Magic Johnson: “Kawhi or Kyrie – One Might Land in LA This Summer”

And the saga is now finally over. Or it just begins. The Los Angeles Lakers legend, one of the best players ever, and the former president of the purple and gold basketball operations Magic Johnson talked today about his recent decision to leave the franchise.

Magic decided to break the silence and to tell everybody what was the reason for his premature departure from the LAL.

Magic was open and didn’t hesitate to name all the actors in his story. Simply, he didn’t want to become the scapegoat and the only dirty side in this drama.

“I got things happening that was being said behind my back,” Magic began his version in today’s episode of First Take. “I don’t have the power that I thought I had to make the decisions, and I told them, ‘When it’s not fun for me, when I think that I don’t have the decision-making power that I thought I had, then I gotta step aside.'”

Magic spoke about the situation when he wanted to terminate Luke Walton’s coaching stint. He was proposing to Jeanie Buss to fire the young trainer, who was evidently struggling to create good chemistry in the team.

According to Johnson, Buss was changing her mind because she allowed too many people to influence her decision. One day she was up for it, the next she was against.

Magic specifically labeled Tim Harris as the person who wanted to interfere with his business, and who influenced Jeanie Buss. He was the factor which kept Walton on the bench until the end of the year, and according to the former player, it was because the two were close friends. At one meeting where Buss and Magic should discuss Walton’s status, Harris was summoned and he started sharing his view of the story which was opposite to Johnson’s proposal.

“And so when I looked up and said, ‘Wait a minute, I only really answer to Jeanie Buss.’ Now, I got Tim involved, and I said it’s time for me to go,” Magic told Stephen A.

He also said that Rob Pelinka betrayed him, with all the talks behind his back and stories which were supposed to discredit him.

“If you’re going to talk betrayal, it’s only with Rob.”

But what might be the most interesting part of the conversation from this morning, is the one when he mentioned the young core of the Lakers’ team and the free agents who might land in LA this summer.

He praised Brandon Ingram and Kyle Kuzma a lot. Johnson was very pleased with Ingram’s versatility and the fact that he showed signs on a huge potential, which would last longer if weren’t for his injury.

“This guy (Ingram) is special. He guarded Kyrie Irving one night, he’s on Kevin Durant another night, so you can play him on different guys. He is special.”

After that, Magic spoke about the possible targets of the Lakers’ organization for the upcoming free agency. The purple and gold have one max-contract slot, and Johnson revealed two names with a bit higher chances of joining  LeBron on his quest towards the title.

Those two guys are Kawhi Leonard and Kyrie Irving.

“With speculation that KD is going somewhere else… speculation that he is going to New York… I love Kevin,” Johnson said. “Or he might stay in Golden State. I would say Kawhi and Kyrie are the two guys, one of those two.”

Kawhi Leonard allegedly wants to have his own team, while on the other side Kyrie already showed some signs of willingness to jump from East to the West coast. Regular contacts with LBJ on social networks are only heating up the speculations that the former duo which gave Cleveland one title might rejoin again.

And when we add the fact that Kyrie’s experience in Boston ended with a total disaster, this claim has more sense.

We expect reactions after Magic’s interview today, and be sure that WagerBop.com will be there to cover all of them.