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junker-town · 7 years ago

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LeBron James, Magic Johnson, and the future of the King’s final act

The true allure of Los Angeles lies in a mentorship with Magic Johnson

Kings have always known how to show the spoils of their regality. The art of the flex is imbued into one’s eminence, and at times, majesty requires it. LeBron James unraveled this knack and created a runway to bless the world with his fits, leaving us nothing but a Saharan thirst for the next moment.

The playoffs decorated the world with $46,000 Thom Browne suits. T-shirts and tea lizard caps provided more subtle flair the summer he toppled the Warriors. But his latest example was perhaps the most sublime. James arrived at Summer League adorned in shiny, $500 custom shorts with a screaming “Lakers” symbol under the waist band in embroidered twill prepared by Just Don and Mitchell and Ness. A basketball great turned summer tournament ambassador, James hugged young Lakers Josh Hart and Brandon Ingram, the latter dressed as a Rick James facsimile, the former describing James’ appearance as “cool.” An elementary finesse.

Such can be the allure of “L.A. Bron.” The Lakers were always his perfect fit, even if my allegiance to America’s greatest city, Philadelphia, pains me to say such things. The Lakers have always preached a bravado in their dealings, built over decades of pristine basketball and chaotic rivalries. Adding James to their storied history bolsters L.A.’s legacy as a free agency paradise.

Do not dismiss a Summer League appearance for its simplicity. The curtain is opening on what could be James’ final act, his last soiree of dominant athleticism. Yet, basketball is far from the only benefit James can find in California.

James reached the mountaintop of hardwood glory, but has often stated his goals around family and commerce. In 2016, he said one of his dreams was to own a team. The same year he harpooned coaching legend Phil Jackson for dismissing his rise in the business world with his partners, Rich Paul and Maverick Carter, after Jackson described James’ collective as a “posse.” The “LeBron Effect,” as detailed by a 2017 AEI study, has often said anecdotally and through evidence that wherever James plays, job opportunities increase within the area of the arena he holds. And, naturally, proximity to Hollywood allows for James’ second act as an entertainment icon to come to fruition.

Who better to further inspire James in his ventures than a basketball colossus whose legend only grew once he merged athleticism with his own business interest? Magic Johnson was always closer to the vision of LeBron James than Michael Jordan. Their games have more similarities and their business mindsets are aligned. James’ admiration for Magic was documented through free agency — specifically James’ veneration for Magic’s form of activism through affluence. Magic has made such ventures possible for black basketball stars.

A path like this isn’t a unique algorithm. The baseball trailblazer Jackie Robinson, who thought black people should have their own financial institutions and was a founding investor in the Freedom National Bank, once wrote “Money is America’s god and businesspeople can dig black power if it coincides with green power.” The football icon Jim Brown created the Black Economic Union during the early moments of his Cleveland career, using athleticism as a facilitator in black-owned enterprises, athletic clubs and youth programs.

Business ownership, banking, and even the use of Magic’s properties and assets — such as his investment company Magic Johnson Enterprises and the storied lessons Magic taught business leaders like Howard Schultz — can create opportunities for the unprivileged. James’ own ventures, such as his I Promise School and family foundation that sent children to college, have already accomplished this in the past. James’ newfound proximity to Magic can create a path of continued activism through affluence that Magic has made possible.

This ideology makes the reality of L.A. with James sustainable. It plants a flag in the territory Rob Pelinka and Johnson carved out two years ago to reinvent the franchise wandering a basketball desert of mediocrity. Honestly, it should be rewarded. Weeks ago Magic said he felt no pressure to load the Lakers with free agent dynamos because, he said simply, “I’m Magic Johnson.” And frankly, that is an otherworldly flex from another basketball king.

The trappings of a possible west coast dynasty allows fans to dream of a new “Showtime” Lakers. James’ vision is now etched to California stone, where the mighty are rewarded the sprinkles of Tinseltown since basketball royalty already honored him with a crown and throne.

James’ first appearance as a Laker was brief yet divine. He sat court-side cheering his new fraternity like an overzealous father at a pewee soccer game. Though Lakers aficionados can muse about the future on-court promise James historically brings to a franchise, the opportunity here is to watch Magic breed James as the future of basketball’s commercial appeal. The branding brought him to town more than the basketball, a partnership James’ associates believed enthralled him enough to let Johnson walk into his Brentwood estate on a midsummer night.

