Live Bar, January 6th recently, former Lakers basketball operation president magician Johnson participated in The program “All The Smoke” and talked about The process of recruiting stars for The Lakers at that time.
When talking about recruiting James, he said, “I persuaded James to sign the contract, and the dialogue between us was very good at that time.”
“When I took over the Lakers, I saw that James would become a free agent in two years. But at that time, our salary had already exceeded the cap, so I made several transactions to free up the salary space. When I met his agent, I knew what he wanted. I know he wants to win, I know he can live in Los Angeles, where he can live freely and wander around. He can live the life he wants here. He cannot live in Cleveland or Miami all the time.”
“There are so many celebrities living here in Los Angeles that he can integrate well into the life here. So I told him that there was no doubt that I would form a championship team here. He can also build his 1 billion-level business empire here.”
“I told him the plan after I signed him, and he praised it. At that time, my goal was Leonard, because he was a free agent next season and Davis had not applied for a deal. So I told James at that time that I would sign you, and then I would sign Leonard the next year.”