WASHINGTON >> Magic Johnson is no savior.
The Lakers, however, have developed a bit of a credibility problem. Magic can help with that.
Jeanie Buss faces big decisions. Magic can assist there, as well.
Jerry Buss wanted all of his kids to have a hand in running the Lakers, and with Johnson finally on board, they all do.
But for how long?
By opting to bring Magic Johnson back into the fold as an adviser to ownership, a move announced Thursday, Jeanie Buss is forging a partnership far more natural than the clunky, two-pronged approach established with her brother Jim. She and Johnson were raised together within the Lakers organization. They have been in this thing together for a very long time.
Consider the hire a clear shot across the bow at Jim Buss, who has been the subject of much armchair quarterbacking by Johnson, who has spent the last half decade criticizing the executive vice president of basketball operations for coaching hires and his management style.
You can’t separate Johnson from his past comments, and now you can’t separate Jeanie from them either.
She said in December it is “a waste of time to speculate” on how she will handle her brother’s self-imposed deadline to make the Lakers relevant again. Hiring Johnson seems to say everything Jeanie wouldn’t.
If not, things could sure get awkward around the El Segundo headquarters.
Johnson took to Twitter on Thursday night to say he had a “really good phone call with Jim Buss,” an apparent attempt to smooth over a fractured relationship. He has always been supportive of General Manager Mitch Kupchak, whose job is also believed to be on the line.
However, there is suddenly a dramatic, and potentially difficult, dynamic within the walls of the Lakers organization. While others might have more true authority, Magic will take on a leading role by virtue of being Magic.
It’s unavoidable. He is once again the face of the Lakers. At least, he has as much claim to that title as anyone, and it’s his first week on the job.
His broad role will include “evaluating and mentoring players” and helping the organization “determine the best path for growth and success.”
While the brand has remained robust, the Lakers product has grown stale – a term never associated with Johnson. The same unbridled enthusiasm he displayed on the court has transferred to the world business as a part-owner of the Dodgers – and an extremely visible one at that.
His relationship with the Lakers had no question been strained in recent years. He sold his 4.5 percent stake in the Lakers in 2010 and last summer, the Lakers scrubbed his name from the staff directory, where he had ceremoniously been listed as a “vice president.”
That decision was made “in hopes of clarifying any confusion” as to Johnson’s role with the team.
Even as he pursued other endeavors and was seen less frequenrly around the organization, Johnson remained a primary face of the Lakers. As coaches have come and gone, Johnson has been a constant. An L.A. icon.
Most significant, he always had the ear of Jeanie Buss, who maintains a loyal circle of friends who advise her on decisions pertaining to the Lakers. Moving Johnson into an official role is marketing wizardry.
Jeanie Buss, however, needs it to be more than that. So what probably needs to come next is a top-down evaluation of how to ensure that the organization represents Johnson’s strengths. It likely requires more dynamic leadership than Jim Buss and Kupchak can offer.
A front office needs to be aligned, and Johnson is a logical liaison between Jeanie Buss and the other arms of the organization. The divide at the top also becomes all the more stark with Johnson being drafted to Team Jeanie.
This first step says the organization is committed to establishing a winning culture, even though Johnson has not been directly involved with the NBA in a decade. Sure, he will have a hand in recruiting free agents and shaping the roster, but it’s unreasonable to expect him to become a general manager. No one believes that to be his strength.
He can be a mentor to D’Angelo Russell and the other young Lakers and sell the franchise to free agents.
His genius is with people, after all.
“He’s one of the few players that every player automatically respects without even knowing him,” Coach Luke Walton said, “because of what he’s accomplished as a player and the way he’s seen the game. So having a set of eyes like that and a guy they can talk to about what it’s like and what it takes, I’m hopeful will be good for these young guys.”
Added Walton: “It’s a nice piece to have on your side.”
All of this is primarily intended to help Jeanie Buss execute the vision her father laid out for the Lakers, to put an end to the unprecedented losing. It must surely be isolating to be Jeanie, a well-regarded executive who has control over only half of the organization for which she is fully responsible.
She is cut off from 50 percent of her company. It makes sense that she would elect to strengthen her corps of supporters.
In Johnson, Jeanie Buss has a full-time sounding board. An associate who is worthy of the brand because he helped build it.
There are likely few people in basketball she trusts more than Magic. Few people her father would have trusted with the Lakers, too.
Dr. Buss would approve of giving Johnson a seat at the table.
It’s impossible to know what his role will become. Even with minimal contributions, everyone seems to win with Magic in the mix.
Everyone, that is, except for Jim Buss.
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