So he will laugh with his old coach Ty Lue during the lulls of July ball. He’ll dance like the classic dope he’s become when music moves him to twirl. And he’ll enchant us just with his presence as the basketball world awaits what’s next. We’ve had plenty of joy watching a generation’s greatest basketball talent dismantle deities and kill off franchises and the men they employ. We’ve always asked for James’ next step to be a greater challenge. What’s larger than re-branding yourself for the future under the wing of an experienced giant? Thus begins the opening act of “L.A. Bron.”

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amtushinfosolutionspage · 7 years ago

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Jeanie Buss Will Do Anything to Make the Lakers Great Again

“At the end of the day, we’re all judged by how many games we win.”

These sound like words you’d see glazed onto a coffee mug next to Vince Lombardi’s face. Or painted on the walls of a high school locker room. Or approvingly shared on Facebook in bad meme form by a million middle-aged dads. It’s the kind of sentiment that sounds good, until you think about it for a second.

We’re judged by what?

I heard them spoken over the phone recently by Jeanie Buss, the co-owner and governor of the Los Angeles Lakers. She was talking about the decision she made earlier this year to oust her brother Jim from his position running the team’s basketball operations. (She also let go of longtime general manager Mitch Kupchak.) In a year that saw Chris Paul, Kyrie Irving, Carmelo Anthony, Paul George, and Isaiah Thomas trades, no NBA transaction was as dramatic as the one that occurred in the Lakers front office.

The cliche would be to put it in Hollywood terms. It was like something out of a soap opera. Or Shakespeare. Or Game of Thrones (I think—I’ve never actually seen it.) A self-made, high-living, and ultimately beloved sports owner dies. His children squabble in sports pages and tabloids. Meanwhile, without its patriarch, the franchise slides into disarray. Then, in a theatrical, merciless act, one child finally assumes control and brings glory back to the family name (or not, it remains to be seen).

It’s revealing that Buss speaks about judgment in terms of wins and losses, especially considering the fate of the Lakers in recent years. Four straight losing seasons, each, in some ways, more devastating than the last. The dismal end of Kobe Bryant’s career; the awkward beginning of D’Angelo Russell’s. Carlos Boozer. Byron Scott. Timofey Mozgov.

Things are different now, sure. The Lakers have Magic Johnson and Rob Pelinka calling the shots. Russell and Mozgov have been exiled to Brooklyn. Lonzo Ball will be running the point at Staples Center. The team even moved into a new practice facility. “You hear this cliche so many times,” Buss told me. “Change in culture.”

They are going to be fun to watch, or at least more fun to watch than last season. But they don’t have a first round draft pick next year. They still have Luol Deng’s contract. Their best player is probably Brook Lopez, a veteran who everybody thinks is gone after the season. There’s a reason the front office was fined for tampering—their best path to contention is still to hit it big in free agency. The hope now is that they have become a more appealing destination.

And they should be a destination. Soap opera jokes aside, the Lakers are deeply woven into the fabric of Los Angeles, which means that so is the Buss family. The franchise is an actual, beloved, civic institution, with the kind of cache and credibility you can only develop over decades. People care about them, even if they can’t afford to go to the games. True story: I was born in Los Angeles in 1986 into a family that liked sports, went to games, watched them on TV, and for years into my childhood I had no idea Los Angeles had a second basketball team. It was just the Lakers. And despite the last few years, it still is.

Jeanie Buss knows this as well as anybody, which is why she has spent months reiterating something she first said last February after she moved to fire her brother and Kupchak: she should have done it sooner. She should have done it sooner, she keeps saying. Her emotional attachments got in the way. She has said it to the national press, and she has said it to the local papers. She said it most recently in a Town Hall interview with KCET, the public television station in Los Angeles. (The interview airs Thursday evening in LA, and nationally on LinkTV if you have satellite.)

Imagine being in a position where you are apologizing to a city, not for firing your brother, but for not firing him quickly enough. I could not do that. Jeanie Buss could, and did. And it strikes me as fitting in with everything else Buss told me in our interview. I asked about whether the league was doing enough to expand the role of women on NBA coaching staffs and NBA front offices. She told me a story about watching Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs with her father. “This is going to change the world,” she recalls her father saying, perfectly aware of the stakes of the event. But when it comes to actual changes in the composition of NBA front offices?

