Magic Johnson’s first turn as whatever the heck you think he is with the Los Angeles Lakers is going exactly as you’d expect. Big proclamations, big stars, appearances on television shows that people Magic’s age (and people that tweet like Magic) tend to watch, and not a whole heck of a lot by way of specifics.
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Beyond, apparently, a “three to five”-year window, that seems like a heck of a lot of time for a fan base that will celebrate the seventh anniversary of their last NBA title in June.
The first move, if Magic Johnson is calling the shots in his new role as “advisor” to the team? Call Kobe Bryant. Because, like Magic and unlike current president of basketball operations Jim Buss, Kobe Bryant was very good at basketball. From a talk on ESPN’s First Take, a show you missed on Tuesday morning because you have a job:
“First call I make if I’m in charge? Kobe Bryant,” Johnson said on ESPN’s First Take. “Because Kobe understands winning. He understands, also, these players. I would call: ‘What role you want? … If you’ve got a day, just give me that day.’
“I’ll take that. Whatever time he has, I want him to come and be a part of it.”
This is what you’re supposed to say, and these are the Showtime promises that you’re supposed to make. Especially when speaking directly to the sort of less-enlightened crowd that First Take typically reels in on a weekday morning.
If the Lakers had hired an analytics wizard whose name you’d never heard of outside of a few tweets and Sloan Conference listings, that analytics wizard would still be charged with fawning over Kobe Bryant in his first round of press meetings. If Jerry West weren’t currently under contract with the Golden State Warriors, his name would be out there as well. The same works for Shaquille O’Neal, otherwise bothered by his small ownership stake in the Sacramento Kings.
The problem here is that, with Magic Johnson and Los Angeles Lakers, you actually believe that Magic and the Lakers would follow through with these sorts of moonshots.
Remember how you weren’t surprised at all when Isiah Thomas traded to add Steve Francis to a Knicks team already featuring Stephon Marbury and Jalen Rose, as coached by Larry Brown? How you couldn’t be knocked over by a flying mallet after the Chicago Bulls added Dwyane Wade and Rajon Rondo? Same ideal.
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What’s a little more frightening, and (in a bit of good news for Lakers fans) altogether less accurate is Magic’s insistence that the team might need in upwards of a half-decade to sort everything all out. From Johnson’s appearance on CBS This Morning on Monday, as relayed by Mark Medina at the Los Angeles Daily News:
“It’s going to take three to five years to get them back rolling again,” Johnson said in an interview on CBS This Morning that aired on Monday morning.
“If we’re patient and we develop our own players, in today’s NBA it’s different than when I played. you have to develop your own players because free agent movement is not like it used to be. You have to make sure you hit a home run with the players you do draft and keep the players you have on your roster.”
Magic absolutely isn’t wrong about the draft approach, and that young talent on cheap contracts, acquired for no cost outside of a lost season spent out of the playoffs, are worth its weight in gold. No longer are championship teams created with wads of free agent cash and midnight meetings on July 1. At worst, some holdover star has to act as an incumbent draw, and the Lakers do not have that star yet.
Five of the seven best players in the last two Cleveland/Golden State NBA Finals matchups were drafted by their own teams, with the only two additions (trade acquisition Kevin Love for Cleveland, free agent Kevin Durant for Golden State) only coming on board because the franchises have drafted so well.
Of course, Cleveland did its damage with two current No. 1 overall picks (LeBron James, Kyrie Irving) and two other No. 1 overall picks (Andrew Wiggins, Anthony Bennett) that turned into transaction gold with Love. The Lakers haven’t had a No. 1 overall pick since 1982, when it housed Cleveland in a deal that landed Los Angeles (for Don Ford and Chad Kinch) the eventual top overall draft selection, which turned into James Worthy.
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