Los Angeles Lakers to hire agent Rob Pelinka as General Manager

This is not some late-night TV show that can be canceled. Nevertheless, this move should have been made either when Johnson’s return to the franchise was announced three weeks ago, or at the end of the regular season. This is not partial ownership of a baseball team that doesn’t even require him to have an office.

But it’s more than clear that Johnson has power, assuming this position a week after letting it be known that he would love to be Lakers president. Los Angeles’s decision to retain Kobe on a monstrous contract stunted the rebuild of the franchise.

Johnson had previously held numerous titles with Los Angeles, which includes being named honorary vice president last June.

Johnson replaces General Manager Mitch Kupchak who was “relieved of his duties” on Tuesday evening.

If anything, Jim Buss lasted longer as executive vice president of basketball operations than his job performance suggested he should. Their success or failure, though, will reflect back on Jeanie Buss. No doubt that Jim Buss and Kupchak have made some bad decisions here in the last few years which lead to Jeanie’s decision to believe that now was the time to make wholesale changes.

Jeanie Buss believes that the recent acquisitions will help the Lakers will return to a competitive nature.

“It was such a hard to decision to make, that I probably waited too long”, Jeanie Buss said in an interview on Spectrum SportsNet, the Lakers’ television network.

Now it’s all in Johnson’s hands, just in time for Thursday’s National Basketball Association trade deadline, and that may not be a coincidence. Sources say that not landing Demarcus Cousins was the final straw for Kupchak and Buss. Lakers went ahead and Name the Greatest Laker Ever Magic Johnson to President of Basketball Operations. As soon as Pelinka is finished with that he will become General Manager of the Lakers according to Adrian Wojnarowski of The Vertical.

Though he lacks front office experience, Pelinka is noted for his connections to league executives and intimate ties to the Lakers and Buss through his dealings with Bryant.

Here’s hoping Johnson broadens his search. You’ll likely never know most of the players on your favorite team any more personally than you’ll know the fantasy ones. The future of that $3 billion asset now sits on Johnson’s shoulders. He won National Basketball Association crowns with the Lakers playing alongside Johnson in 1982 and 1985 as well as with Washington in 1978. Or will Johnson look to score himself?