The 2017 NBA Draft was important for the Los Angeles Lakers as they were in the midst of a youth movement. That class featured high-quality talent in Markelle Fultz, Jayson Tatum, De’Aaron Fox and Lonzo Ball, who L.A. would ultimately select at No. 2 overall.
With a bit of revisionist history, one can say that Ball was not the right pick given how Fox and Tatum have panned out. Seeing how Tatum grew up a Lakers and Kobe Bryant fan, it would make sense for the now Boston Celtic to be selected by the purple and gold.
However, things did not pan out that way and Magic Johnson recently revealed that the Lakers were not able to work out the former Duke Blue Devil. After Johnson’s comments, Tatum’s agent set the record straight about what actually happened that summer, via SiriusXM NBA Radio:
“Magic’s correct in what he said, but the way it was presented was a little different,” Wechsler said. “Everyone knows that the draft starts in June and guys finish at the end of March Madness and they work out for months. Well, Jayson worked out in L.A. for months training with Drew Hanlen there and the Lakers knew that he was in L.A. and never called, and in late June they called and wanted to bring him in for a workout. But by that time, everyone knew that they were taking Lonzo Ball. So when Rob Pelinka called me and asked if they could work Jayson out, I said ‘Well, if you’re not gonna take him, why are you working him out?’ So I said to get me on a call with Magic and we’ll talk about it. So he set that up a few days later, get on a call with Magic, I think it was around June 13, and I said ‘Magic, everyone knows you’re taking Lonzo Ball.’ He goes ‘Yeah, well we’re really heavy at forward position and we need to take a point guard and so that’s probably who we’re gonna take.’ He said ‘But we’d like to look at everybody.’ And I’m like ‘Well, if you’re not gonna take my guy, he’s been out there all summer, he’s now in St. Louis, he’s working out for other teams. I’m not gonna fly him back across the country for a workout when you guys aren’t gonna take him.’ And that’s how it went down.”
At the time, Johnson felt the Lakers were set at the forward position with Brandon Ingram, Julius Randle and Larry Nance Jr. He wanted to bring in a point guard to replace D’Angelo Russell and was set on Ball, not even giving Tatum a look.
Jayson Tatum: Lakers not working me out in pre-draft process was ‘devastating’
NBA players have to work essentially their entire lives to give themselves an opportunity to play professional basketball. Jayson Tatum propelled himself into the lottery conversation and was in a prime opportunity to get drafted by his favorite team in the Lakers.
Unfortunately, it did not pan out that way and Tatum shared that he it was ‘devastating’ to not have a pre-draft workout with L.A.
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