Magic Johnson stepping down as Team President
Well, this came as a shock for the entire NBA, as Earvin “Magic” Johnson just announced this morning that he chose to walk away from that position, saying that “He just wants to have fun again”. Many of people around the league, including Jeanie Buss, thought that this will be a long-term deal and Magic had the resume and all the potential to form a strong group of basketball players, given the fact that he is a top 5 player in NBA history. Despite of his basketball IQ, this says a lot about the stress and the responsibilities you have when you are the President of a team, especially the Lakers, which we all know that gets the most media attention, even if they are not even making the playoffs. That’s Hollywood, and you can do nothing about it. All that, but I feel that there are a multitude of reasons on why he left the team, and here are some of them:
- In my thoughts, one of the main reasons for his departure is that he may be scared of the fact that he couldn’t have lured another superstar in the summer, as it seems that everybody is feeling a certain type of way about LeBron and the Lakers lately.
- Maybe, just maybe, LeBron got something to do with this decision. It can be about the coaching staff, and the answer to this will be responded lately in the summer when we’ll find out who their next head coach will be. It would be so funny to be Tyronn Lue.
- When you are getting yourself in the position that Magic was, you need to sacrifice time and nerves in order to try and get things right, so given the Lakers once again failed season this year, the pressure is very high on him, that’s why he said that he wants to have fun again with life. Some people just want to enjoy it while it lasts, and I perfectly understand that. He was a hell of a player, sacrificed his body throughout his career, why bother and stress all your life about basketball.
- The trades and the draft picks that he made can be another factor, if you look at the bigger picture. He chose to trade D’Angelo Russell, who is an All Star in Brooklyn now, while picking Lonzo Ball, a player who struggles in offense and will do that for the next years. At this point is not even sure that he will develop a jump shot. In today’s NBA, guards don’t live off of just assists anymore, as Rondo was back in the day with the Celtics, for example, they need to shoot the ball, and Lonzo can not do that right now.
Here is the full interview of Magic Johnson.