When Magic Johnson was first brought back to the Los Angeles Lakers organization, he was asked about who he would call if he were the one in charge. Magic didn’t hesitate to say that his first call would be to Kobe Bryant.
Now that Magic has officially taken over as president of basketball operations, many wondered if Kobe would return in a front office role as well. The fact that Kobe’s long-time agent Rob Pelinka is expected to be announced as the Lakers new general manager only seemed to increase the possibility.
It looks as if that won’t be the case however, as Bleacher Report’s Kevin Ding reports that Kobe won’t be joining the Lakers front office:
“So the Lakers will not be trying to strong-arm Bryant into some prominent official role now that his longtime agent, Rob Pelinka, is set up to replace Mitch Kupchak as Lakers general manager. It’s not time for that in Bryant’s mind, so it’s not happening.”
After yesterday’s announcement, Johnson spoke about Kobe and said that he hoped Kobe would take some sort of player relations role. Kobe has spoken numerous times about being focused on his business ventures and while he will certainly be available for smaller things if given a call, the time for him taking a full-time role with the Lakers just isn’t right now.
As Ding pointed out, the thing that both Kobe and Magic said that Dr. Jerry Buss taught them was patience. Magic displayed that in waiting for his dream job and Kobe is doing that now as far as a potential return to the Lakers himself.
Nonetheless, the Lakers are set to take on a new path with Magic and Pelinka at the helm. Hopefully they will soon return the Lakers to the heights they experienced when Kobe was leading them on the court.
