{"id":9308,"date":"2019-04-10T13:57:56","date_gmt":"2019-04-10T13:57:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/?p=9308"},"modified":"2019-04-10T09:58:17","modified_gmt":"2019-04-10T09:58:17","slug":"magic-johnson-steps-down-as-la-lakers-president","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/magic-johnson-steps-down-as-la-lakers-president\/","title":{"rendered":"Magic Johnson Steps Down As LA Lakers President"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/earvin-johnson-jr.jpg\" alt=\"Earvin &quot;Magic&quot; Johnson Jr\" width=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-9309\" \/>The Los Angeles Lakers will no longer have <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/magicjohnson\">Earvin \u2018Magic\u2019 Johnson<\/a> at the helm as the NBA hall of famer surprised everyone when he suddenly informed the press that he was stepping down from his post as &#8220;<em>President of Basketball Operations<\/em>&#8220;. <\/p>\n<p>Magic Johnson was appointed to the post back in February 2017 and he played a major role in securing the services of <strong>LeBron Johnson<\/strong> for this season. <\/p>\n<p>However, things haven\u2019t gone very well for the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.legitgambling.com\/news\/lebron-jamess-first-season-with-the-la-lakers-ends-without-playoff-run\/\">Lakers who have not made the playoffs<\/a> after going through a terrible season. <\/p>\n<p>The Lakers were scheduled to take on the <strong>Portland Trail Blazers<\/strong> on Tuesday night in what was to be their last game of the season.<\/p>\n<p>Just before the game commenced, Johnson told reporters that he was stepping down as the pressure was too much and he needed to relinquish the responsibilities and gain the freedom he is used to enjoying. <\/p>\n<p><strong>WCNC<\/strong><\/p>\n<div style=\"position:relative;height:0;padding-bottom:56.25%\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/jK_tfMuuc_I?rel=0&amp;showinfo=0?ecver=2\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" frameborder=\"0\" style=\"position:absolute;width:100%;height:100%;left:0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>There is no doubt that Johnson has had to face tremendous pressure in the last couple of months due to the team\u2019s performance and the controversy brought on by going after <strong>Anthony Davis<\/strong> from the Pelicans. The poor performance of the Lakers in spite of having LeBron James this season and the backlash from the fans was a little too much for Johnson to endure. <\/p>\n<p>In a statement, Johnson said <\/p>\n<blockquote><p>I want to go back to having fun. I want to go back to being who I was before taking on this job, and we\u2019re halfway there with LeBron coming. I think this summer, with that other star coming in, whoever\u2019s going to come in, I think this team is going to be in position to really contend for a championship with the growth of the other young players.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h2>Lakers Pay Tribute To Magic Johnson<\/h2>\n<p>Johnson did not inform <strong>Jeanie Buss<\/strong> of his decision as he found it very difficult to break the news. He wanted to inform the press first before heading over to Buss who is the controlling owner of the Lakers. The Lakers accepted his resignation and paid tribute to Johnson for his contribution as a player, ambassador and executive. <\/p>\n<p>Johnson will go back to his business ventures and his role of being a mentor. Magic did tell the press that he recently got a call from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/serenawilliams\/\">tennis ace Serena Williams<\/a> who wanted him to be her adviser.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Los Angeles Lakers will no longer have Earvin \u2018Magic\u2019 Johnson at the helm as the NBA hall of famer surprised everyone when he suddenly informed the press that he was stepping down from his post as &#8220;President of Basketball Operations&#8220;. Magic Johnson was appointed to the post back in February 2017 and he played [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9308","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports","category-usa"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Magic Johnson Steps Down As LA Lakers President<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Los Angeles Lakers will no longer have Earvin \u2018Magic\u2019 Johnson at the helm as the NBA hall of famer surprised everyone\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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