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The Lakers won five championships during Johnson\u2019s reign and he was a three-time MVP and 12-time All-Star. Sailing was not always smooth during his run there though and both Johnson and the Lakers stood by each other through losing seasons, trade requests and teammate and media turmoil. Johnson even made history as the first player to receive a contract worth over $1 million a year, signing a 25-year, $25 million contract, the first and only of its kind in NBA history. The most highly publicized controversy in his tenure as a player though, came after Johnson received news that he was HIV positive. At the time, the disease was still fairly new, as it just recently broke out and become a substantial problem in the 1980\u2019s, and questions came in bunches surrounding its contagiousness, how he had contracted it, even on Johnson\u2019s sexuality (AIDS was at times dubbed the \u201cgay disease).<\/p>\n
Johnson retired prior to the 1991 season and became an activist for the disease and other members of society who also contracted it, raising awareness and spreading light on it during the process. The Lakers stuck by their star, eventually offering him a coaching role, and even opening a roster spot for his comeback return during the 1995-96 season.<\/p>\n
And so, it only seemed right when Johnson was hired as President of Basketball Operations in 2017 by Jeanie Buss. He\u2019d been a part of the business for more than 40 years, and his time as coach, player, and basketball world-traveler, along with his relationship with the Lakers made him the ideal candidate for the job. And things looked to be going smoothly. The Lakers moved forward with former player Luke Walton as their head coach; the Walton family relationship with the team notoriously tenured. They signed free agent LeBron James this past summer in one of the biggest moves in their history. They drafted Lonzo Ball, Kyle Kuzma, and Josh Hart, all young pieces that looked to be a part of their core for years to come. They signed veterans Rajon Rondo, Lance Stephenson and Javale McGee. And with LeBron leading the charge, the Lakers were predicted to not only make the playoffs, but also make a deep run.<\/p>\n
The season started off just as they imagined it would. By Christmas, they were fourth in the western conference. But then LeBron got hurt. Their coaching staff began to have disagreements. Johnson and GM Rob Pelinka\u2019s relationship began to falter. And the Lakers began losing, and losing, and doing more of the same, so much so that their playoff hopes were dashed \u00a0as quickly as they had come.<\/p>\n
Magic quit, leaving the entire basketball landscape with questions upon questions about his decision. \u201cI\u2019m just not having fun anymore,\u201d he gave as reasoning for his departure from the team. The world would soon come to find out though, that there was much more to the story than what had first met the eye.<\/p>\n It was LeBron James who first spoke on the Magic turmoil after it took place. On his HBO show, The Shop,<\/u> James and teammate Lonzo Ball revealed that they had no idea he was even thinking about stepping down from his duties. \u201cMy team is\u2026getting ready for a game, and you decide to do that right now,\u201d LeBron said. \u201cThere was no phone call, no, ‘Hey Bron, kiss my ass I\u2019m leaving,’ nothing.\u201d Ball echoed James\u2019 surprise on the show, as did the rest of the team and organization after learning of the news. Johnson was one of the main people that had talked to LeBron about the process, about not winning right away and about grinding it out before going to the Lakers, and for James, his early departure was a slap to the face after feeling like they had reached an agreement on what was to come.<\/p>\n The players were not the only ones who felt left in the dark about Johnson\u2019s decision, however. It was reminiscent of comments that came when Johnson was a player with grievances according to Jeanie Buss, and instead of going to father Jerry about his problems with the coaching staff, Johnson went to the press and publicly demanded a trade, forcing the late Buss to fire coach Paul Westhead on the spot. Jeanie said that President of Basketball Operations Johnson had behaved exactly the same way as player Johnson, and she was unable to get a word out of him about his decision, except for what he had stated earlier about feeling a lack of control and lack of freedom in being Magic. And for Magic, not being able to be Magic, and have the utmost power, was a price we was not willing to pay.<\/p>\n It wasn\u2019t until he appeared on ESPN\u2019s First Take on May 20 that everyone got answers about why he truly decided enough was enough. Stephen A. Smith and Max Kellerman asked him the hard questions on it all beginning with a Stephen A. vintage: \u201cWhat the hell happened?\u201d Magic, on national television, could do nothing but speak the truth, and LeBron, Jeanie Buss, the Lakers organization and fans and the rest of the basketball world finally got what they felt they deserved.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I first was hired, I told (Jeanie) I can\u2019t give up my businesses, I make more money doing that than being the President of the Lakers, so I\u2019m going to be in and out,\u201d Magic said. \u201cI said: do I have the power to make decisions, she said yes, and so I said okay.\u201d<\/p>\n And so, their relationship began, with Johnson\u2019s new assumed role. However, he began feeling discrepancies between what he was told, and the power he actually possessed. He talked about the Anthony Davis debacle, and the D\u2019Angelo Russell chaos. He discussed hearing talk behind his back from GM Rob Pelinka about his absences from the team, and from others in the Buss family. \u201cThe straw that broke the camel\u2019s back\u201d he revealed, \u201cwas with Luke Walton.\u201d Johnson wanted to fire Walton, voicing that he felt the Lakers\u2019 needed better leadership at the top. It was when he was met with opposition that he knew it was time to go, that he truly didn\u2019t have the power that he had been promised, and that what he had stepped into wasn\u2019t at all what he envisioned it becoming. It was all too much for him, and as he had stated, if he wasn\u2019t having fun anymore, he was gone. \u201cI\u2019m not concerned\u201d was his response to how he would be viewed for leaving, \u201cbecause I gave everything I had to get the Lakers going in the right direction. I\u2019ll always be a Laker.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/blogs.shu.edu\/sportsreporting\/files\/2019\/05\/magic-johnson-lakers-interview-lead-377x210.jpg\")
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