Another seminal figure, another pillar of institutional knowledge, passed away Wednesday morning with the death of NBA legend Jerry West.
Bill Walton recently passed away and a few years ago Bill Russell passed away. Each had their own mark on NBA history, unique players and characters. West might be the most decorated figure in the league’s history, as winning seemed to follow him — even though he is most associated with the painful losses to the Boston Celtics during his playing days.
But that was in his head, not in the minds of the people who revered him, who constantly sought his counsel. Perhaps losing in those NBA Finals to the Celtics, and even winning the first Finals MVP in a losing effort, shaped the way he built teams and shaped his thinking as an executive.
After moving into the front office, he never hesitated to pass on knowledge, even allowing players from other teams to watch during intimate times.
When West’s Los Angeles Lakers lost to the Celtics in the 1984 Finals, a classic seven-game series, he left Isiah Thomas in during Pat Riley’s exit meeting with his team.
“Pat’s giving his speech. Magic, Kareem, Coop and Byron Scott are all here,” Thomas told Yahoo Sports. “I’ll never forget Magic and I driving back to his house after that meeting, listening to (James Ingram’s song) Just Once, Can We Find Out What We Did Wrong?”
That sparked Magic Johnson’s 1985 comeback from critical mistakes, and the Lakers’ win over the Celtics in ’85 was the first time the Lakers ever defeated the Celtics in a Finals series — in some ways vindicating West yourself. Thomas remembers attending the Finals series between the Celtics and Lakers and getting a good education, as his Detroit Pistons were years removed from that level.
“Just to show how Jerry West and (former Celtics coach and executive) Red Auerbach treated me, it was beyond any education I got, being under those two, and I was able to take a lot of that with me to Detroit .”
Thomas said he and West spoke often, and as recently as two weeks ago.
“He and I had a very close relationship,” Thomas said. “Our last words to each other, I told him, ‘I love you,’ and he said, ‘I love you too,’ and then turned around and asked, ‘Why do you always say that to me?’ And I said, ‘It’s true and you should say that to the people you love.’
It was probably a glimpse into West’s psyche, how he was known to go from sparring with you to offering help in the next sentence. The sense of appreciation always seemed to elude West, especially with his departure from the Lakers after the 2000 season, even though he laid the foundation for their dominance by signing Shaquille O’Neal in the summer of 1996 and trading him for the draft rights of a then relatively unknown player. high school student named Kobe Bryant.
It is often said that he was a troubled soul, but Thomas describes him a little differently.
“I have always been a warm person. And not only a warm person, but also a giving person in the sense that he wants to share knowledge and give advice,” says Thomas. “He and I would sometimes talk on the phone for hours. What I have seen, which is probably the case with many of us, is the pursuit of perfection. He wanted to be perfect, to do things as well as anyone else. That drive, that tenacity was one of the things I admired about him. I never saw him as tortured.”
Thomas followed a similar route to West, going from playing to post-retirement team building to the expansion Toronto Raptors. He said West, along with Wayne Embry, Jerry Krause, Elgin Baylor and Jack McCloskey, were his biggest influencers.
“Those are the guys who laid things out for me and helped me the most in Toronto,” Thomas said. “Jerry and I became very good friends. Really good friends.”
Because West has accomplished so much in his six decades of playing basketball, his playing career has not received much attention. Besides the blow to JJ Redick when Redick said players in previous eras were “plumbers and firefighters,” West may be the best player never to win regular season MVP — he and Thomas top the very short list of them.
But he led the league in scoring in 1969-70 and then assisted in 1972 when those Lakers broke the single-season record for consecutive wins (33) and wins in a season (69).
His fingerprints were not only on the Showtime Lakers and the O’Neal-Bryant Lakers, but also on the Golden State Warriors when he served as a senior advisor, and before that on the Memphis Grizzlies. In Memphis, he hired Hubie Brown, then 69 years old and thought he was too old to impart daily wisdom and leadership to a young team. A year later, West won Executive of the Year and Brown was Coach of the Year as the Grizzlies won 50 games.
He was on the table for the Warriors as they considered trading a young Klay Thompson for Kevin Love, who was then with the Minnesota Timberwolves. West threatened to quit his job if the move happened.
The Warriors relented and it wasn’t long before their dynastic run began, and he was also instrumental in the Warriors landing Kevin Durant in free agency in 2016. His mark was everywhere with the Los Angeles Clippers, whom he recently joined after his years in San Francisco.
The totality and excellence of his basketball career is unparalleled, and it is not a stretch to say that he is one of the most important figures in NBA history, and certainly the most important Los Angeles Laker, along with Magic Johnson.
“I mean, he’s the logo,” Thomas said, laughing.
‘He is irreplaceable. When people were talking about changing the logo, I thought, come on. He’s the logo and… he’s gotten everything you could want out of an NBA career.”
Thomas’ son, Joshua, is a scout for the Phoenix Suns. Joshua and West bonded while on the road and watching games this season.
“Joshua and Jerry were playing and one player made a nice move,” Thomas remembers Joshua telling him. “My son said, ‘Oh!’ and Jerry turned to him and said, Do you like that? My son said yes. Then Jerry said, “Don’t ever give that comment again or tell anyone you like him.”
A teacher, until the end. Another pillar of institutional knowledge, its transmission.
