Magic Johnson was recently hired by the Los Angeles Lakers as an advisor to team owner and president Jeanie Buss. According to Johnson, however, the Lakers weren’t the only team looking to hire him. From Ananth Pandian of CBS Sports:
Appearing on CBS This Morning on Monday, Johnson, staying loyal to the team he played his entire career with, said the Lakers are the only franchise he would work for. But Johnson did add that four other teams previously reached out to him about coming on board as an owner or to run an organization. Johnson doesn’t name all of the teams, yet he does mention that Knicks executive vice president and general manager reached out to him.
“I’ve had four offers to run teams, to be owners of teams,” Johnson said. “Matter of fact, Steve Mills, I had the opportunity to run the Knicks. But I turned everybody down.”
Johnson is an icon in the world of basketball; he was the greatest point guard of all time. Johnson does have business experience. He owned part of the Lakers for years and currently owns part of the Los Angeles Dodgers and Los Angeles Sparks. I’m not sure whether he’s quite qualified to “run the Knicks,” but would be interested in hearing more about what exactly that offer was; was Johnson offered a management job before Phil Jackson was?
