D'Antoni: Magic doesn't make Lakers more appealing to FAs
While his tweets leave something to be desired, there's no denying Magic Johnson's beloved personality and influence across the NBA for four decades.
That's part of what the Los Angeles Lakers were banking on when they gave the franchise legend the keys to the team last month. The organization has slogged through the worst stretch in their storied history, its soon-to-be four straight playoff-free seasons by far the franchise's longest postseason drought.
Beyond the obvious appeals of L.A., Johnson will be expected to help attract free agents to the Lakers after a rare period of being a non-factor in the market. Yet former Lakers coach Mike D'Antoni says he doesn't think Magic adds anything in that regard.
"I don't see it being one of the top factors in players deciding," the current Houston Rockets coach told USA Today's Sam Amick. "It's the players they have, the money you're getting, the role you're going to have. I see all that way before."
D'Antoni also said he has sympathy for his former bosses in L.A., Jim Buss and Mitch Kupchak. Both were dismissed last month - Buss by his sister Jeanie - in order to make way for Johnson.
"I really liked working with Mitch Kupchak and Jim Buss. They weren’t the problem," D'Antoni said, revisiting the issues that plagued the Lakers over the last six years. "When you have a superstar of the magnitude of Kobe (Bryant), and he retires ... they had tried to make the trade for Chris Paul (vetoed by the NBA head office in 2011) and they had it, and that would’ve (kept them successful) another 10 years, and it didn't work out.
“They make a couple good moves, get Dwight (Howard), and it didn't work out. They were doing the right things."
D'Antoni was famously hired by the late Jerry Buss in 2012 over Phil Jackson to coach a so-called superteam of Bryant, Howard, and Steve Nash. That squad played to a mediocre 45-37 record, but not before injuries derailed Nash and Bryant ruptured his Achilles. D'Antoni resigned in 2014 after amassing a 67-87 record with L.A.
"Given the circumstances, I don't know that anybody could have done a better job than Mike did the past two seasons," Kupchak said at the time.