Magic Johnson quit his job for nights like Friday. Well, at least in part.
When he resigned as the Los Angeles Lakers' president of basketball operations a month ago, Johnson told reporters that he felt constrained by NBA tampering regulations that -- among other things -- didn't allow him to tweet.
“The fines and the tampering and the this and the that, I can’t help young men who want me to help them, or I can’t tweet out," Johnson told reporters in LA last month. "Like Russell Westbrook, that [20-20-20 triple double] was a great feat the other day. I couldn’t even tweet it out to say, ‘Hey, congratulations.’ If I had did that, everyone would have said, ‘He’s tampering.’
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"I don’t like that. I like to be free.”
Johnson was free Friday night, and he praised Stephen Curry's dominant second half in the Warriors' 118-113 win over the Houston Rockets. Curry scored 33 second-half points to eliminate the Rockets in Game 6 of the NBA playoff second-round series, but Johnson was impressed with Curry's teammates, too.
[RELATED: KD reacts to Warriors' Game 6 close-out win over Rockets]
Good, if obvious, points all around from one of the greatest players in NBA history. But Johnson, for his part, seems much happier tweeting than he did dealing with the Lakers' dysfunction -- some of which certainly is owed to the legendary point guard himself.
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The Basketball Hall of Famer will have at least four more chances to tweet about the Warriors to his heart's content this postseason. Thanks to Friday's win, Golden State is headed to its fifth consecutive appearance in the Western Conference finals.
