Magic Johnson, who didn’t inform anyone of his decision to step down as president of basketball operations before he told the media, has just given the Los Angeles Lakers his best gift since LeBron James signed last summer. They have an opportunity to complete rethink everything, and with such an embarrassing impetus to do so that they really don’t have a choice.
For years, the Lakers have operated from a place of such exceptionalism that the very concept of outside-the-box thinking didn’t seem to dawn on them. Not when they could do things the Laker Way instead.