Magic’s Still A Laker At Heart
Magic Johnson never wanted Mike D’Antoni as the coach of his ex-team, the Los Angeles Lakers. That position was supposed to revert back to the guy who came to be recognized as the ‘Coach of the Lakers’, Phil Jackson.
But a family feud erupted in the Lakers front offices when the Buss brother, for reasons of his own, decided that he no longer wanted Jackson to be the coach of the Lakers. Perhaps it had something to do with Phil Jackson being the fiancée of his sister Jeanne, but the details of why are not really important.
Phil Jackson ended up with a great deal to manage the Knicks organization and go off to live in the Big Apple and then D’Antoni up and quit. But who could blame him? It was never a win situation for him in the first place and Mike D’Antoni is a good NBA coach, as his record shows.
And now the Lakers are without a coach, again, and speculation reigns high over whom the next lucky guy to be to get into the middle of this Southern California soap opera that now has a sort of subsidiary in New York.
It didn’t take Magic Johnson long to take to the social airways expressing his approval and downright glee, that D’Antoni was gone. Johnson was often critical of D’Antoni’s defensive strategies or lack thereof and he was not shy about letting his opinions on the subject be known by anyone who would listen.
Back in 2012, when the Lakers fired Mike Brown, Magic was all set for Jackson’s return to the helm. After all, the ‘Zen Master’, as Jackson is popularly known, had only won 5 NBA Titles in his 11 year tenure with the Los Angeles Lakers.
When D’Antoni was hired, Magic Johnson tweeted out that he was in mourning for the Lakers and the results did prove him right. The Lakers have been a total mess since D’Antoni took over. Most of it was probably out of his control anyway, however, he was the guy in charge. The man bringing home the big bucks to coach and lead the Lakers both on and off the court and something went dreadfully wrong there.
Magic even went so far as to criticize D’Antoni’s ‘poor defensive coaching’ on the Jay Leno show which is about a public forum as you can get. Of course any discussion of the Lakers has to include Kobe Bryant who is out for the season with knee and Achilles problems. Kobe backed up Magic all the way so D’Antoni never really had a shot anyway.