The Lakers are the real life version of The Bold and Beautiful.
If you have never watched The Bold and Beautiful shame on you, but the drama is pretty much the same. ESPN breaks down what is going on behind the scenes (spoiler alert it is messy), but this tidbit is the most interesting to me.
Magic Johnson says the late Dr. Buss always wanted him to run the team.
“He’d tell me his vision was for Jeanie and I to run it. She knew that too,” says Magic Johnson. “[But] He couldn’t put me in that position. I told him that. I was upfront with him. I’d say, ‘You have four boys — there’s no way that’s going to go over well.'”
A few days before his death in February 2013, Dr. Buss summoned Johnson to visit him in the hospital. Johnson had sold his Lakers shares and become part owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2012, seemingly moving on from the dream of a role with the Lakers.
“Jeanie had called and told me to come up, that he wanted to see me,” Johnson says. “And he said it again. He said, ‘I always thought you guys would run it.’ We were both sitting there crying about it because he knew I was right. … Back then, it would have been a lot of resentment. It would have been difficult.”
I guess enough time has passed that Magic isn’t worried about people’s feelings anymore.
Until everyone can find some middle ground the Lakers will continue to struggle.