In an interview with USA TODAY Sports‘ Sam Amick, Lakers executive vice president Jim Buss, the son of the late former Lakers owner Jerry Buss, said that he doesn’t understand why Magic Johnson has been critical of him in the past.

From the interview:

“Magic Johnson going nuts on me?” he says with a laugh. “It’s like, ‘Really, dude? My dad made you a billionaire almost. Really? Where are you coming from?”

This is a dumb thing to say. It’s a dumb thing to say because Jerry Buss didn’t “make” Magic anything. Magic Johnson made himself all that money.

This should seem obvious but in Buss’ quote above, it doesn’t seem to be: Jerry Buss wouldn’t have paid Johnson unless he was extremely skilled and also providing a valuable service to Buss, one that in turn made Buss himself a ton of money. Buss didn’t give Johnson charity. This wasn’t a handout.

Johnson would have been a star anywhere he went in the league. Maybe his time in Los Angeles gave him more sponsorships and more opportunities to make money, but he was always going to be a mega star and, with his success as a businessman, it’s safe to say he would’ve made plenty of money no matter where he went.

And, to be fair, Johnson says Jerry Buss was a major influence on him in life. “Dr. Buss gave me the platform to be Magic,” Johnson told the Los Angeles Times in Feb. 2013 after Jerry’s death. “He gave me the knowledge to be Magic.”

But Buss seems to think his father made Johnson that money. This is indicative of a dangerous line of thinking, that these rich (and let’s be honest, mostly white) owners are “making” these NBA players rich, and thus those NBA players should owe those owners.

But here’s the thing: Without those NBA players, these owners wouldn’t have these extremely valuable franchises, values that are skyrocketing in large part because the players are providing excellent entertainment and amazing skills that people all over the world are eager to spend their hard-earned money to see.

Magic Johnson is a big part of that, a pioneer of the game who is a major, major reason the league is so popular now. He helped make the Lakers what they are, providing them with the style and excellence that’s become part and parcel of the brand, a brand that Jim Buss, whose dad gave him a lot more than he ever gave Magic Johnson, is profiting off of now.

Magic Johnson has every right to criticize Jim Buss. When he was presented the quote above and asked for his response, he rose above it, saying in a statement to USA TODAY Sports that he had only one motivation when criticizing Buss: ““It’s all about winning, Jim,” Johnson said.

You can read the entire Sam Amick feature on Buss over at USA TODAY Sports.