Jeanie Buss began formulating her plan to fire Jim Buss and Mitch Kupchak shortly before All-Star Game weekend. Buss had hired Magic Johnson a few weeks before that as a special adviser but she discovered he wasn't being integrated or even informed of what Jim Buss and Kupchak were planning.
Jeanie Buss decided to cancel her trip to New Orleans and began working with a small group of advisers, lawyers and human resources personnel to restructure the Los Angeles Lakers' front office on the Tuesday after All-Star.
Magic Johnson was given five percent of the Lakers upon his retirement by Jerry Buss.
"He would not have done that if he didn't want Earvin to be a part of it," Janie Buss says. "My dad always looked at Earvin as another son. He had the utmost respect. He made the Lakers franchise; he made us famous. We couldn't have done it without him."
Shortly before he died, Jerry Buss asked to see Johnson in the hospital.
"Jeanie had called and told me to come up, that he wanted to see me," Magic says. "And he said it again. He said, 'I always thought you guys would run it.' We were both sitting there crying about it because he knew I was right. ... Back then, it would have been a lot of resentment. It would have been difficult."