Magic Johnson And His Twitter Account Are No Longer (Unofficially) Affiliated With The Lakers

Magic Johnson will always be a face of the Los Angeles Lakers. Due to his hyper-active social media presence, though, the Hall of Famer is no longer an unofficial member of the purple and gold’s front office.

On Saturday night, Los Angeles released a statement on its website announcing that Johnson asked management to strip him of the honorary role as team Vice President.

The Los Angeles Lakers have announced today that Hall of Famer Earvin “Magic” Johnson has asked the team to eliminate his honorary title of Vice President, and to remove his name from the team staff directory in publications and other sources.

The change is being made in hopes of clarifying any confusion over Johnson’s involvement with or representation of the team.

“Earvin will always be a revered and beloved member of the Lakers family, but he does not have a position or role with the organization at this time,” said team spokesman John Black. “He is not an advisor or a consultant, and his opinions, comments and social media posts are solely his, and do not represent or reflect those of Lakers ownership or management. Hopefully this will eliminate any confusion over this issue in the future.”

Though he’s a regular attendee at Staples Center home games and makes frequent public appearances on behalf of the team with which he won five championships in the 1980s, Johnson hasn’t held an official role with Los Angeles in over half a decade. He sold his ownership stake with the Lakers in 2010.

Due to his status as an organizational figurehead, though, it’s been easy to misconstrue Johnson’s official involvement with the NBA’s glamour franchise – especially since his Twitter account became a must-follow for basketball fans. Tweets like these, for instance, would count as tampering under league rules if the three-time Finals MVP was actually the team’s VP.

Due to this new and mostly meaningless development, Johnson’s Twitter account will mostly be relegated to a form of unintentional comedy going forward. And fortunately, it is sure to continue providing consistent entertainment in that regard.

(Lakers)