As Earvin "Magic" Johnson laid out the qualities he hoped to find in the Lakers' next general manager early last week, longtime player agent Rob Pelinka had already begun informing clients he was accepting the job.
A teammate of the Fab Five at Michigan, Pelinka built his career as a top NBA agent largely on the success of Kobe Bryant. Adept at complex negotiations, with a detailed understanding of the Collective Bargaining Agreement, he met the requirements Johnson outlined and had worked closely with the Lakers for nearly two decades.
"He's a very smart individual, very calculated," said Golden State forward Andre Iguodala, a Pelinka client. "He knows what he's good at, he knows what he's not good at, which is very important to an individual in that position."
Pelinka, 47, seemed, to some, a natural choice. Young, shrewd and deeply connected, he made for an outside-the-box but logical option, the Lakers' answer to Golden State's Bob Myers.
"Rob checks all of those boxes," Derek Fisher, another of Pelinka's former clients, told NBA TV as word of the expected hire began to spread on Feb. 22.
Hours earlier, Johnson had been ushered in as president of basketball operations when longtime executives Jim Buss and Mitch Kupchak were stripped of their power amid a fourth losing season.
Pelinka is expected to be introduced as the Lakers general manager in the coming days. An official announcement has been delayed while he goes through the process of divesting himself from his clients at Landmark Sports Agency, including Houston Rockets MVP frontrunner James Harden.
Buss and Kupchak, the league's longest-tenured GM, relinquished their positions to two men who had not worked a single day in an NBA front office.
Where Kupchak was old school, Pelinka represents a new wave, sporting hip cardigans and skinny jeans complementing film star good looks, perfect for Hollywood's team. Kupchak was the ultimate University of North Carolina man; Pelinka named his son Durham, as in the home of UNC's rival Duke, where his wife, Kristin, is an alumna.
As with Johnson, Pelinka appeared to be selected from a one-man candidate pool. Rather than cast a wide net, Jeanie Buss reached for yet another close ally. Around the NBA, many grumbled that the Lakers simply swapped out Buss nepotism for Jeanie cronyism. She landed on Pelinka, a fearsome negotiator with a complicated image, without so much as feigning a search.
Objections were particularly robust among black executives and their representatives, who felt Johnson had a unique platform to promote diversity in the front office by interviewing minority candidates.
There were questions about what a Pelinka front office would mean for Bryant, who has personally recruited prospective clients to Pelinka's agency, and whether the former agent's confrontational approach to negotiations would cause problems for the Lakers in future deals.
The question that is most important for the Lakers and their fans, however, is simple: Will Pelinka be able to do the job?
"It's not like he's being transplanted into a situation he hasn't consistently watched," said Jalen Rose, Pelinka's college teammate and an ESPN analyst. "(Not just) from the stands but has sat in the room with their best player, and was a part of a decision-making process.
"You don't think Kobe Bryant was consulted before they made moves?"
