NBA Rumors: Lakers legend Jerry West will reportedly join the Clippers as a consultant

The LA Clippers finally have a statue in front of STAPLES Center, even as the team is reportedly set to announce their departure from the building.

According to the esteemed Jack McCallum of Sports Illustrated, Jerry West will not return to the Golden State Warriors — where he’s spent the last six seasons as a special consultant — and is instead taking “a similar job” with the Clippers. This new role will West, who still lives in Southern California, to work closer to home.

West is a Lakers legend whose jersey hangs in the rafters and has a statue in front of the building, and he wanted to badly to return to the Lakers but the team was not interested in bringing him back to join president of basketball operations Magic Johnson and general manager Rob Pelinka in their overhauled front office.

Harrison Faigen is co-host of the Locked on Lakers podcast (subscribe here), and you can follow him on Twitter at @hmfaigen.