The Lakers media circus continued on Tuesday with the latest report from The Athletic’s Sam Amick shedding light on what Los Angeles superstar LeBron James thinks of the team in the wake of the Magic Johnson appearance on “First Take.”
According to Amick, James is “concerned” about the perception of the team going into free agency and the effect the dysfunction will have on the Lakers’ ability to sign top free agents.
Even before Magic’s latest move, sources close to LeBron James expressed concern that the combination of Magic’s messy exit and all the negative Lakers headlines threatened to sabotage their summer. The challenge of convincing another elite star to come to town was already seen as daunting around the league, and now these horrendous optics make that uphill climb far worse. Top-tier talents like Kevin Durant, Kawhi Leonard, Kyrie Irving, Jimmy Butler and all the rest of them will have plenty of options when July rolls around, and none – not even the Knicks and certainly not the crosstown Clippers – have the Lakers’ level of dysfunction that’s being exposed right now.
It appears Magic Johnson wanted to go scorched earth on the Lakers front office for the way that Rob Pelinka treated him, as we talked about in a previous article. The “First Take” appearance shed a lot of light on the way that the Lakers operated under Magic Johnson.
Honestly, all of this was my first thought when Magic Johnson left and started talking. He was shooting the organization in the foot while the front office shot themselves in the other foot. Needless to say, everything that has happened in the past month and a half for the Lakers will make it difficult to attract and negotiate with star free agents.
