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Tuesday, March 12

Johnson envisions evaluating, delivering players

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ESPN.com news services


NEW YORK -- Magic Johnson says he'd be "interested" in the New York Knicks' general manager's job -- if the opportunity presented itself.

"I'd be interested," Johnson told the New York Post at a ceremony to accept the Jackie Robinson Foundation Award for Humanitarianism. "I would definitely sit down and talk with them."

Johnson is currently a part owner of the Lakers. He told the Post he'd like a Laker-type general manager team, where he could evaluate personnel alongside other executives. In Los Angeles, Johnson worked with Jerry West and Mitch Kupchak. In New York, those positions are held by general manager Scott Layden and Madison Square Garden president Steve Mills.

"What I don't see in the Knicks organization is a basketball guy," Johnson said. "In L.A., we had myself and Jerry West and Mitch Kupchak was the assistant general manager. Those are all basketball guys with basketball minds. Because one guy can't do it by himself. We all need help."

Neither Layden nor Mills was available for comment, the Post reported.

Johnson said he'd like to both evaluate talent and sell players on coming to a team like the Knicks. He did a similar job in Los Angeles. Among the players he persuaded to come to the Lakers was Shaquille O'Neal.

"You need a salesman in the Knick organization, somebody who the athletes can look at and say, 'Oh, wow, OK, Magic's coming to the Garden,' " Johnson was quoted as saying. "I went and recruited Shaquille [O'Neal] for the Lakers. And with the Knicks right now, they need a recruiter. They need to sell a guy on, 'Man, we don't have that much money. But you could sure help us.' Do you understand what I'm saying?"

Johnson would have to give up his interest in the Lakers to move to the Knicks.

"To leave the Lakers, you'd have to leave them for another great franchise, which has a history, with the fans," Johnson told the Post. "I love it here [in New York]. So when I was saying it, I was saying that that would have to be the only situation that I would probably leave the Lakers for."

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