It's a little impenetrable, but in the Chicago Sports Review D.K. Wilson (also known as DWil of the blog Sports On My Mind) makes an impassioned and detailed case that Earvin "Magic "Johnson, as an emissary of Jerry Buss, has been an anonymous source of a lot of media negativity about Kobe Bryant.
The case is circumstantial at best, which makes a tough situation for me. Do I blog about that? I respect the Chicago Sports Review, and I am glad publications like that are turning to bloggers as sources of meaningful fresh perspective.
But this story was blatantly speculative and lacking things like sources or real evidence.
Someone closer to the story would have to weigh in.
I emailed the story to Mark Heisler of the Los Angeles Times.
His response was not encouraging. It started with "it took me a while to get through this piece, because I kept falling down laughing."
Heisler addresses the notion that Johnson was the key source in various anti-Bryant angles that have played out in Laker stories:
There is no single source. We -- by which I mean the L.A. writers around this team -- talk to a lot of people. This isn't the Kremlin or the Knicks.
If you're wondering who kept the buzz going about Kobe being traded, I assume that was his agent, Rob Pelinka. I know Pelinka was involved in talks with GMs like John Paxson, proposing packages, one more far-fetched after another.
My paper hasn't been getting stuff from Rob so we haven't had any of this -- which is good because it was all exploratory, to say the least, and nothing was close to happening.
Wilson also talks at length about how an anonymous source -- again, presumably Johnson -- must be behind stories about Andrew Bynum's importance to the franchise:
There was another name constantly brought up in conversation by "someone" in the Lakers organization who had enough pull to tell NBA writers that he was off-limits and would not be a part of any trades involving Kobe Bryant. That player was Andrew Bynum. Howls from the press arose with the news that Bynum was such a precious commodity to the Lakers franchise that he would not be traded under any circumstances.
How could a yet unproven player who was beginning to be seen as a bust be a stumbling block to completing a trade for Bryant? Who in the Lakers organization was so inept that he or she would allow such a thing?
Jim Buss, the owner's son, was and is the first name off NBA insiders' lips when the subject of Bynum is broached. For his part Jim Buss has said little about the situation, but he certainly has never said that Bynum cannot be traded. So it must be that the "someone" responsible for all the behind the scenes talk is the person in the ear of the Buss family telling them that, with patience, Bynum is the future of the franchise; that ultimately the LA Lakers can be rebuilt around the barely 20-year-old center.
Heisler responds:
Why would anyone think someone would have to tell us the Lakers didn't want to trade Andrew Bynum?
Bynum's been here for two years. We've seen him. He's seven feet tall and growing, has great touch and footwork and has made quantum jumps after each of his first two seasons.
There are, indeed, a lot of people who think he's just an OK prospect. They either haven't seen him enough or wouldn't be able to tell if they did.
By the way, Bynum wasn't untouchable. The Lakers offered him with Lamar Odom to Minneapolis for Kevin Garnett.
Wilson also identifies Stephen A. Smith's reporting about Kobe Bryant as some that may have been inspired by Johnson. Heisler can't imagine that's the case:
Stephen A. is tight with Kobe. If Stephen A. said something about Kobe, my assumption is he got it from Kobe.
Heisler finds fault with many other aspects of the story -- including the truly bizarro section where Wilson makes the case that Johnson is clearly a media darling, as proven by the fact that he is still considered a hero even after contracting HIV. (Memo to Wilson: staring death in the face without flinching is at the center of many, if not most, stories of heroism.)
In closing, Heisler -- who covers the Lakers every day -- implies that Magic Johnson is certainly not a key source in his own work:
I wish Magic was an emissary. I love him, but he hasn't returned a phone call in 10 years. To sit down with him. ... I don't know what you'd have to do ... I haven't since he retired, went into business, and got so busy.
