Jerry West, basketball legend and featured as the silhouette of the NBA logo, died this Wednesday, according to the Los Angeles Clippers. “He was the personification of excellence in the game and a friend to all of us who knew him,” said the franchise, which hired him as a consultant in 2017. West, however, became one of the most important players dressed in yellow and purple , with the Lakers. He won the championship with them in 1972 and lost a final to remember, that of 1969 against Bill Russell’s Boston Celtics, in which he won the MVP, the first in history. West was 86 years old. The causes of his death have not been reported.
West entered the Basketball Hall of Fame for the first time in 1980. He then did so for his playing career, in which he earned the nickname Mr. Clutch for his ability to solve key plays. In 2010, he returned to the Naismith Museum as a member of the 1960 Rome Games team, where the team led by him and Oscar Robertson of the Bucks took gold against the Soviet Union. His third appointment occurred this August, recognized for his role as an executive. He is the first to enter the museum as a player and as an executive.
“Jerry West was a basketball genius and a figure who defined our League for more than 60 years,” said NBA commissioner Adam Silver, who highlighted his role off the court as one of the “greatest executives in the game.” history of sport.” His work was very important in building the foundations of what the Lakers are today, a team that built a dynasty in the eighties and then in the 2000s. The NBA never confirmed that it used his silhouette to design the League’s logo, but it never He denied it. “He sure looks a lot like him,” said Silver in 2021. “Rest in peace, logo,” Michael Jordan said goodbye. “I always wished I had played against him, but the more I got to know him, the more I wanted to have him on my team. “I admired his deep knowledge of the game,” said the Bulls legend.
On a field full of mud
West signed for the Lakers magic Johnson and James Worthy, as the television series recently recalled Time to win, broadcast on HBO Max in 2022. What he did not tell was that in the 2000s he acquired Kobe Bryant, hired Shaquille O’Neal, who was a free agent, and to top it off he convinced Phil Jackson to coach that team with a contract of six million dollars per year. That team’s dominance was clear in 1999-2000, where they won 31 of their first 36 games. They reached their first final since 1991, where they defeated Reggie Miller’s Pacers.
West left the Lakers’ management office after that title, the first for the team since 1988. The press claimed that the former player, who always had a volcanic character, maintained a fight with Phil Jackson for control of sports operations. In total, West had eight titles with the team: 1980, 1982, 1985, 1987, 1988, 2000 and 2002. He was named executive of the year in 1995 and 2004. Later, he was a manager of the Memphis Grizzlies and again won titles as an executive. in 2015 and 2017 with the Golden State Warriors.
West was born in West Virginia to a modest family. His father was an electrician who worked in the region’s mines and one of his brothers died in the Korean War when West was 12 years old. The young man learned to play basketball in a basket hanging at a neighbor’s house. Legend claims that he practiced shooting alone and regardless of the weather. He practiced ball control with the field full of mud and wore gloves in winter to protect his hands. His obsession with sports was such that he didn’t eat. West said that as a child he needed to be injected with vitamins due to anemia. He played basketball on a team for the first time in high school. Years later he became a college basketball star.
“It’s incredibly frustrating.”
He came to the NBA as number two in the draft 1960. He was signed by the Minneapolis Lakers, who were already preparing to move to California. The team had a losing record in its final season in Minnesota, with only 25 wins out of 75 games. In his first season he averaged 17.6 points per game. Together with Elgin Baylor they led the team to second place in the Western conference. In his second season, his offensive ability exploded, with 30.8 points and he remained above this average for four seasons.
He wore the Lakers uniform for 13 seasons. In all those years the team did not reach the final on only four occasions, although its legend is also forged by defeats. Of nine finals, he only won one, in 1972. Six losses came against their historic tormentors, the Boston Celtics. In another they lost to the Knicks. “It’s incredibly frustrating,” West confessed. Despite this, he remains on the list of the NBA’s top 25 scoring leaders.
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