Ivica Zubac’s departure from the Lakers is still quite a sore spot.
Not only was he traded for a journeyman center who had a fairly specific niche role, but the future franchise cornerstone was dealt across the hallway to the Clippers, forcing fans into a front row view of how badly the Lakers failed.
It was one of the more spectacular failures of Magic Johnson’s tenure as President of Basketball Operations and was also emblematic of how poorly he ran the franchise. While examples are aplenty, Zubac himself provided even more recently.
In an extensive interview on a Croatian YouTube channel, Zubac shared many anecdotes about his time with the Lakers, with a strong focus on Magic, who was unreasonably harsh on the young center at the time.
There are plenty of qualifiers here to get out of the way first. For one, this is a translation of a Croatian interview in which the translator admits to possible errors. On top of that, this is Zubac’s side of the story, which is worth keeping in mind.
That being said, very little of this feels out of character for Magic either. The signings of Andrew Bogut, Michael Beasley and Tyson Chandler throughout the years did block playing time for Zubac, who fans were often clamoring to get more minutes.
And the team very clearly undervalued Zubac all the way to the moment they traded him. He consistently improved early in his career and only really got to show it once he landed in a Clippers jersey. Once the team did trade him, the offered some half-baked excuse of not thinking they could afford to keep him with rumors of JaVale McGee feeling his job was in jeopardy, none of which felt like the truth.
All of this just further underlines how bad Magic was at his job. If the belief is that LeBron was coming to LA no matter what — something which gained validity with each passing year he stayed with the Lakers as they struggled — then even Magic’s biggest win comes with a major asterisk.
Magic has the argument for the best Lakers player of all time for what he did with the Showtime Lakers. But he also has an argument for the worst basketball decision-maker in franchise history, too. A truly rare accomplishment.
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