“It all comes down to winning. If you can win with a woman, then it will be a woman.”

It takes a certain type of person, man or woman, to talk about judgment in terms of wins and losses, and then to fire your brother in their name. A confident person, to be sure. Maybe overconfident. A calculating, competitive person. No doubt about that. In this case, it also takes a person who was literally raised from childhood with the notion of one day running the NBA’s most prominent and most compelling franchise; who sees her family business as not just a business run by her family, but rather an extension of her family, and an extension of herself.

The thing about the Lakers is that the brand is winning. This is true of the Yankees too. Success is literally what they are selling. When things are going good, then it works. When it doesn’t, you find yourself looking longingly at the past. You find yourself hoping that Lonzo Ball is the next Magic Johnson, not necessarily the first Lonzo Ball.

You can be a profitable NBA franchise without being good. But can you be a proud one? Buss talked to me about the Lakers obligation to the city. She talked about her father’s legacy, wrapped up in that civic obligation. “His story was that he made L.A. his home,” she said. “What it means to be a Laker is that you only want to be a Laker,” she said.

When Buss and Phil Jackson ended their relationship (a relationship that certainly complicated the dynamic between Buss and her brother Jim), she said that the principle reason they broke up was distance. But she also said this:

For the Lakers, the lines between family and basketball and business are blurry. It’s what makes them fascinating, even when the on-court product isn’t. But for Jeanie Buss, it isn’t so complicated. The Lakers are an extension of herself. And when you run a basketball team, you’re judged by how many games you win.

“To me it’s simple, it’s always do what’s best for the Lakers first.”

Jeanie Buss Will Do Anything to Make the Lakers Great Again syndicated from http://ift.tt/2ug2Ns6

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tvrundownusa · 2 years ago

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tvrundown USA 2022.10.03

Monday: October 3rd:

(exclusive): Solar Opposites (hulu, Halloween special), Chip and Potato (netflix, season 4 available, all 6 eps)

(streaming weekly): Best in Dough (hulu, next 4 eps, season 1 finale), Chefs vs. Wild (hulu, next 2 eps), "Legacy: The True Story of the L.A. Lakers" (hulu, part 9/10), Kevin Can F**k Himself (AMC+, series finale), Panhandle (Spectrum, next 2 eps), Mystery Road (AcornTV, next 2 eps), Recipes for Love and Murder (AcornTV, next 2 eps, season 1 finale), Dancing With the Stars (dsn+, primetime)

(also new): Dancing With the Stars (dsn+, streaming), 2022 Miss USA (FYI, 71st annual competition, 2hrs)

(hour 1): Bachelor in Paradise (ABC, season 8 timeslot opener, 2hrs), The Voice (NBC, 2hrs), The Neighborhood (CBS) / / Bob Hearts Abishola (CBS), 9-1-1 (FOX), Mysteries Decoded (theCW, repeat)

(hour 2): Bachelor in Paradise (ABC, contd), The Voice (NBC, contd), NCIS (CBS), The Cleaning Lady (FOX), Mysteries Decoded (theCW, "Spirit Squad" special), Kevin Can F**k Himself (AMC, penultimate), Halloween Baking Championship (FOOD)

(hour 3): The Good Doctor (ABC, season 6 opener), Quantum Leap (NBC), NCIS: Hawai'i (CBS), American Dad! (TBS), My True Crime Story (VH1), POV (PBS, "The Last Out", 90mins), Halloween Cookie Challenge (FOOD)

(hour 4 - latenight): The Big Bake Halloween (FOOD), Nightly Pop (E!, ending soon)

#SolarOpposites #BachelorInParadise #television

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flauntpage · 7 years ago

Text

Jeanie Buss Will Do Anything to Make the Lakers Great Again

"At the end of the day, we're all judged by how many games we win."

These sound like words you'd see glazed onto a coffee mug next to Vince Lombardi's face. Or painted on the walls of a high school locker room. Or approvingly shared on Facebook in bad meme form by a million middle-aged dads. It's the kind of sentiment that sounds good, until you think about it for a second.

