Since Los Angeles Lakers president of basketball operations Magic Johnson’s resignation, LeBron James has not spoken about the subject until now.
As James recently denied a report about his trust in the Lakers being ‘damaged,’ he and Lonzo Ball shared their initial reaction to Johnson’s decision on the latest episode of HBO’s “The Shop.”
With Johnson having an impromptu press conference and not even informing owner Jeanie Buss, the 34-year-old thought it was ‘weird.’
As a result, James questioned Johnson’s decision to resign right before the team’s final game of the 2018-19 NBA season against the Portland Trail Blazers, according to Tania Ganguli of Los Angeles Times:
“No one had no idea,” James said. “We was like, ‘Damn. Right now?’ It was literally 70 minutes on the clock. I’m not playing but my team is still playing. And you kind of decided to do that right here. Right now.”
“I feel like there’s a time and place for things, and I believe you knew you were going to make that decision, so why would you do that here?” James said. “Why would you do that now?”
While there are conflicting reports about why Johnson resigned, he mentioned there was ‘backstabbing’ and ‘whispering’ which frustrated him. However, he recently had dinner with Buss where he supported the idea of hiring former Cleveland Cavaliers head coach Tyronn Lue.
As James seemed betrayed by Johnson, it is unclear how he currently views their relationship. As for Johnson, he believes his relationship is ‘all good’ with James and agent Rich Paul.
