LeBron James Found It ‘Weird’ Magic Johnson Resigned Without Giving Him A Heads Up

While the Houston Rockets and the Golden State Warriors faced off in an epic Game 3 on Saturday night, the latest episode of The Shop aired on HBO. The latest edition of the show, which stars LeBron James and Maverick Carter (both of whom serve as executive producers, too), featured a conversation regarding Magic Johnson’s stunning resignation from his role within the Los Angeles Lakers’ front office.

Back when Johnson left his job as the team’s president of basketball operations, much was made of the fact that no one in Los Angeles had any idea he made that decision. This included James, and as he explained on the show, he found Johnson’s decision to call it quits without telling anyone “weird.”

“Between my stretching session, my right hand came to me and said, ‘Magic just stepped down,'” James recalled. “I’m like, ‘Man, get the f*ck out my face, you’re bullsh*tting.’ I go check my phone, I look at it, this sh*t happened. Personally, for me, I came here to be a part of the Lakers organization having a conversation with Magic. So it was just weird for him to just be like, ‘I’m out of here,’ and not even have no, like, ‘Hey, Bron, kiss my ass, I’m gone.'”

James wasn’t the only Lakers player who got the chance to explain what happened that evening. Lonzo Ball also appeared on The Shop, revealing that James was the one who told him what happened with Johnson. After James walked through everything from his perspective, Ball brought a little bit of levity to the situation.

“It was different for me,” Ball said. “Like, I was like, ‘That sh*t crazy.’ Then I took a minute, and I was like, ‘Yo Kuz, what we doing tonight?'”

Still, in retrospect, it is really odd that James never got a heads up. As he mentioned, Johnson got him to come to Los Angeles by going to his house at midnight at the onset of free agency and selling him on wearing the purple and gold, and there was obviously a personal and professional respect between the two.