We're judged by what?

I heard them spoken over the phone recently by Jeanie Buss, the co-owner and governor of the Los Angeles Lakers. She was talking about the decision she made earlier this year to oust her brother Jim from his position running the team's basketball operations. (She also let go of longtime general manager Mitch Kupchak.) In a year that saw Chris Paul, Kyrie Irving, Carmelo Anthony, Paul George, and Isaiah Thomas trades, no NBA transaction was as dramatic as the one that occurred in the Lakers front office.

The cliche would be to put it in Hollywood terms. It was like something out of a soap opera. Or Shakespeare. Or Game of Thrones (I think—I've never actually seen it.) A self-made, high-living, and ultimately beloved sports owner dies. His children squabble in sports pages and tabloids. Meanwhile, without its patriarch, the franchise slides into disarray. Then, in a theatrical, merciless act, one child finally assumes control and brings glory back to the family name (or not, it remains to be seen).

It's revealing that Buss speaks about judgment in terms of wins and losses, especially considering the fate of the Lakers in recent years. Four straight losing seasons, each, in some ways, more devastating than the last. The dismal end of Kobe Bryant's career; the awkward beginning of D'Angelo Russell's. Carlos Boozer. Byron Scott. Timofey Mozgov.

Things are different now, sure. The Lakers have Magic Johnson and Rob Pelinka calling the shots. Russell and Mozgov have been exiled to Brooklyn. Lonzo Ball will be running the point at Staples Center. The team even moved into a new practice facility. "You hear this cliche so many times," Buss told me. "Change in culture."

They are going to be fun to watch, or at least more fun to watch than last season. But they don't have a first round draft pick next year. They still have Luol Deng's contract. Their best player is probably Brook Lopez, a veteran who everybody thinks is gone after the season. There's a reason the front office was fined for tampering—their best path to contention is still to hit it big in free agency. The hope now is that they have become a more appealing destination.

And they should be a destination. Soap opera jokes aside, the Lakers are deeply woven into the fabric of Los Angeles, which means that so is the Buss family. The franchise is an actual, beloved, civic institution, with the kind of cache and credibility you can only develop over decades. People care about them, even if they can't afford to go to the games. True story: I was born in Los Angeles in 1986 into a family that liked sports, went to games, watched them on TV, and for years into my childhood I had no idea Los Angeles had a second basketball team. It was just the Lakers. And despite the last few years, it still is.

Imagine being in a position where you are apologizing to a city, not for firing your brother, but for not firing him quickly enough. I could not do that. Jeanie Buss could, and did. And it strikes me as fitting in with everything else Buss told me in our interview. I asked about whether the league was doing enough to expand the role of women on NBA coaching staffs and NBA front offices. She told me a story about watching Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs with her father. "This is going to change the world," she recalls her father saying, perfectly aware of the stakes of the event. But when it comes to actual changes in the composition of NBA front offices?

"It all comes down to winning. If you can win with a woman, then it will be a woman."

It takes a certain type of person, man or woman, to talk about judgment in terms of wins and losses, and then to fire your brother in their name. A confident person, to be sure. Maybe overconfident. A calculating, competitive person. No doubt about that. In this case, it also takes a person who was literally raised from childhood with the notion of one day running the NBA's most prominent and most compelling franchise; who sees her family business as not just a business run by her family, but rather an extension of her family, and an extension of herself.

The thing about the Lakers is that the brand is winning. This is true of the Yankees too. Success is literally what they are selling. When things are going good, then it works. When it doesn't, you find yourself looking longingly at the past. You find yourself hoping that Lonzo Ball is the next Magic Johnson, not necessarily the first Lonzo Ball.

You can be a profitable NBA franchise without being good. But can you be a proud one? Buss talked to me about the Lakers obligation to the city. She talked about her father's legacy, wrapped up in that civic obligation. "His story was that he made L.A. his home," she said. "What it means to be a Laker is that you only want to be a Laker," she said.

For the Lakers, the lines between family and basketball and business are blurry. It's what makes them fascinating, even when the on-court product isn't. But for Jeanie Buss, it isn't so complicated. The Lakers are an extension of herself. And when you run a basketball team, you're judged by how many games you win.

