When Magic Johnson stepped down as Los Angeles Lakers president of basketball operations in 2019, he became part of NBA Twitter lore. Among his reasons for leaving the job was that he wanted to be able to talk and tweet about players (he cited Russell Westbrook specifically) without it being considering tampering.
Now, Johnson frequently takes to Twitter to compliment players and give his thoughts. On Monday, his followers got to hear about a pair of emerging Oklahoma City Thunder players.
The NBA legend tweeted about Shai Gilgeous-Alexander — “a young superstar,” Johnson said — and Lu Dort, someone Johnson thinks can “hopefully grow to be a star.”
Coming from the athlete widely considered the greatest point guard of all time, that’s some high praise for both players.
OKC is rebuilding but they have a young superstar in Shai Gilgeous-Alexander who is averaging 22.5 PPG, 5 RPG and 6.5 APG. They also have a good young role player in Luguentz Dort, who will hopefully grow to be a star one day. Dort is averaging 12.5 PPG and 3 RPG.
— Earvin Magic Johnson (@MagicJohnson) February 22, 2021
Dort hadn’t seen the tweet a few hours after it was posted. He reacted with an expression of astonishment when asked about it in the press conference before the game against the Miami Heat.
“It’s nice, coming from one of the best to ever play the game of basketball,” Dort said.
Why did Johnson take enough notice of these two Thunder players on a Monday afternoon to tweet about them? It’s not totally clear. Maybe he was diving into All-Star contenders and saw Gilgeous-Alexander tallied 31 points on Sunday night.
Maybe he’s just been watching Oklahoma City more — the Thunder did take the Lakers to overtime twice earlier this month. Gilgeous-Alexander had 29 points and 10 assists in the game he played against L.A., and Dort impressed with his defense on LeBron James in overtime during the second game.
Either way, it’s cool for these young players that Johnson posted about them. They’ll immediately get to show the wider audience what they’re all about when the Thunder take on the Heat on Monday night.
This post originally appeared on OKCThunderWire. Follow us on Facebook!
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