Magic Johnson Says Rob Pelinka Betrayed Him; Final Straw Was Luke Walton Firing

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Magic Johnson Says Rob Pelinka Betrayed Him; Final Straw Was Luke Walton Firing



TYLER CONWAY
MAY 20, 2019




Magic Johnson speaks to reporters prior to an NBA basketball game between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Portland Trail Blazers on Tuesday, April 9, 2019, in Los Angeles. Johnson abruptly quit as the Lakers' president of basketball operations Tuesday night, citing his desire to return to the simpler life he enjoyed as a wealthy businessman and beloved former player before taking charge of the franchise just over two years ago. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)
Mark J. Terrill/Associated Press




Magic Johnson named names during an appearance on Monday's episode of First Take, saying general manager Rob Pelinka betrayed him during his time as Lakers president:

"If you're going to talk betrayal, it's only with Rob. But, again, I had to look inside myself. I had been doing that for months. Because I didn't like that Tim Harris was too involved in basketball. He's supposed to run the Laker business, but he was trying to come over to our side. Jeanie's gotta stop that. You gotta stop people from having those voices."




Johnson said issues with him and Pelinka began during their first season working together. He said he told Lakers owner Jeanie Buss that, as part of the terms of his employment, he should be allowed to continue running his business outside the Lakers.


According to Johnson, Pelinka began smearing his name behind the scenes for not being at Lakers facilities enough:

"Things got going in the right direction, and then I start hearing, you know, 'Magic, you're not working hard enough. Magic's not in the office.' So people around the Laker office was telling me Rob was saying things—Rob Pelinka—and I didn't like those things being said behind my back, that I wasn't in office enough and so on and on. So I start getting calls from my friends outside of basketball saying those things now were said to them outside of basketball. Now not just in the Laker office anymore, now it's in the media and so on. ... And people gotta remember something, being in this business for over 40 years, I got allies, I got friends everywhere."

Johnson said he had been considering stepping down because of his frustrations with the inner workings of the organization, particularly with Pelinka. However, he said his final decision came after it was clear he would not have full autonomy in choosing the next Lakers coach:

"The straw that broke the camel's back was I wanted to fire Luke Walton, and we had ... three meetings. I showed her the things he did well and the things he didn't do well. And I said listen, we gotta get a better coach. I like him, he's great, former Laker, the whole thing. So, the first day, 'Well, let's think about it.' Second day, 'OK, you can fire him.' Then the next day, 'No, we should try to work it out.' So when we went back and forth like that, and then she brought Tim Harris into the meeting, you know, some of the guys.


"And Tim, you know, wanted me—he wanted to keep him, because he was friends with Luke. Luke's a great guy, great guy. And so when I looked up and said, 'Wait a minute, I only really answer to Jeanie Buss.' Now, I got Tim involved, and I said it's time for me to go. I got things happening that was being said behind my back, I don't have the power that I thought I had to make the decisions, and I told them, 'When it's not fun for me, when I think that I don't have the decision-making power that I thought I had, then I gotta step aside.'"

Johnson said Jeanie Buss assured him when he took the job that he would have final say on all personnel decisions. He mentioned multiple times that Buss has too many voices in her ear, including Pelinka, Linda Rambis, Kurt Rambis, Tim Harris, Joey Buss and Phil Jackson, among others.

None of those people besides Jackson—Johnson included—had any experience running a basketball organization. Jackson's short stint with the New York Knicks was such a disaster that it makes Magic look like a rousing success by contrast.

Aside from signing LeBron, Johnson's most high-profile personnel decision was the Anthony Davis trade negotiations at the deadline. He went into detail about how the organization handled those talks, placing the blame on then-Pelicans general manager Dell Demps for talks leaking to the public.

"I'm not a regretful guy. You're right, I offered a lot of guys, but you have to do that for an Anthony Davis," Johnson said. "He's a special player and the guys that we were going to trade to the Pelicans are special as well. And I told Dell Demps: 'Let's just do it in private. What we offer, let's keep it between us.' Well, Dell didn't do that, so that's how it got out, right."


He later complimented the Lakers young players for their handling of the situation:

"I would say that I told Brandon [Ingram], Kyle [Kuzma], all the young guys, [Lonzo] Ball: If you're in the business long enough, your name is going to get mentioned in trades, don't take it personally. So what happened was, about that first week, they did take it personally and our writers back home wrote a lot of stories. But I give all of them credit. Brandon Ingram put together a 10-game stretch. He was unstoppable. The things I thought he could do, he did them in those 10 games.