"To me it's simple, it's always do what's best for the Lakers first."

Jeanie Buss Will Do Anything to Make the Lakers Great Again published first on http://ift.tt/2pLTmlv

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movietvtechgeeks · 8 years ago

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Latest story from https://movietvtechgeeks.com/paul-georges-year-long-thunder-lakes-decision/

Paul George's year-long Thunder Lakes decision

After multiple weeks of speculation over the future of Indiana Pacers superstar Paul George, the Oklahoma City Thunder ended up making the move to acquire PG13 last week. Paul George will join Russell Westbrook and squad in exchange for Victor Oladipo and Domantas Sabonis. Under normal circumstances, the offer of Oladipo and Sabonis for a four-time All-Star in his prime would have warranted the Pacers hanging up on the Thunder. However, George announced that he would opt-out of his contract after next season in order to join the Los Angeles Lakers. Telling the Pacers and the rest of the league that you’re leaving for L.A. after next season doesn’t exactly increase your trade value. The Lakers tried to get George a year early, but they weren’t willing to give up much of anything for a player that is on the way there anyways. The Thunder, however, decided not to heed George’s warning. Now, we get to see how PG and reigning NBA MVP Russell Westbrook can work together in OKC. After the trade, George reached out to Westbrook and Golden State Warriors superstar Kevin Durant, who, of course, spent the start of his with Oklahoma. Durant had nothing but great things to say about the team he left behind. “KD was like, ‘That place will blow you away,’” said George on his conversation with Durant. “He told me, ‘They can offer what other teams can’t in terms of the people and the preparation and the facility, down to the chefs and the meals.’ He was pretty high on them. He thought it was a first-class organization in every way.” And while George’s exit from the Pacers is much less inflammatory than Durant’s exit last offseason from OKC, he knows that fans still won’t be overly happy to see their best player walk. He hopes that his fans and Pacers fans will come to understand that he did everything he could, but didn’t see a championship in the near future with Indiana. “There’s no right way to handle it,” said George of the departure. “I get the frustration. I get why people are upset. But at the same time, I want the average fan to understand that we only get a small window to play this game, and more than anything, you want to be able to play for a championship. I wanted to bring that to Indiana. I really did. I love Indiana. That will always be a special place for me, and I’m sorry for not holding on. But I wasn’t sure we’d ever get a team together to compete for a championship, and that’s where all this came from.” Paul George and the Indiana Pacers had their moment a few years back; however, they never managed to find a way past LeBron James and the Miami Heat. Now, the Pacers aren’t much of a threat in the Eastern Conference, and with the Cleveland Cavaliers (and LeBron James again) and the Boston Celtics sticking around at the top and only getting better, they don’t have much hope for the near future. But the Lakers prospects aren’t looking great either, especially with the Golden State Warriors in the Western Conference as well. Maybe George figures guys like Westbrook and Kevin Love might follow him. Now, George is saying, maybe for no other reason than to sell some jerseys and ensure support by the fans in Oklahoma City, that his desire to play for the Lakers has been overstated. In fact, he’s willing to resign with the Thunder…provided they can beat the Warriors. “I want to be in a good system, a good team. I want a shot to win it. I’m not a stats guy. I’m playing this game to win and build a legacy of winning. I’ve yet to do that. I’m searching for it. If we get a killer season in Oklahoma, we make the conference finals or upset the Warriors or do something crazy; I’d be dumb to want to leave that.” The Thunder seems like a better overall option than the Lakers, but as the organization proved while Durant was there, they aren’t overly ambitious in bringing in assistance. The Thunder were easily handled by James Harden and the Houston Rockets in the first round of the playoffs this past season, and with the addition of Chris Paul and possibly Carmelo Anthony, the Rockets aren’t going anywhere either. There’s no guarantee that PG and Westbrook will work well together. Westbrook is the star there, and he most likely won’t appreciate George coming in and encroaching on what could very likely be his last season in OKC. Taking down the Warriors is quite the task, especially during your first year with a team. If those conditions prove true, it sounds like the Lakers don’t have much to worry about.

