Magic Johnson’s history with the Lakers goes back to 1979, when the franchise drafted him No. 1 overall. He went on to win five championships and later served as a minority owner from 1994 to 2010 before becoming President of Basketball Operations from 2017 to 2019.
His front-office stint was marked by plenty of turbulence, including reported tension with general manager Rob Pelinka. Recently, Johnson shared how he feels about Pelinka today.
Magic Johnson and Rob Pelinka Have Mended the Fences
On April 9, 2019, Lakers legend Johnson abruptly resigned as the team’s president. This was due to how he was being treated by his colleagues in the front office. He specifically named the Lakers’ current general manager, Pelinka, as the enabler of his exit.
Johnson revealed in a May 20, 2019, episode of “First Take” that Pelinka betrayed him. The former Lakers president shared that Pelinka would go behind his back to influence Jeanie Buss, the former majority owner of the franchise, to listen to the general manager’s opinion over his.
“I think if we’re going to talk about betrayal, it’s only with Rob (Pelinka),” Johnson said in 2019. “It’s too many people at the table. So what happens, everybody gets to share their opinion. It’s so much information coming at (Jeanie Buss) that then when I say ‘Hey! We have to do this,’ she can’t make a decision because (Pelinka) said ‘No. Don’t go the way Magic go. You should go left instead of going right.'”
However, after seven years have passed, it seems like Johnson and Pelinka are trying to bury the hatchet. In a recent episode of “Jimmy Kimmel Live”, Johnson revealed that now that his LA Dodgers co-owner, Mark Walter, is the majority owner of the Lakers, the basketball legend gets to advise him on how to operate the franchise.
Johnson then mentioned that he now somewhat of contact with Pelinka through Walter. While Johnson isn’t necessarily meddling with Pelinka’s job as general manager, he isn’t opposed to helping his former colleague despite their bitter history.
“I’m not going to advise (Rob Pelinka) unless he asks me my opinion on something,” Johnson said. “But other than that, you know, Rob will answer straight to Mark. Just like Lon Rosen, who just got the president’s job, he’ll answer straight to Mark. So I’m good. If he asked me a question, I would answer that question.”
While it’s good to see Johnson trying to move on from his dark history as the former president of the Lakers, we haven’t yet heard Pelinka’s side of the story.
