Despite reports that Los Angeles Lakers head coach Luke Walton was admonished by an angry Magic Johnson earlier this week after the team's 3-5 start to the season, he is reportedly not currently in danger of losing his job, sources told the Los Angeles Times' Tania Ganguli and Brad Turner.
The ire of Johnson, the team president, was reportedly focused on the offensive system Walton's squad has run to date, rather than the team's record, sources close to Johnson told Turner.
Walton responded to rumors that he is currently on the hot seat, saying at Lakers practice Friday that meetings between the team's front office and himself are commonplace.
"I have not read the article," Walton said, referring to the original report of his meeting with Johnson by ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski and Dave McMenamin. "Obviously I've heard about it. I will tell you this: Magic, myself, (general manager Rob Pelinka), (controlling owner Jeannie Buss), are in constant communication, so this is no 'all of a sudden there's an emergency' meeting. This is something we do all the time. What we discuss in our meetings is between us. I've been saying, we've been saying since the beginning: We're going to be patient. We know where we're going, we know how to get there."
As for his job security, Walton, who was drafted by the Lakers in 2003 and played for parts of nine seasons with the team before eventually making the leap to coaching, doesn't believe he's at risk of being fired.
"I'm coming down here to do my job and coach," Walton said with a laugh. "And I don't feel like I'm going anywhere."
