Every franchise has a “what if” moment. For the Los Angeles Lakers, they have had a few, one big one being in the 2017 NBA Draft, a night that could have changed everything.
The Lakers had the second overall pick, a clean shot at one of the best draft classes in years. The front office was split. The scouts had their favorites. But none of it mattered. Magic Johnson had already made up his mind.
Magic Johnson’s draft call that cost the Lakers Jayson Tatum
The Lakers could have selected Jayson Tatum. Instead, they got Lonzo Ball because Magic Johnson said so.
That information is straight from NBA insider Yaron Weitzman. The writer revealed on The Athletic NBA Daily that Magic was “going to make that pick… it didn’t matter what anyone else thought. That was Magic’s pick.”
Basically, the scouting department could have begged for Tatum, but Magic had already made up his mind. The hometown kid was coming to Los Angeles, and that was final.
“It didn’t matter if other people were on board or not, right? It was Lonzo. It was going to be Lonzo,” Weitzman added. “Magic went to one or two of his games in person, which for him was a big deal.”
To be fair, at the time, it made sense on paper. Ball was flashy, an incredibly unselfish passer, and a walking highlight reel during his final year in college.
He was a player who seemed built to revive the “Showtime” era Magic once ruled. But hindsight is not kind to fairy tales. Lonzo’s jumper never fully clicked, and the injuries came early and often. Even Weitzman was careful to give Lonzo his due.
“To be fair, Lonzo pre-injury was really good. Really good,” he said.
He is right. When healthy, Ball was a strong defender and one of the league’s best connective guards. The problem was that health was always the “if.”
Meanwhile, one pick later, Tatum was on his way to becoming everything the Lakers hoped Lonzo would be. That included being a franchise cornerstone, and the centerpiece of a team that eventually lifted the Larry O’Brien Trophy.
For the Lakers, the miss still stings because it was not a front-office consensus that led to it; it was ego.
“Magic wanted to be the ceremonial president, but he also wanted to get his hands in on certain decisions as well. And you can’t do both,” Weitzman explained. “That’s where the issues can come.”
We all know how the Lonzo era ended. Los Angeles eventually flipped Ball in the trade that landed Anthony Davis, and that deal helped bring a championship in 2020, so it did technically work out in the long run.
But Tatum? He is still just 27 years old, in his prime, and the face of the team that beat everyone else to the mountaintop just two seasons ago.
The Lakers’ legacy is filled with stars. But in 2017, the one they let slip away could have been the next great one, if only Magic had never gotten involved or at least made the right move.