"I'm telling you Molly [Qerim], this guy is special. He guarded Kyrie Irving one night, he's on Kevin Durant another night, so you can play him on different guys. He is special. Now he's healthy, I'm glad that surgery went well. And then Kyle Kuzma scored 29 points after that debacle in Indianapolis where we just got blown out. Kyle Kuzma went to Boston, 29 [points]. He then came to Philly, had 30 at halftime, finished with I think 40, I couldn't remember the ending, 46, 40-something. He got himself together and started hooping and started playing basketball, and they all did. So I wouldn't change anything, because that's my job is to make the Lakers better."

What's clear is that the Lakers were an organization in near-constant internal turmoil last season. Whether it was the Pelinka-Johnson power struggle or young players coming to grips with the realities of the NBA as a business, the environment was nothing short of toxic.



bob




.

I bet Magic is right and Rob Pelinka was right.
Magic is right that Rob was probably going to Jeanie and was complaining about Magic.
Rob was probably right that Magic was rarely in the office and was not putting in the time needed to fulfill his role.
Magic said in the interview that he was only going to stay for 3 years and was already in year 2.
It's good that Magic is gone doing what he wants to do and now Rob reports directly to Jeanie.
Rob doesn't have all of the outside ventures like Magic does and will focus on the job that needs to get done.
It was interesting that Magic came out in that interview and said that in this off-season that he was going to go after Kawhi and Kyrie, hoping to sign one of them..
He feels KD will sign with NY or will stay in GS.

tjmakz wrote:I bet Magic is right and Rob Pelinka was right.
Magic is right that Rob was probably going to Jeanie and was complaining about Magic.
Rob was probably right that Magic was rarely in the office and was not putting in the time needed to fulfill his role.
Magic said in the interview that he was only going to stay for 3 years and was already in year 2.
It's good that Magic is gone doing what he wants to do and now Rob reports directly to Jeanie.
Rob doesn't have all of the outside ventures like Magic does and will focus on the job that needs to get done.
It was interesting that Magic came out in that interview and said that in this off-season that he was going to go after Kawhi and Kyrie, hoping to sign one of them..
He feels KD will sign with NY or will stay in GS.

Sounds like your the agent for Rob

dboss wrote:

tjmakz wrote:I bet Magic is right and Rob Pelinka was right.
Magic is right that Rob was probably going to Jeanie and was complaining about Magic.
Rob was probably right that Magic was rarely in the office and was not putting in the time needed to fulfill his role.
Magic said in the interview that he was only going to stay for 3 years and was already in year 2.
It's good that Magic is gone doing what he wants to do and now Rob reports directly to Jeanie.
Rob doesn't have all of the outside ventures like Magic does and will focus on the job that needs to get done.
It was interesting that Magic came out in that interview and said that in this off-season that he was going to go after Kawhi and Kyrie, hoping to sign one of them..
He feels KD will sign with NY or will stay in GS.

Sounds like your the agent for Rob

Magic clearly didn’t want to put the time in that is required to do the job.
Magic even said that he makes more money in others areas than he did working for the Lakers.
Supposedly he was being paid $10m/year from Jeanie.
Rob would schedule meetings at 9AM and Magic would never be there for them.
Magic should have been hired as a consultant, not the President of Basketball Operations.
I’m glad LA is choosing not to fill Magic’s position.
One GM who is in charge and who is very detail oriented is what LA needs and has.
Magic is a relationship guy. Not a stickler for details as Rob supposedly is.

Woj was spot on correct here.  

http://www.espn.com/watch/player?hidenav=true&id=26789458&playertech=brightcove&roadblock=false

So it is beginning to look like Magic liked the IDEA of running the Lakers (being on the top of the org chart, having the final decision in all things, being the center of attention, etc.)  instead of the actual JOB of running the Lakers (attending meetings, watching film, watching practices, going to college games to watch prospective draft picks, etc.)

Who knew that being the president of an NBA franchise would be so hard?

I am so glad that the Celtics have a President of Basketball Operations who understands just that.  It may put him in an early grave, but he puts in the work to better our team.

IMO, it all comes down to Jeanie Buss.  She hired Magic.  She had to know what he was about.  It shouldn't have taken two years to determine that Magic wasn't up to the task.

gyso

tjmakz wrote:Woj was spot on correct here.  

http://www.espn.com/watch/player?hidenav=true&id=26789458&playertech=brightcove&roadblock=false

I agree 100%

the Magic hire was more publicity than a hiring for skill, in my opinion.

Laker fans should probably be happy that he;s not involved anymore..now to get Phil Jackson out of the mix too....LOL.

From Sam Amick of The Athletic:


Amick: Magic’s tired act hurting his good name and beloved Lakers


By Sam Amick 2h ago  18  
Magic Johnson had a right to be mad.

So go ahead and fume at Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka for telling people that you didn’t work hard enough. Get bent over the fact that there were too many people in the room that you didn’t know or trust. Spit fire if Jeanie Buss, the Lakers owner who has been your dear friend for 30 years now, doesn’t follow through on any of those promises she made when you both concocted this plan for an overhaul back in Feb. 2017.

