LeBron James, like everyone else, was stunned by Magic Johnson‘s abrupt resignation from his post as the Lakers’ president of basketball operations.
Johnson helped convince James to relocate to Los Angeles last summer: LeBron had “no idea” the Hall of Famer planned to quit, and was critical of the way he exited the job during a press conference 90 minutes prior to the regular season finale.
Lonzo Ball, meanwhile, appeared to quickly shake off the shock of the franchise-altering news.
Per The LA Times:
“I came here to be a part of the Lakers organization, having a conversation with Magic and really kind of breaking it down and saying how we was gonna make this Showtime again, and I wanted to be part of that process,” James said during an episode of his HBO show “The Shop,” which aired Saturday but was taped April 11 in the aftermath of Johnson’s decision.
“He explained to me Year One is going to be tough. …. But I was OK with the process. At Year 16 you ain’t really supposed to be worrying about no damn process, especially for me because I’m in championship mode all the time,” James added.
“So it was just weird for him to just be like ‘I’m out of here’ and not even have no like, ‘Hey Bron, kiss my ass. I’m out of here.’ I would’ve been OK with that. ‘Hey Bron, it’s Magic. Kiss my ass. I’m gone.’ Not even that.”
James scrunched his face up with a look of disbelief as he recalled the scene.
“I feel like there’s a time and place for things, and I believe you knew you were going to make that decision, so why would you do that here?” James said. “Why would you do that now?”
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