One Los Angeles Lakers legend has a suggestion for how to solve the team’s ongoing woes.
Retired Lakers great Michael Cooper stated over the weekend on KABC in LA that the team should bring Magic Johnson back to their front office.
“I think the biggest thing is bring Magic Johnson back,” said Cooper. “That’s what you need back up in there because remember he’s the one that got all this started and he can keep it flowing.”
When Cooper’s co-host brought up that Johnson was actually the one who left the Lakers (having resigned from his post as president of basketball operations in 2019), Cooper replied, “That’s what they say.”
Cooper, the former NBA Defensive Player of the Year, is likely extremely biased in his opinion. He was teammates with Johnson on the Showtime Lakers for all five of their title teams in the 1980s. Cooper’s suggestion to bring Magic back doesn't make much sense based on past history.
Though the Lakers are 27-33 (.450) this season, that is actually a better record than during the two seasons that Johnson was running the team. The Lakers posted a 72-92 record (.439) in those two years. Johnson also stumbled numerous times as an executive, to the point that adversaries were even laughing at the Lakers over their missteps.
There are signs that Johnson still has some influence over the Lakers, but bringing him back in an official capacity might create more problems than it would solve for the floundering Lakers.
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