Movie TV Tech Geeks News

#Featured #Los Angeles Lakers #NBA #Oklahoma City Thunder #Paul George

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trilotechcorp · 8 years ago

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New Post has been published on PBA-Live

New Post has been published on http://pba-live.com/lonzo-ball-and-magic-johnson-will-determine-the-lakers-future/

Lonzo Ball and Magic Johnson will determine the Lakers' future

LOS ANGELES — For months before the draft, Magic Johnson had been 80 percent sure the Los Angeles Lakers were going to select Lonzo Ball. In his gut, Johnson felt like Ball was special — that he had the “it” factor needed to revitalize his hometown team, which was in the lottery for a fourth consecutive year. A big point guard himself, Johnson saw similarities in the 6-foot-6 Ball and his stylish, unselfish approach to the game.

But Johnson also knew that his own reputation — and the Lakers’ hopes of a rebuild that would put them back in the conversation as a destination for elite free agents the following summer — were riding on making the correct call with Lonzo. He knew he had to meet Ball’s outspoken father, LaVar, and decide whether all the hoopla and hysteria Lavar brought was really worth dealing with.

So on the Friday before last month’s NBA draft, Johnson and Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka drove the hour and a half from Los Angeles to Chino Hills to see Lonzo — and LaVar — in their element.

For years, LaVar had waited for the Lakers to come calling about his eldest son. “I always felt it, that’s why my name is LaVar, LA-Var,” he says with a hearty laugh, delighting in the line he has just come up with. “It’s not ridiculous, it’s Ballicious!”

He laughs again. These lines, they just come to him now. He has been telling people Lonzo will be a Laker for 15 years, “speaking it into existence,” as he likes to say, and now it was about to come true.

“A lot of people don’t believe it because they’re like, ‘Man, how can LaVar have been so right all the time? It’s not fair,'” he says.

He’ll talk a big game (now that Lonzo is a Laker, he’s getting “I Told You So” T-shirts printed; they’ll soon be sold on the Big Baller Brand website). But when the Lakers came to his house, LaVar broke character — or caricature — and said the one thing professional hype masters never reveal.

“He just said it’s marketing,” Johnson says. “That’s what he had to do to market not only his son but the brand. Before I met him I had already thought that. I already knew what he was doing.”

But hearing it straight from LaVar’s mouth helped put Johnson and Pelinka at ease.

As Johnson recalls, “He said, ‘Earvin, look, I’m not following my son. I’m not going to be hanging out in L.A. I’m going to be training these young kids [his other sons].'”

“‘As far as training my boy, this is as far as I can take him,'” LaVar says he told Johnson. “‘I’ll leave it up to you to take him further. You can get him better with the film time and the coaching. You can take him to another level.'”

“I trust you with my boy. I just got a great feeling that you guys are going to take Zo to a whole other level.'”

It was the closing sales pitch the Lakers needed to hear. Less than a week later, they chose Lonzo No. 2 overall.

SO MUCH OF Lakers lore, the good part of it anyway, is about a kind of luck and the poetic license to call it “magic.”

The down years, the valleys between dynasties, are forgotten quickly once a new torchbearer comes along to light the way.

If Lonzo becomes that next face of the franchise, if he lives up to what his father has said he is, and what Johnson hopes he is, the next chapter of that Lakers lore will write itself.

If he doesn’t, they’ll have to tear it up and try again.

In so many ways, this is a story about faith — a father’s faith in himself and his sons and Johnson’s faith in his gut instinct on Lonzo, who will make his debut Friday afternoon at the Las Vegas Summer League. But most importantly, it’s about the Lakers’ renewed faith in their own exceptionalism.

The franchise has always had a special quality, with Hall of Famers such as Wilt Chamberlain, Jerry West and Elgin Baylor among their alumni. Then in 1979, the year Dr. Jerry Buss bought the team from Jack Kent Cooke, the Lakers won a coin flip to be in position to draft Johnson, a sophomore from Michigan State, No. 1 overall.

So many things had to line up for the Lakers to end up with the No. 1 pick in a year when a transcendent talent and showman like Johnson was available. First, they had to acquire that pick from New Orleans three years earlier, as payment for an aging Gail Goodrich. Then, Johnson had to stay in school an extra year to compete against Larry Bird of Indiana State in the NCAA tournament. New Orleans had to have a bad season and earn a high draft pick. Then, the Lakers had to win that coin flip with Chicago, the other last-place team.

