He continued to air his grievances on NBA Countdown on ESPN.
Thanks to Alex Groberman for the transcript on Opposing Views.
“I love Dr. (Jerry) Buss. I don’t believe in Jim Buss,” Magic Johnson said. “He’s made two critical mistakes already. To me, they made two critical mistakes.
“First, hiring Mike Brown, he wasn’t the right coach. He’s a great coach but not the right coach for the Lakers. And I don’t feel Mike D’Antoni is the right coach for the Lakers. Especially when you have Phil Jackson sitting out there, who wanted to be the Laker coach. Jim Buss decided he didn’t want Phil Jackson, he wanted Mike D’Antoni. And that’s OK, but why didn’t you just say that? But the fans were cheering for Phil Jackson two nights in a row.”
I LOVE Magic Johnson to death but there comes a time when he just shouldn’t say anything. D’Antoni hasn’t even coached a game yet and he continues to rip Jim Buss (didn’t Magic say that Jim Buss did a good job at one point) and his hiring of D’Antoni as if it’s going to doom the Lakers to .500 this season or something. While I agree that the Lakers botched it a bit with the sudden hiring of D’Antoni, this thing was dying down. The Lakers had played a little bit better under Bickerstaff, were ready to make the transition to Mike D’Antoni, and, best of all, were ready to move forward. Magic just wouldn’t let it die.
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Plus, if Magic had a better reason of saying that Phil Jackson is the better fit for the Lakers, I’d probably take him a little bit more seriously. Just because the fans wanted him doesn’t mean it’s the right move for the franchise. What if the fans wanted Magic to coach? Would he say that hiring him is the best move because the fans said so? Let the Buss family and Mitch Kupchak do their jobs. I’m sure they’re pretty good at this front office thing.
Mike D’Antoni will be introduced as the new Lakers head coach in a press conference later on today.