Magic Johnson does not endorse Mike D’Antoni as coach of the Los Angeles Lakers and he was not happy about Mike Brown’s hiring last year, either. Oh, and Johnson doesn’t believe in Lakers executive vice president Jim Buss, who runs the team.
“I love Dr. (Jerry) Buss. I don’t believe in Jim Buss,” Johnson said on ESPN’s “NBA Countdown” on Wednesday night. “He’s made two critical mistakes already. To me, they made two critical mistakes.
“First, hiring Mike Brown — he wasn’t the right coach. He’s a great coach but not the right coach for the Lakers. And I don’t feel Mike D’Antoni is the right coach for the Lakers. Especially when you have Phil Jackson sitting out there, who wanted to be the Laker coach. Jim Buss decided he didn’t want Phil Jackson, he wanted Mike D’Antoni. And that’s OK, but why didn’t you just say that? But the fans were cheering for Phil Jackson two nights in a row.”
Asked by ESPNLosAngeles.com if he’d heard about Johnson’s on-air comments, Jim Buss said, “But I believe in Magic as I always have.”
Earlier in the day, Johnson tweeted that he was “mourning Phil Jackson not being hired as the Lakers head coach.” The tweets marked Johnson’s first public comments on the Lakers’ coaching situation since the weekend.
“The reason I haven’t tweeted in 2 days is because I’ve been mourning Phil Jackson not being hired as the Lakers head coach,” Johnson tweeted Wednesday morning. “My mother always taught me that if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all.”
Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak said Monday that hiring D’Antoni was a unanimous decision amongst himself, Jerry Buss and Jim Buss.
The Lakers content D’Antoni was a better fit for their current roster than Jackson, who would need time to install his Triangle offense with a group of players who has so far struggled to grasp the similarly complicated Princeton offense.
“Without going into great detail, some of our guys, I don’t think would be very successful in the Triangle,” Kupchak said Tuesday. “Some of our newer players might take a long time to learn the Triangle.”
