The Los Angeles Lakers are back atop the NBA standings, and Magic Johnson believes he should be given quite a bit of credit for the franchise’s dramatic turnaround.
”This team would not be in the position it’s in without me,” says Johnson, who publicly and stunningly left his post as president of basketball operations before the 2018-19 regular season finale.
Magic’s sole regret about how things played out is not sitting down with team owner Jeanie Buss and superstar LeBron James to explain his decision to abruptly walk away.
Per The LA Times:
”I haven’t talked with Jeanie about everything yet. We’ll get together and have a meeting where there’s no media,” Johnson says. “Yeah, I should have told her what I was going to do.”
He believes he should be given a fair share of credit for the Lakers’ fast start.
”This team would not be in the position it’s in without me,” he says.
He talks about the trades he and [general manager Rob] Pelinka made to clear the salary cap space to sign James, notably the dealing of Timofey Mozgov and D’Angelo Russell. He talks about his recruitment of James. He talks about the players they drafted — Lonzo Ball and Josh Hart — who were included in the deal for Anthony Davis.
”This was my strategy, this is what I thought we’d be in three years,” he says. “I knew we were on the right track. Everybody wanted to do it their way, but I’m good with who I am. … I think people respect what I’ve done for the team.”
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