The Los Angeles Lakers have been in the news throughout this summer for a number of different reasons. One of the earlier stories involved Laker legend Jerry West, at the time a consultant for the Golden State Warriors, possibly returning to the Lakers in the same role.
The Lakers, under the new regime led by Magic Johnson and Rob Pelinka, were not interested in bringing West in. West would ultimately join the Los Angeles Clippers in that same consultant role.
There have been many arguments about whether the Lakers made a mistake in not bringing West on board, but in an interview with Tim Kawakami of The Athletic (Subscriber only), West claims he wouldn’t have returned to the Lakers even if they had reached out:
“Absolutely not.