Magic Johnson wanted to avoid losing up to $10 million while trying to recruit LeBron James, so he waited patiently outside his house.
Magic Johnson separated himself from the superstars of his day with his business acumen and sensitivity to the inner workings of NBA teams. His constant investments led him to amass a net worth of more than $600 million despite not having played professional NBA basketball in 1996. Now it’s clear how the Magic managed to do it.
Over a 15-year period between 1995 and 2010, Magic Johnson let his stake in the Los Angeles Lakers grow from a “miserable” $10 million (4.5% of the Lakers in ’95) to almost $50 million in 2010. Then would go on to sell this stake. This would be a major step in Johnson’s ascension to the purple and gold front office.
Fast-forward to February 2017 and Johnson was named the Lakers’ president of basketball operations. His biggest move as president would be the recruitment of none other than LeBron James in Los Angeles in the summer of 2018.
However, as team official, Magic had to tread carefully when entering into conversations with players who were still under contract, such as James.
Also read: Michael Jordan, who lost 1.2 million dollars playing golf, did not let Magic Johnson sleep until he beat him in poker
Magic Johnson waited in his car for an hour to talk to LeBron James.
If there’s one person in the Lakers organization who could get a player like LeBron James out of his home state, it would be Magic Johnson. This was the case in the 2018 offseason when he was tasked with doing the same.
Clearly, he was successful as James is now coming into his 5.the year with the team, a longer tenure than his second stint with the Cleveland Cavaliers. However, during that summer, Johnson had to be very careful about having conversations with LeBron and his team for fear of getting fined for handling.
So to avoid this, Magic admitted to having to wait in James’s driveway for an hour before free agency began at 9:01 p.m. While this may seem like a stretch, tampering fines shouldn’t be taken lightly.
magic johnson said @SpectrumSN he arrived an hour early for his 9:01 p.m. meeting with LeBron on June 30 in Los Angeles.
“I was going to sit outside for an hour until it was my time to go up to his house,” Johnson said.
—Mike Bresnahan (@Mike_Bresnahan) July 10, 2018
Then-Lakers vice president Rob Pelinka was fined $500,000 after having a dialogue with Paul George and his team in 2017 when he was still under contract with the Indiana Pacers. Daryl Morey was fined $75,000 for simply tweeting “Join ‘Em” at Steph Curry many years ago.
The maximum fine that can be imposed on a team member is $10,000,000 and it is clear that Magic Johnson did not want to be a part of receiving such an outrageous amount.
Also read: Jerry West, who publicly lashed out at Jeanie Buss, asked Magic Johnson for $620 million for being too critical
