Programming note: Watch the pregame edition of Warriors Outsiders on Monday afternoon at 4:30, streaming live on the MyTeams app.
On April 9, Magic Johnson shocked the basketball world when he abruptly resigned as the Lakers president of basketball operations.
On Monday morning, he was a guest on ESPN's "First Take" and explained why he stepped down.
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"First year in was tremendous, so things got going in the right direction," Magic said. "And then I start hearing, 'Magic, you're not working hard enough, Magic's not in the office.' So people around the Lakers' office were telling me Rob (general manager Rob Pelinka) was saying things. And I didn't like those things being said behind my back.
"So I start getting calls from my friends outside of basketball saying those things now were said to them outside of basketball ... now it's in the media and so on. People gotta remember something -- I got allies, I got friends everywhere."
Soon thereafter, Magic pivoted.
"The straw that broke the camel's back was I wanted to fire Luke Walton," he declared. "We had three meetings. I showed her (owner Jeanie Buss) the things he did well and the things he didn't do well.
Golden State Warriors
"I said, 'Listen, we gotta get a better coach.' The first day, 'Well let's think about it,' the second day, 'OK, you can fire him,' then the next day, 'No, we should try to work it out.' So when we went back-and-forth like that ... it's time for me to go.
"I got things happening behind my back, I don't have the power that I thought I had to make the decision ... I gotta step aside."
Two days after the regular season ended, the Lakers and Walton agreed to mutually part ways. Walton was hired as head coach of the Kings a couple days later.
Magic made it clear that Pelinka was the only one doing any backstabbing.
"I wasn't having fun coming to work anymore, especially when I got to work beside you (Rob) -- knowing that you want my position," Magic said. "And I'm OK with that. I told him in Year 2, 'I'm only gonna be here three years. So my job, Rob, is to get you ready for this position.'
"I was gonna help elevate him to the president's position. And so when all of this was coming back to me and guys were calling me (saying), 'You better watch out for him.' What's crazy was, when I took the job, you know how many agents called me and said, 'You gotta watch out for him.'
"If you're gonna talk betrayal, it's only with Rob."
The turmoil and chaos in Laker Land is very real.
The Warriors, meanwhile, have won three of the last four NBA championships and are one win away from advancing to the NBA Finals for the fifth straight season.
After the Lakers won back-to-back titles in 2009 and 2010, everybody predicted this is where we would be less than 10 years later, right?
Lastly, Magic said this: