National Basketball Association

Magic Johnson says he wants to ‘call the shots’ for the Lakers

Published Feb. 10, 2017 6:02 p.m. ET

Rob Perez

As we learned last month, Lakers legend Magic Johnson has returned to the franchise as an adviser to owner Jeanie Buss. Around the time of the announcement, there were rumors aplenty about Johnson having a significant role in the Lakers brain trust moving forward — as Jeanie's brother Jim, part-owner and vice president, vowed to diminish his role within the organization if the Lakers were not championship contenders by his self-imposed deadline of "three to four years."

With the Lakers patrolling the bottom of the Western Conference, the franchise appears to be headed this direction. These rumors and vows were fortified early Friday morning when Johnson spoke with USA Today's Josh Peter and made it very clear as to what he'd like to see happen in the near future:

"Working to call the shots, because it only works that way ... Right now, I’m advising. I get that. But at the end of the day, then we all got to come together and somebody’s got to say, ‘I’m making the final call,’ all right? And who’s that going to be? So, we’ll see what happens.’’

“Look, Jim knows where we are, Jeannie knows where we are, as a franchise, and so some decisions have to be made ... I may only be in this role for a short term, I may be here for a long time. We’ll just have to wait and see what happens. I can’t tell you that right now.’’

"It’s going to take time and we know that ... I’m not going to fool nobody and I don’t want the fan base to think, ‘Oh, I’m back, so it’s going to turn around tomorrow.’ It doesn’t work like that. You have to make some good decisions, you have to make sure we use the money wisely when we have it for free agents and then we’re going to draft well.’’

"The main part for me is really learning the other part that I didn’t know, and that is to understand the CBA, the salary cap, where we are in terms of the salary cap and who’s a free-agent-to-be. You’ve got a lot of young players so you’ve got to learn when are their contracts coming up, if you can give them the max deal, give them an extension, all those types of things you’ve got to learn. It’s a lot of things, but I’m excited. I’ve been working on all of those things, and then meeting with the staff.’’

"If I was trying to make decisions on the team and not consult with him, it would never work. The key is Luke because, OK, what does he have in terms of who’s making him happy? What does he need in terms of coming up on the draft? And even if we have money in free agency, what do we look for to help you as the coach? What do you need? What do you want to look for?

"It’s all coming together and working together, all of us. What do you like about the team you have now and what’s missing from the team? What would you like to see? And then he’ll tell you, ‘Well, I want this.’ OK, we’ll bring in those type of guys. Which one do you feel really fits your system? He’ll say blah-blah-blah, I’ll say blah-blah-blah, OK, let’s go with so-and-so.

"It only works that way.’’