And, of course, none of that would have even mattered had Magic not created a decade of winning for the Lakers, and a signature style — Showtime — that has defined the franchise and the city of Los Angeles ever since.

It was a remarkable series of events. As remarkable, if not more so, than the series of events that led Lonzo to be a Laker.

The question now is whether it will be as impactful.

The Lakers are back to dreaming big again — about Lonzo’s future, and about that of their franchise.

“You got a good young core [of players], who all are great,” Johnson says. “I think Lonzo will help to make them guys better. It’s going to be a fun team to watch. I think Laker fans will be happy.”

While the Lakers have been relatively quiet this offseason, Johnson says they’re just biding their time — and trying to position themselves as a destination for superstars again.

Next summer, L.A. natives Russell Westbrook and Paul George could both be free agents. Then there’s offseason L.A. resident LeBron James, who could be looking for a third act to his legacy. Of course, the Lakers’ previous regime had similarly grand designs, but Johnson seems confident he’ll have more magic to his pitch. “I think what’s really important, is that now free agents will say, ‘They got enough firepower now.’ I think that’s the key. We’re talented enough that free agents will say, ‘They got it going now.'”

If that sounds a little like speaking it into existence, well, so be it. Johnson’s future — and his legacy as an executive — is tied directly to Lonzo. This was his pick, in his first year leading the Lakers. And he was following his gut. So maybe it’s better to believe there was a little magic behind it.

“It’s just amazing that it has all happened, the way it happened,” Johnson says. “For [LaVar] to talk it into fruition. For him to even think it was a possibility. … And now the fact that I’m in my first year? It’s just amazing.”

LONZO BALL WAS born in 1997, one year after Magic played his final game. What he knows of the Showtime era comes mostly from his dad and watching ESPN’s recent 30 for 30 documentary on the Lakers-Celtics rivalry.

Those teams are mostly remembered for their exciting style of play and flashy lifestyle off the court. They were Hollywood and hedonism, with unstoppable no-look passes and skyhooks in between. History tends to ignore that those Showtime Lakers teams also played lockdown defense and were in incredible physical shape. Behind all that effortless Lakers cool was a fair amount of elbow grease.

But you sort of have to believe in the magic for it to happen — or at least appear to happen. Skepticism ruins the trick and wastes a lot of energy.

Lonzo learned that early, listening to his father’s belief in his ability to speak his destiny into existence. “When you live with someone that positive and that energetic, they can pitch you anything,” he says.

And frankly, when you live with someone as relentless as LaVar, it’s just not worth it to argue with him.

“Yeah,” Lonzo says with a laugh. “You’re not going to win, so you might as well go along.” Over the years Lonzo has developed a way of dealing with his father’s forceful personality. He’ll turn his music up and escape into his own universe. He’ll goof off with his younger brothers or friends who come over to the house to train. He’ll go over to his girlfriend’s house and hang out with her.

You get the sense he’s amused by all this, not resentful.

“It’s funny, especially how the media reacts,” Lonzo says. “I know what he’s going to say before he even says it. I could see it. Plus, we talk all the time, so I kind of get a good feel of what’s about to happen the next time a microphone goes in his face. I already know.”

After Lonzo was drafted, LaVar stole the headlines by guaranteeing the Lakers would make the playoffs in his first season, then tossing his purple and gold Big Baller hat into the crowd as he exited the Barclay’s Center to a chorus of boos.

“When he threw his hat, they were going crazy,” Lonzo says.

It was straight out of a WWE show. (“Speaking of that,” Lonzo says the day after the draft, when the comparison is made. “Wink wink. Stay tuned.” Sure enough, three days later, LaVar was at Staples Center at WWE’s “Monday Night Raw,” ripping off his shirt, staring down The Miz and working the microphone like he was a regular cast member. The Lakers watched, laughed and cringed all the way through, knowing this is how it’s going to be.) Told that it seems like his dad is kind of enjoying this spotlight, Lonzo smiles and says, “Kinda? He definitely is.”

If there’s any question as to whether Lonzo is aware of how well his father has been the tail wagging the dog this past year, it was answered in a memorable Foot Locker commercial poking fun at his father’s domineering ways, which was released right before the draft.

