Jeanie Buss Breaks Silence on Lakers and Backs Rob Pelinka

The Los Angeles Lakers will enter the next season without Magic Johnson. He resigned from his position in the front office, and accused Rob Pelinka of backstabbing him. Well, Lakers owner Jeanie Buss backs Pelinka in this case.

Buss trusts Pelinka regardless of what media members say. She talked about Tyronn Lue, Johnson, Pelinka and the Anthony Davis trade.

“I’ve always had confidence in Rob, whatever the speculation is out there,” Buss said as reported by Tania Ganguli of the Los Angeles Times. “We don’t need outside media to validate the things that we do. I’m very happy and I think we’re on the right path.”

Jeanie Buss breaks her silence on the Lakers, and says she has 100% confidence in general manager Rob Pelinka. “We don’t need outside media to validate the things that we do.” https://t.co/iH8d3O14qV

— Tania Ganguli (@taniaganguli) June 25, 2019

Johnson’s resignation surprised her. She didn’t see it coming.

“It was a surprise when Magic turned in his resignation. I didn’t see that coming. But everything else has been pretty much as any organization moves forward and changes going into a new season. So as much as has been speculated as to what the Lakers are doing, to me, we are in a really good place and we are following our path, and our plan, going into the next season.”

When it comes to Pelinka, Buss trusts him a lot.

“I have 100% confidence in him in running his basketball operations,” she said, per the Los Angeles Times. “He’s brought us a great new head coach in Frank Vogel, whose teams have had a lot of success in the playoffs and who have played consistently ranking high in defense, which means not only does he emphasize defense but the players buy into his defensive schemes.”

The Lakers owner was at the awards to support Magic Johnson receiving the Lifetime Achievement Award. When asked about Johnson’s comments on Pelinka’s betrayal, Buss had a nice answer.

“I can’t really anticipate what he thinks. He has to answer those questions. He’s always full of surprises. Like as surprising as it was, it kind of reminded me of back in 1981 when he asked to be traded after winning a championship with the Lakers because he wasn’t happy with the way the offense had changed. And that led us to getting Pat Riley as our head coach.

“So he’s got good instincts. He’s got to stay true to who he is and do what is right for him. I wish I would’ve had a little bit more notice, but I think we are going to be just fine.

Going back to the top is a priority for the front office at the moment.

“There’s the gold standard, and then there’s the purple-and-gold standard,” Buss said, per ESPN. “Certainly, we are going to do everything we can to get the best players possible and to get the Lakers back to consistently be at that level. But we got a ways to go, and I think we are [heading] in the right direction, but at the end of the day, we will be judged by our wins and losses.

“The goal has always been to get back into the playoffs.”