But you know what you don’t do, especially if you still love the Lakers organization as you so often claim and want them to succeed in this monumental summer? You don’t pull back that purple and gold curtain for all the world to see and make a spectacle out of Laker Land – twice. And you certainly don’t do it in this kind of cold, calculated fashion, with Johnson airing his many grievances on ESPN’s “First Take” on Monday just hours before the Lakers were set to introduce their new coach, Frank Vogel, to the world in a news conference.

This stunt was selfish in the kind of way that few people on this planet can even fathom, with the Lakers legend who dramatically resigned on April 9 deciding yet again to grandstand on the nearest stage rather than show a modicum of grace on his way out. This, folks, is what happens when someone has nothing to lose.

In this league where so many executives had to work their way up through the front office ranks, and where the temptation to burn bridges on the way out is almost always quelled by the need to land that next job, Johnson took the low road in the kind of way that should not be forgotten by his favorite team’s fans. You know what normal people do when they part ways with a team? They put out a statement thanking the owner for the opportunity, and they move on to the next chapter.

Put it this way: If every front office head in this league wanted to air the dirty laundry about their organization’s inner workings on national television, to complain about the trappings of power and politics and all the ways in which their team’s culture could be better, then “First Take” would never lack for guests. This, folks, is what happens when you have nothing to lose.

As Magic detailed in that New York City studio, he was reluctant to take the job in the first place because, well, he made more money with his many businesses than he would with the Lakers.

“I said listen,” Magic said on the show. “I can’t give up all my business. I make more money doing that than I do becoming the president of the Lakers. So you know that I’m going to be in and out. Is that ok with you? She said ‘Yes.’”

That cross is Jeanie’s to bear, as she should have known better than to give him that President of Basketball Operations title if it was so abundantly clear that he would, in essence, be treating the job as if he was a well-paid consultant (like, say, the Clippers’ Jerry West; and truth be told, West is widely known to be more present in that job than Magic was during his tenure).

If Pelinka was telling people that Magic was mostly MIA, he wasn’t exactly spilling state secrets. This had been a topic of great discussion for quite some time, with innumerable other sources who saw it first-hand saying the same thing. One agent who deals with the Lakers, for example, found all the handwringing about Magic’s exit comical at the time because – duh – Pelinka had been running the front office without Johnson the entire time as it was.

In that sense, Magic and Pelinka have at least one thing in common: You don’t have to go very far within NBA circles to find one of their critics. But the timing of Magic’s latest public therapy session was deplorable, with Johnson knowing full well that Pelinka, Vogel & Co. would be forced to answer all these questions at the new coach’s introductory press conference just hours later.

That’s fine if your motive is good, old-fashioned revenge in the most cunning way imaginable. But if you’re one of the founding fathers of this Lakers family, someone whose statue is out in front of the Staples Center and who constantly claims to want the best for his beloved team even after he’s gone, then this move makes about as much sense as, say, all those nonsensical signings Magic was responsible for last summer.

Even before Magic’s latest move, sources close to LeBron James expressed concern that the combination of Magic’s messy exit and all the negative Lakers headlines threatened to sabotage their summer. The challenge of convincing another elite star to come to town was already seen as daunting around the league, and now these horrendous optics make that uphill climb far worse. Top-tier talents like Kevin Durant, Kawhi Leonard, Kyrie Irving, Jimmy Butler and all the rest of them will have plenty of options when July rolls around, and none – not even the Knicks and certainly not the crosstown Clippers – have the Lakers’ level of dysfunction that’s being exposed right now.

Maybe Magic was afraid that they’d still get lucky after he was gone, that the Lakers would land that second star and he wouldn’t be there to get the credit. Whatever the reason, one of the game’s greats managed to sully his good name.

Again.

I listened to the interview and it certainly sounded like he told  Jeannie this would not be a full time commitment from him.  Rob was pretty much his backup.

Overall I do not think he did a poor job.  He did clear out a lot of cap space which is the reason why LAL are in a position to add 2 big timers to the roster.  Him drafted Ball may have been a mistake but Ball actually does a lot of things well (running, passing rebounding and defending) He is undoubtedly a poor shooter.  He hit  home run getting Kuzma, made a great pick getting Hart and Ingram while still a work in progress (like our own JT and JB) was a solid pick.  Throw in the Lebron signing and it would be difficult to make an argument that Magic was not productive over his 2 year stint.

gyso wrote:So it is beginning to look like Magic liked the IDEA of running the Lakers (being on the top of the org chart, having the final decision in all things, being the center of attention, etc.)  instead of the actual JOB of running the Lakers (attending meetings, watching film, watching practices, going to college games to watch prospective draft picks, etc.)

Who knew that being the president of an NBA franchise would be so hard?

