On Feb. 21, 2017, Los Angeles Lakers owner Jeanie Buss orchestrated a major shakeup in the team’s front office, ousting general manager Mitch Kupchak and vice president of basketball operations Jim Buss, replacing them with Magic Johnson.
Assuming the title of president of basketball operations, Johnson set about his task of rebuilding the once-great franchise. The move was a shocking one, but the general consensus was that change was needed.
Jim Buss had given himself a deadline to bring the team back to contention and clearly was not going to make it, and he and Kupchak had handed out head-scratching long-term contracts to Timofey Mozgov and Luol Deng during the summer.