Magic Johnson Says 'Showtime' Lakers Would Beat the Golden State Warriors
Los Angeles Lakers legend Magic Johnson, who was the catalyst for the franchise's "Showtime" heyday, believes his best team could defeat the current Golden State Warriors squad.
Johnson tweeted on Tuesday, "I disagree with Mychal Thompson and his son Klay, my 'Showtime' Lakers would beat the Warriors."
A five-time NBA champion and three-time NBA Finals MVP, Johnson certainly has the accolades to back up his words. He went on at greater length on ESPN's First Take on Tuesday, explaining how Golden State would have serious matchup issues against his Lakers (via ESPN.com news services):
"We've never seen two guys who can shoot like Steph [Curry] and Klay, and I give them that. But they've never ran up against somebody like us. I'm telling you, whoever is going to dog me, I'm going to be wearing them down. I'm going to be wearing them out. James Worthy will be wearing them out, wearing them down. Kareem [Abdul-Jabbar] is going to be wearing them out, wearing them down. ...
... The Warriors would have bad matchups against us. There's no way they're going to deal with Kareem. There's no way they're going to deal with James Worthy. The thing that we could do, that would affect them and cause some problems, is that we could set up and we could run on them on the fast break.
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Johnson was responding to Warriors guard Klay Thompson, who told reporters that his team is "better than the 'Showtime' Lakers."
Teammate Draymond Green, however, downplayed the comparison, saying: "I think it's all subjective. To say we're better than the 'Showtime' Lakers, how can you say that? We never played them."
On Monday, Klay's dad, Mychal, who played with Magic, agreed with his son. "Two things make me think they would beat us. Their defense—their team defense—is as good as ours was. They really play great team defense," he said, according to USA Today (via Yahoo Sports).
Pro basketball rules led to a more physical style of play in Johnson's prime, so he may have a point with regard to wearing out Golden State with tenacity. As Johnson said, though, Stephen Curry and Thompson would have the ability to neutralize that with their epic three-point shooting prowess.
Most of what Johnson focused on was his competitive fire to explain why his team would prevail.
"I'm never going to give in to nobody—I don't care who it is. I don't care what Mychal said. ... My 'Showtime' Lakers would beat the Warriors," Johnson said (via ESPN.com). "I don't care what you say or anybody else. I'm coming at them, and I'm coming hard at them."
The Warriors currently hold a 2-0 series lead in the NBA Finals over the Cleveland Cavaliers. They are only two wins away from repeating as NBA champions and capping off an epic year that featured a record 73 wins in the regular season.
NBA TV analyst Vinny Del Negro came out to support Johnson's position:
It's hard to argue with Golden State's results from the 2015-16 campaign, though. The entire league was targeting the Warriors as the reigning Larry O'Brien Trophy bearers, yet they raised their game—and surmounted a 3-1 Western Conference Finals series deficit to defeat the Oklahoma City Thunder.
James Worthy is a similar game-changing force to Green, who has a nasty streak of his own. That one-on-one matchup would've been among the most fascinating to watch.
Then there's the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar factor, which would probably work in L.A.'s favor. He is the NBA's all-time leading scorer, and even a stable of strong interior defenders in Andrew Bogut and Festus Ezeli would be hard-pressed to stop his signature skyhook shot.
The X-factor duel would likely be Johnson himself going up against Curry. They are vastly different players—Johnson was much taller and a far more frequent distributor, whereas Curry is a scoring machine who can also create off the dribble and find open teammates.
