A public resignation. A coach firing. A botched coaching search. And that’s just the past 45 days for the NBA’s marquee franchise.
IN THE WEEKS after the Los Angeles Lakers’ 2016-17 season ended in mid-April, with the franchise failing to reach the postseason for the fourth consecutive year, more than 30 Lakers staffers — largely from basketball operations — gathered at the team’s practice facility in El Segundo, California.
Before them were Rob Pelinka and Earvin «Magic» Johnson, who had been formally introduced in March 2017 as the Lakers’ new front-office leaders — with Johnson, an iconic player from the team’s 1980s «Showtime» era, serving as its president of basketball operations, and Pelinka, who had famously served as Kobe Bryant’s agent, as the general manager.
Neither possessed front-office experience but were chosen by Lakers president and governor Jeanie Buss, who had fired the organization’s longtime general manager Mitch Kupchak and, separately, her brother Jim in February 2017.
This gathering would serve as one of Pelinka and Johnson’s initial attempts to address the basketball operations staff in a more formal setting — and to make an impression regarding their managerial style.
In his remarks, Johnson expressed excitement about the task ahead, but he also made clear he didn’t accept excuses or mistakes, and that those who weren’t on board with the new management and their mission should leave, according to six staffers who were present.
Pointing upstairs, toward his office, Johnson drove home his point. He had a large stack of resumes sitting on his desk — «a thousand» of them, multiple staffers recall him saying — and he could replace any of them at any time.
«It was shocking,» said one Lakers coaching staff member who was present. «If you’re going to be in this business, you bring enough pressure on yourself. You don’t need more pressure, especially from someone who’s supposed to be an ally.»
The message would set the tone for what many staffers describe as Johnson’s confrontational demeanor over the next two years. «If you questioned him on anything, his response was always a threatening tone,» said a Lakers front office staffer who interacted with Johnson directly. «He used intimidation and bullying as a way of showing authority.»
When Pelinka and Johnson ascended to their posts, there was talk of a new beginning, the start of returning the Lakers to greatness. The era was even given a sleek brand: Lakers 2.0.
But the era was short-lived, culminating in Johnson’s sudden resignation during an impromptu news conference on April 9. He cited «backstabbing and «whispering» as reasons for his abrupt departure. In just over two years, what was deemed a bold front-office experiment had failed.
During the nearly hour-long session with reporters in the halls of Staples Center mere minutes before the Lakers played their final game of the season — a loss — Johnson made tepid remarks about his working relationship with Pelinka, who would now be alone in attempting to chart a new path forward for the team.
Forty-one days later, Johnson’s remarks about Pelinka would sharpen. In an appearance on ESPN’s First Take, Johnson admitted that the duplicity and deceit were coming from none other than Pelinka, his general manager.
«I start hearing, ‘Magic, you are not working hard enough. Magic’s not in the office,'» Johnson told First Take. «People around the Laker office were telling me Rob was saying things…. So I started getting calls from my friends outside of basketball saying those things now were said to them outside of basketball, now just not in the Lakers’ office anymore.»
The conversation continued, but ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith wanted to circle back to comments about backstabbing.
«Does Magic Johnson feel betrayed, and if so, by whom?» Smith asked.
«If you are going to talk betrayal,» Johnson replied, «it’s only with Rob.»
On the court, the Lakers missed the playoffs in LeBron James’ first season with the team, ending his streak of eight consecutive NBA Finals appearances. Virtually all of the Lakers’ young talent was publicly dangled in trade talks for superstar Anthony Davis, sowing mistrust between those players and management — and between those players and James. Johnson and Pelinka allowed James’ management team what was considered unusual access by many people around the team and league. And tensions boiled over in an early February locker room blow-up. All of it put the organization in a near-constant state of disarray, as epitomized on the night of their final regular-season game, when Johnson resigned without telling anyone in the organization, including Buss. Three days later, coach Luke Walton and the organization agreed to part ways.
After Walton’s departure, the resulting head coach search, led by Pelinka, proved rocky — with the Lakers’ top two candidates — Tyronn Lue and Monty Williams — turning down the job before Frank Vogel accepted. (Williams took the same position with the Phoenix Suns, and the Lakers’ negotiations with Lue, who was said to be their top candidate, broke down late in the process.) Multiple staffers described the aftermath of these moves as leaving the organization in a state of «shock» and «confusion.»
According to nearly two dozen current and former team staffers, ranging from occupants of executive suites to office cubicles, in addition to league sources and others close to the team, the Lakers under Johnson and Pelinka were fraught with dysfunction, on and off the court. These sources, who feared reprisal and weren’t authorized to speak publicly, describe Pelinka and Johnson as managers who made unilateral free-agent acquisitions; triggered a spate of tampering investigations and fines; berated staffers, including Walton; and created an in-house culture that many current and former longtime staffers said marginalized their colleagues, inspired fear and led to feelings of anxiety severe enough that at least two staffers suffered panic attacks.
As one ex-Lakers star privately told confidants, «It’s f—-ng crazy over there.»
ON JUNE 26,2018, Johnson and Pelinka gathered at the team facility to introduce their latest draft picks. Sitting side by side, along with Moritz Wagner and Svi Mykhailiuk, the two executives shared enthusiasm about their newest Lakers. Then, late in the news conference, Johnson made headlines: The Lakers would sign star free agents that summer or the next, he said — or he would resign.
