johnson was making $10 million per year as the president of basketball operations for the Lakers. Amick’s colleague, Marcus Thompson II, speculates that the Lakers could pursue Warriors president and general manager Bob Myers as a potential replacement for Johnson, and a $10 million salary could be one aspect of the job that makes Myers consider leaving the best team in basketball.
Johnson has said he will be more comfortable as an ambassador for the Lakers than he was running the team’s basketball operations department. While that means he will remain on LA’s payroll, it almost certainly will not be at a salary that is close to $10 million.
There has been a lot of wild speculation about why Johnson chose to step down, but money clearly had nothing to do with it.
