Magic Johnson is speaking out for the first time about why he left his role as the president of the LA Lakers Monday morning.
In series of videos posted on the ESPN First Take Twitter, Johnson says he resigned for a couple of reasons, including problems with general manager Rob Pelinka who he said was the person who was "backstabbing" him.
He said he kept hearing how Pelinka was saying that Johnson wasn't in the Lakers office enough and wasn't around and started getting calls from friends who were outside the basketball sphere.
Meanwhile, Pelinka made a statement during an 11 a.m. press conference Monday morning.
He resigned from his position earlier in April abruptly.
Eric Pincus of Bleacher Report covers the Lakers and says Magic's intervention on the day a new coach is introduced does not help the team and seems self-serving:
"It doesn't make sense why he would do this. Other than clean up his image and his point of view or whatever and justify what he did and why he left. He can believe all those things and he talked about sharing his truth. Why? Why is it so important that he share his truth publicly?" Pincus said.
Pincus will be at the news conference at 11 a.m. Monday morning introducing Frank Vogel as the new coach and says that will now be dominated by questions about front-office backstabbing.