Magic Johnson Paved the Way for LeBron James More Than You Think

Where LeBron James winds up is anyone's guess, but the betting man's pick in Las Vegas, at least, is that James goes to Los Angeles.

The tea leaves are there that link James to the city. He has a residence in Los Angeles. His production company is located there as well. He has—according to Gary Payton—been eyeing Chatsworth's Sierra Canyon, a school known to attract both celebrity and basketball talents in equal measure, as a potential fit for his oldest son, Bronny. LeBron has allegedly exchanged text messages with Kevin Durant about joining the Lakers. He has also spoken with Kawhi Leonard, who has been eyeing Los Angeles too.

And then there is LeBron's connection to the city's adopted son, Lakers president of basketball operations Magic Johnson. The two have been compared since LeBron's teen years: tall, talented passers who can run the break just as easily as they own the post. They have exchanged compliments over the years. Since Johnson joined the Lakers front office, he began working to create enough salary-cap flexibility to potentially extend two maximum contracts, one of which could be earmarked for James.

But the Johnson and James connection goes deeper than playing style or even their relationship. One has paved the way for the other. James' decision now—Decision 3.0—and the era of player agency he has ushered in is a direct descendant of a move toward player empowerment that Johnson helped push in Los Angeles.

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It was 1981 when Johnson officially became a Laker for life. The contract—$25 million for 25 years, beginning in 1984 and expiring in 2009—also included, according to team owner Dr. Jerry Buss, a promise to bring Johnson onboard as part of the front office.

"He may even be my coach," Dr. Buss said at the time, via the New York Times. "Or general manager. Or maybe he'll run the team and I'll just sit back and watch. Magic is a bright kid and I plan to make him my protégé, teach him the business aspect of sports. I realize this is a very unusual contract because we're talking about a kid whose college class just graduated. But what it comes down to is Magic is part of the family."

GENE PUSHKAR/Associated Press

Magic wasn't always sold on staying in L.A., though.

As Jeff Pearlman reported in Showtime: Magic, Kareem, Riley, and the Los Angeles Lakers Dynasty of the 1980s, one night at Jerry Buss' house changed it all. That evening, Johnson admitted to Dr. Buss' daughter, Jeanie, that he planned to play for the Lakers for three years before finishing his career close to home with the Detroit Pistons. Horrified, Jeanie relayed Johnson's plans to her father. "Jeanie," Dr. Buss said. "You have nothing to worry about … he's never going to want to leave."

Johnson cared about building his legacy at an early age. He wanted long-term financial security. (There were no caps on contract durations at the time.) He wanted to be set after basketball. But what also mattered was that he had enough talent to get all of that, and the savvy to leverage that talent.

"I think my dad wanted to lock into a sure thing, and Magic was the sure thing," Jeanie recalled recently to B/R. "He knew that Magic was the greatest, what he meant to the franchise, what he meant to the city. And my dad knew how to value an asset correctly, and that's what he felt the value was to him. And of course it was unheard of and unprecedented, and it really made people think and sit up and pay attention. My dad always had a flair for the dramatic or creating something that people would talk about."

It was a watershed moment for player contracts. "All of us NBA players had the same reaction: 'Wow!'" Mychal Thompson, Johnson's former teammate, said. "That was an incredible amount of money … I would compare that today to someone signing a $1 billion, 10-year contract."

Thompson recalled the reaction of most of his NBA peers.

"I would imagine most of us, 90 percent of us, were envious of Magic and the position and security that he got from this organization," Thompson said. "We all knew how much the Lakers appreciated him, Dr. Buss appreciated him. So that didn't surprise us that Dr. Buss took special care of him, because we knew they had a special relationship, but all of us players were envious of him. Not jealous of him, just envious of him."

After talks of Johnson's megasized contract broke, some Lakers players questioned whether they should consider Johnson a teammate or management. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar asked to be traded, but he reeled in the request after meeting with Dr. Buss.

"Earvin, immediately when he heard the players sort of talking about that, he said, 'Look, forget about the contract. I won't sign it,'" said Lon Rosen, who worked with the Lakers at the time and later became Johnson's agent. "Then, he got together with Kareem and others, and they understood what was going on. It was really just a way for the Lakers and Jerry Buss to make sure that Earvin was signed for forever and ever and ever. He was their marquee player."

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When James was drafted by the Cavaliers in 2003, many hoped he would become a Cavalier for life. But that hasn't been the case. James has twice entered free agency, changing organizations both times. In 2010, he united with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh in Miami, where the Heat won two championships.

"I made the move in 2010 to be able to play with talented players, cerebral players that you could see things that happen before they happened on the floor, and your teammate can do the same throughout the course of a season, throughout the course of a game, throughout the course of a playoffs, throughout the course of a Finals," James said during the 2018 Finals.

He returned to Cleveland in 2014 hoping to end the city's 52-year championship drought. "I came back because I felt like I had some unfinished business," he said.

The Cavs brought home a championship in 2016.

Ezra Shaw/Getty Images

Perhaps if (or when) they talk, Johnson can tell LeBron about his cultivation of a close relationship with Dr. Buss.

The relationship between Johnson and Dr. Buss stands in stark contrast to that of James and Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert. Johnson and Dr. Buss built a relationship that lasted decades. The day Dr. Buss died in 2013, Johnson told Bill Plaschke of the Los Angeles Times that, "Without Dr. Jerry Buss, there is no Magic."

In sharp contrast to that, James and Gilbert have never been close, instead maintaining a famously tenuous relationship.

James is in search of a blend between business and personal, a home that best suits his family and where he can compete for championships. Johnson can offer that in Los Angeles, a city James and his family are accustomed to, to go along with an organization with a moldable roster.

Some of what Johnson got then, James is aiming for now. There are some differences to be sure: He's at a different point in his career, as well as at a different point in his life than Johnson was.

"The one thing that I've always done is considered, obviously, my family," James said recently. "Understanding especially where my boys are at this point in their age. They were a lot younger the last time I made a decision like this four years ago. I've got a teenage boy, a preteen and a little girl that wasn't around as well."

Like Dr. Buss envisioned shortly after agreeing to the 25-year deal, Johnson is now making the team's basketball decisions. And while he may not be able to offer James quite as long of a deal, he might know the right words to say to James, superstar to superstar, in hopes of striking another contract that could change the franchise's fortunes.

"It was so unheard of at that time that people would stop me and ask me to explain it, like how it is possible, how can you do that [type of deal]?" Jeanie Buss said. "It was the most satisfying deal my dad ever made, because he knew what the value of Magic was to this team. It ensured that the greatest player of his generation would be forever tied to this franchise, and here we are today."

Jonathan Abrams is a senior writer for B/R Mag. A former staff writer at Grantland and sports reporter at the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times, Abrams is also the best-selling author of All the Pieces Matter: The Inside Story of The Wire—available right here, right now. Follow him on Twitter: @jpdabrams