Magic Johnson asked Lakers to take tampering fine out of his salary
Magic Johnson didn't want the Los Angeles Lakers to bear the burden for his own wrong doing.
The Lakers president asked owner Jeanie Buss to take the team's recent $500,000 tampering charge out of his own paycheck after Los Angeles was fined by the NBA last week.
"We can't say a lot but we will correct the situation," Johnson told Tania Ganguli of The Los Angeles Times. "It's under my watch. I apologize to Jeanie, and that was the main thing. I told her she could take it out of my salary because I don't want the Lakers to be paying that fine. … I don't want her spending $500,000, because she didn't do anything. That's on me."
The NBA fined the Lakers after concluding that general manager Rob Pelinka had communicated with Paul George's agent, Aaron Mintz, while the 6-foot-9 forward was under contract with the Indiana Pacers. The league had previously warned Los Angeles about tampering after Johnson made comments about George on "Jimmy Kimmel Live!"
"This is just on a late-night show being funny," Johnson said. "But now I know I can't do that. We're OK. I haven't thought twice about it. We made a mistake. … It's under my watch. I'm gonna make sure it doesn't happen anymore."
The Lakers released a statement last week saying they accepted the league's findings.