Lonzo says he never consulted with his father before shooting the ad, which featured several draft picks honoring their dads for Father’s Day. He read the script, thought it was funny and later sat with his father as he watched it live for the first time.

“My dad saw it when it aired,” Lonzo says. “He saw it and just started laughing. He was like, ‘Well, you didn’t lie.'”

ULTIMATELY, THOUGH, THIS isn’t about magic or marketing. It’s about whether Lonzo can play.

If Lonzo lives up to the faith the Lakers have shown in him — a tough proposition for any rookie, let alone a 19-year-old area native in his big-time hometown market — everything else they’re dreaming of is possible — the superstars next summer, the return of Showtime, all of it.

If he doesn’t, a lot more than their faith in him and Lakers exceptionalism will erode.

Lonzo seems fully aware of what’s riding on him.

“That’s what it comes with. When you’re that high of a pick, they’re invested in you,” he says. “If you don’t want to have a lot of stuff put on you, I guess don’t be a high pick.”

The Lakers will get their first glimpse of him on the court this week in Vegas, and while it’s far from the type of spotlight and stage he’ll experience once the real games begin, it’s going to be one of the most anticipated summer league debuts in years. Lonzo says he can’t wait.

“I just want to play,” he says on the day after the draft. “I haven’t played in a long time. I think I’m in shape. If there’s a game tomorrow, I’ll play.”

Off the court, he has handled everything the NBA and the Lakers could throw at him. Lonzo moved through the endless media responsibilities of his first days as a Laker with little wasted motion, giving short answers that convey confidence but little else.

He arrived at his introductory media conference on barely more than 45 minutes of sleep, having stayed up until 4 a.m. after the draft because his younger brother LaMelo kept him up on their flight back to LA. But he seemed energetic and accommodating to question after question.

“I’m fine,” he joked during a lull in the action. “Just need to keep eating sugar.”

Lakers controlling owner Jeanie Buss handed him a bag of Sour Patch Kids during their visit. He found some cherry gummy snacks in the green room at Spectrum SportsNet, where he taped a special interview with the Lakers’ TV network. At the Dodgers game, where he was throwing out the first pitch, he found some Cinnamon Toast Crunch in the clubhouse.

“I’ve stayed up a couple days, but not like this,” he says. The closest he has come was a weekend at UCLA when he binge-watched the MTV series, “Teen Wolf.”

“I had to catch up on my episodes,” he says. “And we had the weekend off from practice, so I just stayed up.”

AFTER THE DRAFT, LaVar Ball didn’t go to the Dodgers game to continue basking in Los Angeles’ hopes and dreams for Lonzo and the Lakers. After the introductory media conference, he did what he told the Lakers he would do: He stepped out of the spotlight.

LaVar drove back home to Chino Hills to take care of his wife, Tina Ball. She still has a long ways to go in her recovery from a stroke this spring. But she’s home now, and LaVar says she was doing well, recovering from another surgery while Lonzo and his dad and brothers were in New York for the draft.

“They put that last little cranial part back in her head so she doesn’t have that dent now,” LaVar says. “It’s not scary. It’s going to get done. She knows what’s going on. All I got to do is smile and wink at her and she knows.”

Lonzo says his mother knows he has been drafted by the Lakers but can’t talk or communicate yet.

Her fingernails are painted purple and gold — and have been even since before he left for the draft in New York.

It’s not something any of them talk about publicly, even though her condition is always on their minds. Johnson and Pelinka got to meet her when they visited the family house, and they both said it was touching to see how they cared for her.

“Anybody would do the same for their family,” LaVar says.

But it’s still hard to process what’s happening with Tina compared with the rest of her family. She was in the hospital recovering from surgery on her skull the same night her eldest son was being drafted No. 2 overall by the Lakers?

It’s incredible how everything has come together just as LaVar said it would, but it’s hard to forget that Tina wasn’t there to enjoy it. Pain and joy, fear and hope, all in the same moment.

Lonzo Ball exists in two worlds right now.

So much joy at a dream fulfilled. So much real-life sadness and pain to deal with.

So many hopes riding on him. So much faith already bestowed upon him.

“That’s how it’s supposed to be,” he says.

Source: http://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/page/presents-19753943/los-angeles-lakers-looking-new-face-franchise-lonzo-ball

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