Magic Johnson spoke on behalf of the Los Angeles Lakers about the franchise waiving Boston Celtics star Jayson Tatum ahead of the 2017 NBA Draft.

Johnson claimed Tatum was invited to a practice and that Los Angeles was too “forward-heavy” with players like Brandon Ingram, Julius Randle and Larry Nance Jr. crowding the roster. Tatum’s agent Jeff Wechsler acknowledged the veracity of Johnson’s retelling of the past, but claimed that some context was still missing.

“Magic is right in what he said, but the way it was presented was a little different,” Wechsler told SiriusXM NBA Radio on Tuesday. “And everyone knows that the draft starts in June and the guys are ready at the end of March. Madness and they train for months.” Well, Jayson trained in LA for months and trained there with Drew Hanlen, and the Lakers knew he was in LA and never called, and at the end of June they called and wanted to invite him to train. But at that point, everyone knew they were going to take Lonzo Ball.”

Wechsler added: “(I said to Johnson), ‘Well, if you don’t take my husband, he’s been out there all summer, he’s in St. Louis now, he’s training for other teams.’ I won’t fly him back across the country to train if you don’t take him. And that’s how it went.”

Tatum had just completed his first season at Duke and the draft lottery awarded the Celtics, Lakers and Philadelphia 76ers the first, second and third picks, respectively. Boston fell from No. 1 to No. 3, which resulted in Markelle Fultz going first overall to Philadelphia, Ball second to Los Angeles and Tatum third to the Celtics. But that wasn’t the vision that Tatum, then 19, had at the time.

During a podcast appearance alongside former Boston teammate Jeff Teague, Tatum explained how watching Kobe Bryant while growing up inspired him to one day wear a Lakers jersey.

“I grew up a Kobe fan. “I’ve always wanted to play for the Lakers,” Tatum said on the “Club 520” podcast in November. “When they were No. 2 and it was like I didn’t even think about getting drafted, that was pretty devastating, so I never worked out for the Lakers. They never came to watch me train.”

Tatum’s coach Hanlen also confirmed Wechsler’s view of things.

“I won’t say too much, but (Johnson’s story is not true),” Hanlen told the “First to the Floor” podcast. “Jayson grew up a Kobe fan. We train in Los Angeles. The only team that didn’t visit him in the top four was Los Angeles, so there was no interest there. …The Kobe connection made so much sense, but what Magic said wasn’t 100% accurate. I just remember being in those conversations and the truth was that at the end they kind of reached out and said, ‘Hey, we’d like to come and check out.'”

The ping pong balls fell in favor of the Celtics And Tatum on lottery night, as the 26-year-old grew into a five-time All-Star, NBA champion and all-time Boston star in just eight years in the league. Tatum was also rewarded with a record-breaking $315 million supermax extension last offseason, the largest contract extension in NBA history.

Los Angeles, on the other hand, traded Ball for Anthony Davis in 2019 as part of its blockbuster deal – and could also currently seek the services of Tatum.