The Los Angeles Clippers officially announced Jerry West as their newest front-office executive Monday, with the Logo declaring his new role as the “last adventure of his life.”
West expressed excitement over his new position, but was also quick to reflect and commend the Warriors during his introductory press conference.
“I will say one thing about that team,” West said. “Forget about how great they are as players. This is without a doubt, in all my years in my life — I have never been around a nicer group of people in my life.”
West had spent the previous six seasons under the Warriors as an executive board member. He helped craft a championship-caliber roster that would go on to reach the NBA Finals three straight years, and win two of them.
However, he left just days after Golden State hoisted the trophy up to a roaring Oracle Arena crowd, saying that there just wasn’t anything left for him to do.
“It took me a few days to get over the shock of ‘I never thought I’d work anywhere else again,’” he said. “I think sometimes you look in the mirror and you have to say to yourself, ‘My goodness, what more is there to do?’”
“I think sometimes I do like challenges,” he added. “And honestly, I felt there was nothing more for me to do there. How can I contribute? And I think I don’t like being active and knowing full well that you go in and everything you’re looking at you’re kind of nitpicking at. How can you do better than this?”
West’s deal with the Clippers is for two years, where he’ll primarily serve in a similar role as he did for Golden State. He is proven to love challenges, and his first big one will be attempting to retain Chris Paul and Blake Griffin, who will soon be free agents.
But perhaps the biggest challenge West may have to face in his new role is one that he crafted himself: Getting past a Warrior dynasty that he helped create.
