With the arrival of LeBron James to the Los Angeles Lakers this past summer, expectations quickly soared for the franchise. It was considered a major victory for Magic Johnson and Rob Pelinka. Fans were speaking about a championship in 2019, even though the mighty Warriors still exist. Unfortunately, a losing record was on the menu for the first bunch of games in the Lakers' season and that led to recent tension between Magic and head coach Luke Walton.

Magic goes off on Luke Walton

Reports from a variety of sources, including the L.A. Times, suggest that Magic Johnson was not pleased with coach Luke Walton.

In fact, the report indicates Magic was shouting and cursing at Walton, asking what sort of offense he has in place. Basically, the guy who used to run "Showtime" in Los Angeles was looking for Walton to get things turned around for the team.

That meeting took place after the Los Angeles Lakers had lost again and were sitting at 2-5 for the season. Since then, the team has won two straight games and they're 4-5. One more game and they'll hit the .500 level. It seems, for the moment, that things may be a bit better in Los Angeles, but the recent meeting shows how Walton's job may have been in jeopardy if the losses pile up.

LeBron's thoughts about Magic vs Walton

On Sunday morning (November 4), ESPN's Dave McMenamin reported on the situation from this past week.

ESPN collected comments from LeBron, ahead of the Lakers' game in Portland. Los Angeles defeated the Trail Blazers, 114-110, to pick up their fourth win. LeBron James was among the top NBA stars from Saturday night (November 3), in that game, scoring 28 points in the win.

Ahead of the big Los Angeles Lakers' victory, reporters were getting comments from LeBron about Magic's tense meeting with Walton.

LeBron James told the media, "It doesn't bother me at all because I don't pay attention to it, I don't listen to it."

LeBron said that the situation doesn't really get to him, ever. He mentioned that the focus for himself and the team is "string together some great games or even good games" in order to boost the team's win total.

Two in a row has been achieved, so Lakers fans are hoping that the meeting may have kickstarted that string of victories.

Lakers and Walton outlook

Unfortunately, the Lakers' next matchup was a bit tougher. Despite being a home game, the team was slated to host one of the best teams in the Eastern Conference, with Kawhi Leonard and the Toronto Raptors. That will certainly be one of the early measuring sticks for this new look Lakers team.

Moving forward, the team has the potential based on what they have shown. They also have a lot to work on. They've seemed to move past the big fight from the Houston game, involving Chris Paul and Rajon Rondo. As of right now, it seems that Luke Walton's job is safe, but should he not produce better results, that could easily change with Magic looking to bring that winning tradition back to L.A.
© ALL RIGHTS RESERVED