In the earlier, halcyon days of the offseason, back when there was a hope that the Los Angeles Lakers front office had a plan to regroup in the wake of Magic Johnson’s resignation, the “shadow executive” theory was a popular explanation for the new president of basketball operations not being named yet. Essentially, Los Angeles was targeting a high-level executive already employed by another playoff team to replace Johnson, but couldn’t reveal who it was while his team was still playing.
Suffice it to say, while it was fun for fans to speculate about a superhero swooping in to save the franchise, it turns out there was never any real chance that the Lakers would look beyond their own organizational family for help.