It’s obvious to me that the media is trying to bury us. It makes no sense whatsoever because look at the ratings for the playoffs this year. They desperately need the Lakers and Lebron back on top again.
This is a terrible idea. I don't think they understand that they don't have the media relationships Magic has or that these stories aren't the silver bullets they seem to think they are. At this point, trying to come out with stories that are worse will just look like they are clearly trying to sink Magic and will blow up on them. Magic just sent a not so thinly veiled threat at them by making it clear he'll be back on ESPN around free agency time. The last thing we need is more of this stuff when we're trying to seal the deal with free agents. We hired a selfish diva to run the team and this is part of the results of that (which is why so many of us questioned the hire and the plan to begin with). Magic has never walked away from a camera and clearly is ready to burn the thing down if he needs to. They need to let it go. This whole thing with Baxter Holmes clearly shows that they don't know how to do this as that article made them look just as bad if not worse than Magic. On the other side, Magic's media friends are firing real bullets and making a mockery of Rob's ridiculous lies. The next time Magic comes up anyone with the team should just spit out some carefully crafted statement by a PR firm that doesn't say anything and just let it be.
While you are totally right that the NBA (including the other teams that make money off of our TV revenue sharing) needs us, and ratings have tanked without a Lebron led team to give some competition to GS, the bottom line is the media thrives with any kind of Laker news/pieces whether positive or negative. The ratings for First Take with Magic were through the roof. The media isn't one monolithic entity. It's a bunch of separately run entities all fighting each other for space in the airwaves and cyberspace. Lakers dirt is just as good in their eyes as Lakers glory.
Media are parasites. Talentless hacks. It used to be just the newspaper side of things now those same hacks are all becoming TV stars because no one cares or reads newspapers anymore. Magic hasn't helped things at all. As a matter of fact, he's really hurting the Lakers and keeps hurting them.
Ratings don't matter anymore and neither do fans at games. The TV contracts in almost all sports have made ratings and fans unnecessary. It's just cherry on the cake. If you need proof, look at the Spectrum deals the Lakers and Dodgers got. They don't need anyone for a while.
This so much. This current FO is so unversally, laughably incompetent at everything they do, every action is guaranteed to end in a disaster. I can't even get mad at this stuff anymore, all us fans have left is get over it and - in my case at least - become numb to this mess that is called the Lakers these days.
Ratings always matter. There is a reason the Lakers have the Spectrum contract and the Clippers don’t. If the Lakers become the Clippers that contract won’t get renewed.
My point was not that I personally thought he was the most knowledgeable guy, it was that he was hired to be that guy. Jeannie thought he was. I personally do not think he was as horrible as you do. He was trying to get us two marquee talents in this league and was willing to rebuild the roster to do that. I still don't disagree with it but I am OK with rolling with who we have too. In fact, my personal take on what the Lakers should do is to sign one FA and roll with what we have. But if we traded away three fourths or more of our team, by trading for a superstar, AND THEN signed another FA, so that we could have 3 bonafide superstars, I would be all in on that. So, really whatever makes us competitive, successful and gives us a shot at playing for a ring, I will support it. I don't know that what Magic was doing, wouldn't have gotten us there. We hardly had the opportunity to see. Magic, no doubt, has said some really stupid things and his perceptions of players has been questionable. I'm not unhappy he quit, just don't like the way it came down.
Right on. This is PR quick sand at this point. Message needs to be "we love Magic but we're moving on" and then talk about the future. Short of the Buss family selling the team, hiring a respected FO person should be strongly considered to stabilize things at this point. Pelinka may have all the skill in the world but he needs to be shuffled to the back of the org chart now, given the damage done by Magic.
Did Magic really have any say in the Dodgers FO construction? I swear dudes gets way to much credit there, guy can barely judge NBA talents n people want to believe he could judge baseball execs?
Right. They trip over their own feet getting out of bed. No way should they be engaged in any kind of war of words with anyone. I mean, I have a few friends involved in various professional sports. From the stories I hear, any agent is going to have at least some dirt under their nails. I guarantee there are plenty of bad stories out there about Rob beyond what has already been leaked. We can't get back to talking about what's happening on the court fast enough IMO
Agreed. This is definitely PR quick sand. We just need to get out of it and let it be. I've wanted someone to run the FO from minute one. Even now doing that would send a good signal to everyone but I doubt they do it.
Magic Johnson is a human billboard. That's what most celebrities are. Those who really move the things that matter own billion dollar companies and are usually only in front of the camera to promote the billion dollar item. Everything else they usually schlep some celeb that people worship to promote.
didn't we all use to laugh at the Clippers and the Knicks? now the dumpster fire is in the Lakers camp centered on our very own former superstar. fabulously gifted player, it was a privilege to watch him throw passes no one else could throw. but just about everything he has touched in basketball since has gone poorly. The comeback, the coaching, the commentating and now the management. Let's just accept that unlike his rival Bird, Magic has no acumen whatsoever for the management aspects of the game. sigh ... I'm just going to have to stay away from this for awhile. Just hope they make good use out of the 4th pick and sign one of the top 6 FA's, at this point I don't care who. Maybe make a trade or two as well. Blow that and Pelinka will have to be fired to be followed by the FO wasting Lebron's final years when all is said and done.
