Jerry West, the inspiration for the NBA logo, died peacefully at his home at the age of 86.
One of basketball’s most accomplished contributors, West was a staple of the sport for eight decades, winning nine championships as a player, scout, coach, executive and consultant. He was the architect of the Los Angeles Lakers’ ten titles in the 1980s and 2000s and an advisor to the dynastic Golden State Warriors.
Long before West established himself as perhaps the greatest general manager in NBA history, he was one of the league’s first superstars. A legend of West Virginia high school and college basketball and co-captain of the 1960 U.S. Olympic men’s basketball team, West made the All-Star Game every season of a 14-year career, adorned with 12 All-NBA selections and five All-Defensive performances, all for the Lakers.
He won one title in nine trips to the NBA Finals, lost six title series games in heartbreaking fashion to Bill Russell’s Boston Celtics, and West’s Finals MVP award in 1969 remains the only time the honor has been awarded to a member of the losing team. He averaged 37.9 points per game in a seven-game loss to the Celtics.
“He took a loss harder than any player I ever knew,” the late and legendary Lakers announcer Chick Hearn once said of West. “He sat alone and stared into space. A loss just tore him out.”
A pioneering scoring guard and ruthless competitor, West was a deadly shooter before the advent of the three-point line, and his most famous shot came in the form of a 60-foot buzzer beater that sent Game 3 of the 1970 Finals into overtime against the New York Knicks . He joined Chamberlain and Oscar Robertson as the league’s first 25,000-point scorers. West averaged 27 points, 6.7 points and 5.8 rebounds for his career.
The late Hot Rod Hundley once described his fellow West Virginia and Lakers teammate as “the greatest competitor I ever saw.” I don’t care what you play, he wants to win. His nickname was ‘Mr. Clutch’. and he carried that name well because every time we were in that situation, boom, he made that shot.
West’s pursuit of perfection led him to unprecedented success as a decision maker in NBA front offices, winning Executive of the Year honors twice. First as a scout and then as GM, he helped build the five-time champion “Showtime” Lakers of the 1980s. Before leaving the Lakers in 2000, West signed Shaquille O’Neal and traded Kobe Bryant’s draft rights, laying the foundation for five more titles from 2000 to 2010.
West spent five seasons running the Memphis Grizzlies before retiring as a full-time shot-caller in 2007 at the age of 69. He joined the Golden State Warriors as an executive board member in 2011, where he famously opposed a prospective trade of Klay in 2014. Thompson for Kevin Love and recruiting Kevin Durant in the 2016 offseason. West left the Warriors after the second of their four championships in 2017 and joined the LA Clippers in the same capacity, contributing to the recruitment of Kawhi Leonard and trading for Paul George in July 2019.
West also received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2019.
West’s personal life wasn’t as glamorous as his basketball career. The son of a West Virginia coal mine electrician, he endured a difficult childhood, haunted by the death of his older brother in 1951 during the Korean War. West served as a mental health advocate in his later years and shared his lifelong battle with depression in a 2011 New York Times best-selling memoir entitled “West by West: My Charmed, Tormented Life.”
“The greatest honor a man can have is the respect and friendship of his peers. You have that more than any man I know,” Russell told the audience at the Forum on “Jerry West Night” in 1972. sense of the word, truly a champion. If I could grant one wish, it would be that you would always be happy.”
One of West’s five children, Jerry, is currently a professional scout for the Detroit Pistons.
