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LOS ANGELES — Hours after Magic Johnson abruptly resigned as the Los Angeles Lakers’ president of basketball operations and mere minutes after his first season as the franchise cornerstone ended with a buzzer-beating loss, LeBron James left Staples Center on Tuesday night without speaking to reporters, trailed only by security officers and questions about the team’s future.
It was not the season anyone envisioned for the Lakers, who had upended the N.B.A. by signing James last summer with the hype and expectation of returning the franchise to its glory years. One of the most storied teams in the league, it has not won a championship in nine years, and Los Angeles is frustrated, hungry and impatient.