I am so glad that the Celtics have a President of Basketball Operations who understands just that.  It may put him in an early grave, but he puts in the work to better our team.

IMO, it all comes down to Jeanie Buss.  She hired Magic.  She had to know what he was about.  It shouldn't have taken two years to determine that Magic wasn't up to the task.

gyso

I agree with you.
Magic and Rob were good hires when you compare them to Jim Buss and Mitch Kupchak who they replaced.
Magic should not have been given that role with that much power.
Magic wanted the credit for bringing the Lakers back into contention again but did not want to do the work involved which is needed for that job.
Jeanie should have hired Magic as a consultant and put Rob in charge.

Magic's timing of that selfish interview yesterday was mind-boggling.
LA had scheduled a news conference to introduce Frank Vogel and Magic decided to preemptively upstage that news conference and to shit on the Lakers organization.
Unfortunately, Rob Pelinka was put in a terrible position yesterday.
I bet he wanted to publicly rip Magic a new one, but he completely took the high road.

Everything always has to be about Magic.
I guess he thinks if he keeps smiling that we can't see his true intentions.

What an F-ing embarrassment yesterday was for Magic and the Lakers organization.

dboss wrote:I listened to the interview and it certainly sounded like he told  Jeannie this would not be a full time commitment from him.  Rob was pretty much his backup.

Overall I do not think he did a poor job.  He did clear out a lot of cap space which is the reason why LAL are in a position to add 2 big timers to the roster.  Him drafted Ball may have been a mistake but Ball actually does a lot of things well (running, passing rebounding and defending) He is undoubtedly a poor shooter.  He hit  home run getting Kuzma, made a great pick getting Hart and Ingram while still a work in progress (like our own JT and JB) was a solid pick.  Throw in the Lebron signing and it would be difficult to make an argument that Magic was not productive over his 2 year stint.

I don’t think he was responsible for Ingram but hey, don't forget Michael Beasley, Lance Stephenson, Javelle McGee, Tyson Chandler, Caldwell Pope..............Great moves Magic Man

tjmakz wrote:

gyso wrote:So it is beginning to look like Magic liked the IDEA of running the Lakers (being on the top of the org chart, having the final decision in all things, being the center of attention, etc.)  instead of the actual JOB of running the Lakers (attending meetings, watching film, watching practices, going to college games to watch prospective draft picks, etc.)

Who knew that being the president of an NBA franchise would be so hard?

I am so glad that the Celtics have a President of Basketball Operations who understands just that.  It may put him in an early grave, but he puts in the work to better our team.

IMO, it all comes down to Jeanie Buss.  She hired Magic.  She had to know what he was about.  It shouldn't have taken two years to determine that Magic wasn't up to the task.

gyso

I agree with you.
Magic and Rob were good hires when you compare them to Jim Buss and Mitch Kupchak who they replaced.
Magic should not have been given that role with that much power.
Magic wanted the credit for bringing the Lakers back into contention again but did not want to do the work involved which is needed for that job.
Jeanie should have hired Magic as a consultant and put Rob in charge.

Magic's timing of that selfish interview yesterday was mind-boggling.
LA had scheduled a news conference to introduce Frank Vogel and Magic decided to preemptively upstage that news conference and to shit on the Lakers organization.
Unfortunately, Rob Pelinka was put in a terrible position yesterday.
I bet he wanted to publicly rip Magic a new one, but he completely took the high road.

Everything always has to be about Magic.
I guess he thinks if he keeps smiling that we can't see his true intentions.

What an F-ing embarrassment yesterday was for Magic and the Lakers organization.

You’re right about Magic being selfish and his so called “love” for the Lakers obviously is a big ole bunch of bS too. Also, this interview was not the most classy thing to do but-
The interview was scheduled way before they hired Vogel.
But what makes your think that Rob deserves to be in charge? He has zero BB experience and what has he done to make one think that’s he’s THE guy?
And comparing him to Jim Buss does not automatically make him THE guy either.
As far as I’m concerned they both suck and I wish they both would’ve stayed together. Those 2, Jeannie, and the Rambis’ would certainly assure that the Lakers would be irrelevant and a joke forever.
I guess we will just have to settle for them sucking for another 5-6 years.  Damn it!

I've always liked Magic, but he comes across, to me , as a whiny crybaby who is used to having things handed to him. I f you're going to do a job, do the effing job. If you are going to be a figure head, shutup and be the figure head. You can't have it both ways. If he's not around the building, he's missing huge swathes of what a coach does iin terms of game prep, running practices , etc. The dysfunctionality of the Laker organization continues unabated.

Hard to turn around a franchise in 2 years but whatever.


KJ

Actually showing up for work might have sped up the process.

Magic said he was going to give 150% to the Lakers.

https://nba.nbcsports.com/2019/05/22/magic-johnson-not-keeping-stories-straight-video/