More than a year before the Clippers set out to take a big swing in 2019 NBA free agency, the team began pursuing top talent of a different type.
General manager Michael Winger invited Lee Jenkins, Sports Illustrated’s lead NBA writer, to the team’s Playa Vista facility near the end of last season. The two had met earlier in the spring to get to know one another, but basketball was barely discussed then.
The GM explained the league’s nuances in stunning detail. Jenkins left feeling he’d learned more in one meeting about the inner workings of front offices than he’d previously understood in 11 years covering the NBA.