As word spread through the Lakers' organization and the NBA, several people wondered whether Johnson's departure was related to a yet-to-be-published article by ESPN that is said to address allegations about Johnson's conduct with employees.
"That story is wrong," Johnson told the Los Angeles Times.
He later added to a group of reporters: "Never disrespected anybody. Never did anything bad. Am I tough? Hell, yeah! You work for me, I'm demanding. But at the same time I'm fair. They've been talking about that article for how many months? Everybody running, 'Oh they're writing an article.' I'm gonna say, why didn't they interview anybody at ESPN? If I was doing something wrong to employees disrespecting, this or that, think they would've hired me twice?"