Magic Johnson revealed that the late Los Angeles Lakers owner Jerry Buss planned to name Byron Scott as the team's next head coach in 2010 after Phil Jackson announced his retirement.
In an interview with LA Times, Johnson said that Buss was eyeing Scott after Jackson remained unsure if he will continue coaching after the 2010-11 NBA season.
Jackson eventually retired after that season, but Scott was already out of the market after taking a job offer from the Cleveland Cavaliers - a team that was trying to recover from losing LeBron James that year.
"Dr. Buss was going to make Byron the coach when Phil didn't know what he was going to do," Johnson said. "Byron took the Cleveland job, and he took it too early. I called and said: 'B., you took the job too early. Dr. Buss wanted you to be the coach."
The Lakers hired Mike Brown back then, but was fired early in the 2012-13 NBA season. Mike D'Antoni was named as replacement before the unpopular coach announced his resignation earlier this offseason.
Scott was hired to replace D'Antoni, signing a four-year deal worth $17 million. The veteran coach said in a news conference that it would have been extra special if Dr. Buss was still alive.
"He asked me when I was coming home," Scott said of Buss, referring to a conversation in 2010. "I came to a couple of games and we stayed in contact, but never really talked about me coaching the team. He asked me my opinion of the team, but never talked about coaching the team."
Meanwhile, Lakers trainer Gary Vitti said that veteran point guard Steve Nash is already 100 percent healthy after being slowed down by nerve issues last season.
"He'll be coming back to Los Angeles this week, and all my conversations with him are that he has absolutely no neural issue at this point," Vitti said of Nash via NBA.com. "He's playing full-tilt, unrestricted soccer. He's doing all the corrective injury and performance exercises he's supposed to be doing, and right now he's 100 percent healthy."
Nash, who has one year left in his contract with the Lakers, averaged 6.8 points to go along with 5.7 assists in just 15 games last season.
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