Never one to shy away from giving his opinion on his beloved Los Angeles Lakers, Earvin “Magic” Johnson’s Twitter feed had gone uncharacteristically silent after his team hired new head coach Mike D’Antoni late Sunday night.
The team received criticism from the sports blogosphere for choosing D’Antoni over former coach Phil Jackson, who was reportedly in discussions to coach the team until the eleventh hour.
Let’s just say Magic was among the critics.
He ‘re-emerged’ on Twitter Wednesday, blaming his ‘tweet drought’ on the Lakers head coaching choice.
The reason I haven't tweeted in 2 days is because I've been mourning Phil Jackson not being hired as the Lakers head coach.
— Earvin Magic Johnson (@MagicJohnson) November 14, 2012
The tweet has already garnered more than 2,300 retweets as of this posting. Few ex-Lakers remain as high profile today as Magic’s been since retiring from the NBA for good in 1996.
Simply put, his opinions – via social media or his role as analyst on ESPN on ABC’s “NBA Countdown” – matter. In May during last season’s playoffs, Magic boldly predicted Brown would be fired if the Lakers didn’t win game seven of their first round series with the Denver Nuggets. (The Lakers won the series 4-3, before falling to the eventual Western Conference champion Oklahoma City Thunder in five games the following round)
“The Lakers are about championships,” Johnson said on his ESPN show. “That’s what the Lakers are about. If they lose the game, Mike Brown, I bet you, will not be sitting there.”
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Mike Brown wasn’t fired then. He was fired just two weeks into this season after the Lakers dropped four of their first five games. For now, it doesn’t appear their hiring of D’Antoni will ease Magic’s pain – but he’s certainly back to tweeting again.
For good measure, the five-time NBA champion followed up his “mourning” tweet with a lesson his mother (and many mothers for that matter) taught him since he was younger:
My mother always taught me that if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all.
— Earvin Magic Johnson (@MagicJohnson) November 14, 2012
Well played Magic – well played.
Follow theGrio’s Todd Johnson on Twitter @rantoddj