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There have been some grumblings around the league about how safe Luke Walton's job actually was, but with today being his birthday Los Angeles Lakers GM Magic Johnson sent out a tweet not only wishing him a Happy Birthday but also giving him a vote of confidence in terms of his job security.
Happy Birthday Coach Luke Walton of the Lakers! I've enjoyed working with you and look forward to a long time relationship building the Lakers back to a championship team.
— Earvin Magic Johnson (@MagicJohnson) March 29, 2018
The most talk about his job security came in January when LaVar Ball told Jeff Goodman of ESPN that Luke Walton had lost the team and that players didn't really want to play for him anymore.
Article Continues Below“You can see they're not playing for Luke no more,” Ball told Goodman. “Luke doesn't have control of the team no more. They don't want to play for him.”
“That's a good team,” he added of the Lakers, who have lost nine straight games. “Nobody wants to play for him. I can see it. No high-fives when they come out of the game. People don't know why they're in the game. He's too young. He's too young. … He ain't connecting with them anymore. You can look at every player, he's not connecting with not one player.”
After that, both owner Jeanie Buss and Magic Johnson gave him a vote of confidence and told everyone that he was still the right coach for this team.
For the Lakers they haven't had the year they were quite hoping for but they are young and have dealt with a lot of injuries.
The young players have gotten better as the season has gone on though, and the future does look bright with Lonzo Ball, Kyle Kuzma, Brandon Ingram and the rest of the crew.
