Los Angeles Lakers: Magic Johnson’s best moves of the 2018 offseason

1. Signing LeBron James

When a single move changes the landscape of the NBA, it’s worth topping these types of lists. That’s exactly what the signing of LeBron did. Magic deserves much of the credit for bringing the Lakers back to relevance essentially overnight with this move.

In fact, it was Magic’s meeting with James a minute into free agency that sealed the deal. The two would go on to “talk basketball, talk strategy, talk winning, talk team, and talk players,” providing LeBron with all of the information he needed to give his commitment to the Lakers about 17 hours later.

Now there have been plenty of skeptics who have since claimed that James had already made up his mind to join the Lakers. The reasoning behind it was that, put simply, he wanted to be in Los Angeles. With business opportunities aplenty, LeBron knew his desired destination — he just needed an offer to help get him there.

Whatever way you want to spin it, the only thing that matters is that the King is now in Hollywood. Johnson helped turn what seemed like a pipe dream into a reality. Things are looking up for a Lakers franchise that was trudging its way through a historically awful stretch of ineptitude.

Magic has already staked his claim as a driving force for change in Los Angeles. If the signing of LeBron brings another title to the Lake Show, you better believe he’ll get the bulk of the credit.