Lee Jenkins leaves Sports Illustrated for Clippers' front office

One of the NBA's best journalists is making the leap into an NBA front office.

Sports Illustrated's Lee Jenkins is joining the Los Angeles Clippers in a new role titled Executive Director of Research and Identity, the team announced.

“Lee has spent his career profiling elite athletes, including most of the top players in the NBA,” Clippers president of basketball operations Lawrence Frank said. “Given Lee’s talent, knowledge, and credibility, we hope to blend his approach with our existing evaluation systems and highlight the personalities of our players. He is the NBA’s preeminent storyteller and adding him to the team is a reflection of Steve’s commitment to innovation and building a best-in-class organization.”

Jenkins is the second writer to make the leap from the legendary sports journalism outlet to an NBA team, as former college basketball writer Luke Winn joined the Toronto Raptors last year as Director of Prospect Strategy.

“SI remains the ultimate platform for sportswriting and I would not leave for another media outlet. But I was offered an extraordinary opportunity to work in the front office of an NBA team and see the league I cover from a different angle," Jenkins said on Sports Illustrated's website. "I’ve been privileged to tell a lot of triumphant basketball stories over the past decade. With Steve Ballmer and Jerry West, Lawrence Frank and Michael Winger, Doc Rivers and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, I’m going to try to help build one."

As the senior NBA writer at the publication, Jenkins has profiles numerous people in and around the league, but is most well known for penning LeBron James' "I'm coming home" letter when he returned to the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2014.