ESPN.com's explosive report Tuesday about dysfunction in the Lakers' front office is the talk of the sports world, including on Wednesday's "Boomer and Gio" show.
"Now I know how the rest of the NBA viewed the Knicks, because (former Lakers president) Magic Johnson has basically screwed this franchise up and (owner) Jeanie Buss has no clue to what she's doing."
According to ESPN's Baxter Holmes, Johnson created an abusive work environment, telling basketball operations staffers in his initial meeting with them that they were all replaceable and causing one executive to suffer panic attacks requiring anti-anxiety medication. Johnson reduced another staff member to tears by telling her she was one mistake away from being fired after a mix-up with scheduling a car service for a draft prospect.
Johnson has denied those accusations.
Meanwhile, Johnson and general manager Rob Pelinka, Kobe Bryant's former agent, have failed to return the Lakers to glory, even despite signing LeBron James last summer.
"Shaq (O'Neal) and Magic and Kobe and everybody's got their tentacles into the franchise," Esiason said. "This is why you've got to be really careful if you are an owner of any team and you bring back former players in some capacity, especially great players that are Hall of Fame players. Maybe not everybody can see it as clearly as John Elway once saw it when he realized he needed Peyton Manning to win a Super Bowl (with the Denver Broncos). But a lot of ex-superstar players cannot go to work every single day and run and grind through what it takes to run a franchise.
"Case in point would be (Yankees general manager) Brian Cashman. Brian Cashman every single day has to go to work, worry about some injury and deal with the analytics guys, deal with the scouts, deal with the international scouts, deal with the players, deal with the agents, deal with the owner. Think about that."
Another tale from the ESPN article says James' agent, Rich Paul, approached NBA commissioner Adam Silver to say he didn't believe Luke Walton was the right coach for the Lakers and suggested Tyronn Lue, James' coach with the Cleveland Cavaliers, would be a better option. The Lakers and Walton parted ways after this past season, and Lue appeared to be in line for the job before negotiations broke down. The Lakers later hired former Pacers and Magic coach Frank Vogel.
"But think about this: This guy, as an agent of LeBron James, is so empowered and so emboldened by who he is that he thought he could go directly to the NBA commissioner to get the head coach of the Lakers fired," Gregg Giannotti said.
To listen to the open from Wednesday's show, click on the audio player above.