«If I can’t deliver, I’m going to step down myself,» he said. «[Jeanie Buss] won’t have to fire me.»
How would he do it? «I’m Magic Johnson.»
Not a week after Johnson’s declaration, Klutch Sports, the agency that represents LeBron James, announced the four-time NBA MVP and three-time champion would sign a four-year deal worth $154 million to join the Lakers. Pelinka called James’ signing «the ultimate validation for what we are building here,» while Johnson said L. A. had taken «a huge step» toward returning to the playoffs and Finals.
In the aftermath of signing James, Lakers management, tasked with building a roster around him, nabbed mercurial veterans — guards Rajon Rondo and Lance Stephenson, center JaVale McGee and forward Michael Beasley. The signings were criticized publicly, though Pelinka defended them. And James, who was consulted on the deals, signed off.
But coaching staffers and others in basketball operations said Pelinka and Johnson made the signings while seeking little to no consultation from them, even forgoing gathering intel from staffers who had previously worked with some of the players they had signed. Some employees learned of the signings through media reports. A Lakers spokesperson said Pelinka and Johnson consulted with everyone in the front office but that decisions ultimately rested with them.
«We all had the same reaction that the basketball world did, like what the f— are we doing?» one Lakers coaching staff member told ESPN. «Not only are we not getting shooting, but we’re also getting every basket case left on the market.»
«We were all confused,» a front office staffer said. «All of it made no sense.»
PELINKA AND JOHNSON didn’t hire Walton; they inherited him. Still, on the day they were introduced in their new roles, Johnson endorsed the former Lakers player who had previously been an assistant in Golden State (and for half of the Warriors’ 73-win 2015-16 season as the interim coach), calling Walton «the right man for the job.»
In September, five months after the Lakers went 35-47 in Johnson’s first season with the team, Johnson told reporters he had preached patience to Walton, saying, «Don’t worry if we get out to a bad start.» But by Oct. 30, with the Lakers holding a 3-5 record, Johnson berated Walton in a closed-door meeting, the details of which became public in an ESPN report by Adrian Wojnarowski.
Walton, according to members of the coaching staff and a source close to him, wasn’t clear why the organization had changed its message 13 days into the 2018-19 campaign.
In November, NBA commissioner Adam Silver and Maverick Carter, LeBron’s longtime business partner, met for lunch. James’ agent, Rich Paul, was seated at a nearby table, and at one point, approached Silver to complain about Walton, multiple sources familiar with the interaction told ESPN. Paul said he didn’t believe Walton was the right coach for the Lakers. Silver shrugged off the remark and asked whom Paul thought would be the right coach. Paul suggested Tyronn Lue.
Paul was also letting it be known through back-channel conversations, including those with reporters, that he wasn’t on board with Walton. Paul criticized how Walton allotted minutes to players and his inconsistent lineups, which were partly the result of injuries and suspensions. Members of the Lakers’ coaching staff became aware of those conversations and wondered whether Johnson’s heated meeting with Walton was influenced by Paul.
That an NBA head coach would face criticism from an agent or associates of star players is not rare, nor was it new for a head coach to face pressure with James on the roster. It’s also not unusual for teams in any professional sport — and certainly the NBA — to make accommodations for superstars. For example, three people close to James are listed in the Lakers’ staff directory as employees: Robert Brown, whose title is personal security officer; Randy Mims, whose title is executive administrator, player program & logistics; and Mike Mancias, whose title is athletic trainer & athletic performance liaison. All three were also on the team payroll with James in Cleveland.
Still, under Pelinka and Johnson, the Lakers began allowing more access — to the team and around the facility — to players’ agents than prior leadership, Lakers front-office staffers, coaching staff members, agents and other sources close to the team said. One Lakers front-office executive applauded the change, saying the Lakers had been behind the times and weren’t giving agents the basic level of access that other teams were granting.
Yet when Paul, who represented Lakers guard Kentavious Caldwell-Pope prior to the team signing James, was seen at the facility during the 2017-18 season, his presence created an uneasy feeling among some coaching staffers and others close to Walton who knew the Lakers were also pursuing Paul’s biggest client, James.
«It was clear to us that he was scouting [Walton’s viability as the head coach] — and Luke is aware of this,» said one member of the Lakers coaching staff who was present at the facility.
In that same season, Caldwell-Pope was allowed to practice and play with the team while serving a 25-day jail sentence for violating the terms of his probation stemming from a DUI charge — a decision that, multiple team staffers said, caused unrest in the franchise. Caldwell-Pope was allowed to leave the Seal Beach Police Department Detention Center to attend practice and Lakers games in California as part of a work-release program, but he wasn’t allowed to travel outside the state, resulting in him missing one game in Cleveland, one in Minneapolis and two in Houston. In all, Caldwell-Pope missed four games while serving his jail sentence but played in nine, starting each one.
«Anybody [else] would have put him on personal leave or suspended him,» one coaching staff member said.
«I had a major problem with that,» a Lakers front-office executive said.
When asked why Caldwell-Pope played during this time, a Lakers spokesperson said they were simply following the judge’s work-release ruling. Staffers within the organization and sources close to the team say they believe it was because the Lakers were trying to curry favor with Klutch in their efforts to sign James the following summer in free agency.
Coaching staff and others close to the team told ESPN there would continue to be an increased presence by Paul and Klutch Sports in ways that seemed strange to them.
