Since former Los Angeles Lakers president of basketball operations Magic Johnson resigned, there has been speculation on what led to his surprising decision.
While Johnson was planning on firing head coach Luke Walton after the 2018-19 NBA season, he was frustrated with the ‘backstabbing’ and ‘whispering.’
When asked to elaborate on those comments, Johnson did not want to go into detail at his impromptu press conference prior to the team’s game against the Portland Trail Blazers.
Appearing on The Herd, Ric Bucher of Bleacher Report revealed an email exchange between owner Jeanie Buss and general manager Rob Pelinka could have led to Johnson’s resignation:
“My understanding is that there were some emails that were exchanged between Rob and Jeanie about what Magic was and wasn’t doing. They were critical emails and somehow, some way, Jeanie — from what I understand — was CCing or blind CCing Magic on everything. That was sort of protocol, standard issue. Somehow, the exchange between Rob and Jeanie ended up on that string of the blind CCs that were going to Magic. So, Magic now is seeing emails from Rob to Jeanie that were critical of what he was doing. And maybe most important in all of this, there’s no indication that Jeanie was backing Rob up in terms of either going to Magic and letting him know that this was going on. Or going back at Rob and defending Magic. That was not happening. And so when he talked about the backstabbing, my understanding is that’s what started it.”
Since Bucher’s report, Johnson posted a cryptic message on Twitter:
The truth will always come to light ????
— Earvin Magic Johnson (@MagicJohnson) April 25, 2019
Considering the timing, there will be plenty of speculation about Johnson indirectly responding to the report. As the 59-year-old has been more active on Twitter, he recently claimed that he still speaks to Buss ‘almost every day.’
With Buss reportedly having ‘no plans’ to hire Johnson’s replacement, he is still expected to be a part of the team’s free agency pitches in some capacity.