Magic Johnson, Lakers Won’t Reunite Under Mark Walter

Mark Walter’s Lakers cabinet won’t include a reunion with one of its most famous players. 

Magic Johnson, the legendary Laker and Dodgers co-owner who is a founding member of Walter’s Guggenheim Baseball Management, will not have a daily role inside his former team, according to the Lakers newly appointed president of business operations Lon Rosen. 

“Earvin’s involved with all types of things,” Rosen told reporters Tuesday. “He owns football teams, baseball teams, soccer teams, insurance companies, a lot of things. He’s always gonna have some type of involvement with all the teams, but he is not gonna have a day-to-day involvement,” Rosen said. “It’s gonna be no different since he left the Lakers. Obviously he’s a huge fan of the Lakers, but he’s not gonna be, ‘Hey Rob go sign this player. Do that.’ He’ll always be involved with all the teams that he’s involved in, but no, he’s not gonna have day-to-day involvement at all.”

Walter, who took control of the Lakers from the Buss family in October after a deal that valued the team at a record $10 billion, recently brought Rosen over from the Dodgers. Rosen had been the Dodgers executive vice president and chief marketing officer since Walter bought the franchise in 2012, and was Johnson’s longtime agent before that. 

Johnson served as the Lakers president of basketball operations from 2017–19 and assisted on signing LeBron James in the summer of 2018. He notoriously resigned in front of reporters in April 2019 before telling team governor Jeanie Buss he was doing so. Shortly after, Johnson went on ESPN’s “First Take” and thanked Buss, but described GM Rob Pelinka as “backstabbing.” The two have since reconciled, and Pelinka is now both GM and president of basketball operations. 

Since Walters took over the team, Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman and team advisor Farhan Zaidi have served as advisors to the Lakers front office. 

“Rob’s empowered to do what he does,” Rosen said, adding that Friedman and Zaidi “have involvement helping Rob a bit. It gives you a deeper bench, and I think Rob appreciates that. And it is unique. But they have a skill set that they can transfer some of it here. And that’s really how we look at it.”

Walter helped turn the Dodgers into three-time World Series champions by expanding the team’s front office and outspending other teams. The NBA has a salary cap, unlike the MLB, but he plans to do the same with the Lakers front office this coming offseason. A league source told Front Office Sports the Lakers have been “business as usual” under Walter’s regime partially because his changes have yet to go into effect. 

Rosen also talked about season ticket prices, which are set to increase ahead of next season. A longtime season ticket holder told ESPN their tickets increased nearly 46% from roughly $6,200 to more than $9,000.

“We hope they renew,” Rosen said. “And obviously it reflects on what the market is now and the demand for tickets. You can look at how tickets sell and what the prices are. You look at primary and secondary market and you can see where their demand is.”