Skip to main content

As was relayed earlier this year, Los Angeles Lakers team owner Jeanie Buss continues to lean on the advice of former team president Magic Johnson, plus her longtime friends Kurt and Linda Rambis. ESPN reported that former head coach Phil Jackson and current L.A. All-Star forward LeBron James also speak with Buss about personnel decisions.

During a recent podcast interview with Sam Amick of The Athletic, Buss spoke about her continued connection to these advisors.

Buss appeared to push back against the notion that the Rambises' advising her is a relatively new phenomenon.

"Then there became this fascination with the role that Linda and Kurt (Rambis) play. Where did they come from (laughs)? As if they hadn’t been there (all along). Like I was hiding them all these decades or something (still laughing). So I don’t know what led to that, what caused people to be curious."

Rambis certainly hasn't been a trusted Lakers voice for decades straight-through. He served as the Timberwolves' head coach from 2009-2011, leading the team to 32-132 record. He returned to the Lakers as an assistant coach for one season, 2013-14, and then served on the Knicks (under team president Phil Jackson) as an associate head coach from 2014-16, an interim head coach in 2016 (the team went 9-19), and then got demoted again by Jackson to associate head coach under Jeff Hornacek from 2016-18. To be fair, Rambis served as an assistant coach on the Lakers' 2002, 2009 and 2010 title-winning teams under Jackson, and as an executive advisor on the team's 2000, 2001, and 2020 title teams. Given his shortcomings when he was the man in charge, it's unclear exactly how much value his advice really carries. To be fair, he sure has won a lot in his advisory capacity.

Though he was one of the NBA's all-time best players with the Lakers, Johnson's record as a coach and executive for the club is more checkered. As a head coach for the club during the 1994-95 season, Johnson went just 5–11, including losing 10 straight contests. Johnson took over for Jeanie's older brother Jim Buss as team president in February 2017. Johnson's biggest success as an executive was being part of the group that successfully signed LeBron James in free agency in 2018. 

L.A. sported a mediocre draft record under the 12-time All-Star and five-time Lakers champion. Current president Rob Pelinka worked under Johnson as team GM. In 2017, Los Angeles chose well, selecting solid 3-and-D point guard Lonzo Ball with the second pick out of UCLA and eventual championship role player Kyle Kuzma from the University of Utah with the 27th pick. Ball was drafted ahead of All-Stars like Jayson Tatum (taken at No. 3), Donovan Mitchell (No. 13), and Bam Adebayo (No. 14), but he has developed into a productive two-way player with the New Orleans Pelicans and Chicago Bulls. His nagging knee injuries have limited his growth. 

The team totally whiffed the next season, drafting journeyman center Moritz Wagner with the 25th pick out of Michigan and small forward Svi Mykhailiuk out of Kansas with the 47th selection. The team also tried -- and failed -- to trade for Anthony Davis during the 2018-19 season, creating toxic locker room chemistry. L.A. would miss the playoffs with a meandering 37-45, marking an end to LeBron's eight straight years of NBA Finals appearances. Johnson would go on to announce his exit from the team on a broadcast without informing Buss. He later called Pelinka a "back-stabber." It's hard to know what exactly Johnson's intentions are at present, with Pelinka very much still in power.

Although he won 11 titles as a coach, Jackson had a miserable three-year run as the Knicks' chief decision-maker, at least outside of drafting eventual All-Star big man Kristaps Porziņģis in 2015. That Buss looks to this circle of friends to advise her, and not to the best and brightest basketball minds in the world regardless of their Lakers past in different roles, is somewhat confounding. This "Lakers exceptionalism" might be hurting the team.

Here's what Buss had to say about her conversations with Johnson and Jackson:

"When I lean on Magic Johnson, when I lean on Phil Jackson, that’s advice that I’m getting for me in my decision-making process. It’s not that Magic is making a decision on who we’re going to hire as coach. It’s not that Phil is telling me who to hire as coach. It’s talking about process, talking about experience, what happened when you approached a problem like this. These are just people (she trusts). Everybody has them, those people in your life that you trust, you believe in (and) that you know are going to give you a straight answer, (and) that there is no separate agenda when they’re talking to you. (You know) that they’re going to give it to you straight."

The issue at the time was that folks were shocked, and understandably so, that Buss is leaning on former Laker greats almost without exception, despite no real evidence that they're particularly adept at talent evaluation in the modern era.