Magic Johnson takes over Lakers’ front office as team fires Jim Buss, Mitch Kupchak

The Los Angeles Lakers are a strange sports franchise. It’s a $3 billion mom-and-pop operation in a world of conglomerates and new tech money. The Buss family has owned a controlling interest in the franchise since 1979, long enough to see the game rise from regional curiosity to global monolith. While dynasties came and went, patriarch Dr. Jerry Buss ruled the team and led it to great heights, both on the court and off.

He began organizing succession plans a decade ago. His wishes were for his daughter Jeanie — who had worked in the franchise essentially her entire adult life, and is among the most successful business leaders in NBA history — to have ultimate power within the Lakers, and he named her the governor of the team.

Before taking a job as Los Angeles Lakers president of basketball operations on Tuesday, Magic Johnson was a basketball adviser to Lakers ownership. We now know how that advisory role came about in early February.

Johnson called to check in on Buss after her breakup with New York Knicks president and ex-Lakers coach Phil Jackson, according to the Los Angeles Times’ Tania Ganguli. The two ate dinner together, and Buss later invited Johnson to attend a Lakers game as her guest.

Rob Pelinka, the agent of former Laker great Kobe Bryant, is the most likely candidate to replace Mitch Kupchak as the GM of the Los Angeles Lakers, according to The Vertical’s Adrian Wojnarowski.

Wojnarowski followed up that news with a tweet stating the Lakers and Pelinka are in the process of finalizing a deal.

Sometimes phrasing is everything — ask Martellus Bennett. On Tuesday afternoon, he was feeling a little reminiscent of times in the past when he met major celebrities and icons. His anecdote about Magic Johnson came off totally the wrong way.

What he’s trying to say here is that he squandered those five minutes and he wished he had used them better. Unfortunately, because “I wish I had those 5 minutes back” has become vernacular for “I wasted my time,” it came off pretty badly. He quickly tried to course correct.