Magic Johnson regrets a social media post he sent to the internet shortly after the Los Angeles Lakers were eliminated by the Denver Nuggets in the first round of the NBA playoffs.
“Laker Nation, I have to apologize to the Lakers organization,” Johnson posted to X, formerly Twitter, on Wednesday. “It was injuries that plagued the Lakers this season, not load management.”
The content on Johnson’s social media accounts are known to be almost comically vanilla, but he put that aside Tuesday—the day after the Lakers’ season ended—and posted a pair of spicy takes.
Johnson blamed load management for the reason Los Angeles finished with the Western Conference’s No. 7 seed and claimed the Nuggets were both mentally and physically tougher in their playoff series.
The Lakers had many issues during the 2023-24 NBA season, but load management probably wasn’t a top factor in their struggles. Los Angeles’ most common starting five—LeBron James, Anthony Davis, D’Angelo Russell, Austin Reaves and Taurean Prince—all played at least 71 regular-season games.
James dealt with calf and ankle issues and missed 11 games. Role player Jarred Vanderbilt missed the last three months with a foot injury, and Rui Hachimura battled calf issues at times. But Davis played a career-high 76 games, as did Russell—his most since 2018-19—and Reaves played all 82 for the first time in his career.
If it wasn’t load management or injury issues that caused the team to fall short of expectations, the Lakers just simply weren’t good enough in 2023-24.
