Basketball legend Jerry West passes away
LOS ANGELES (USA) - Olympic gold medalist and NBA legend Jerry West has died. He was 86.
LOS ANGELES (USA) - Olympic gold medalist and NBA legend Jerry West has died. He was 86.
A native of West Virginia, West went from being a two-time All-America guard for the Mountaineers in college basketball to gold medal winner with the USA at the 1960 Olympics in Rome and then a long career in the NBA, as a player and then executive.
West's silhouette is the logo of the NBA.
He was the American dream.
Growing up in the coal country of West Virginia, West was like a lot of other boys in the state because he liked to hunt and fish.
Yet West also had a passion for basketball, which, according to his biography on NBA.com, grew as he shot at a hoop that had been nailed to a neighbor's storage shed, no matter what time of year.
It was on those days in his childhood and teens that he learned how to make tough shots, "ignoring mud and snow in the backyard..."
His star-studded days with the West Virginia Mountaineers naturally paved the way for West to play for the USA at the 1960 Olympics in Rome. West, Oscar Robertson and Jerry Lucas formed an impressive triumvirate and led the Americans to eight wins in as many games and a gold medal.
Later, reflecting on that time with the USA, West said: "There was so much going on in the world then, the threat of nuclear war, the Cold War, racism. The world was in turmoil.
"When I was selected, it was like the dream of a lifetime. When you went to the ceremonies, it was just incredible the feeling that you had inside."
Nothing could equal that experience, according to West.
"I wish that people could know what it felt like," he said. "The emotion that was going through your body, the elation, the joy.
"I really felt for the first time that I had done something not for West Virginia or for my high school team, but we'd done something for the country.
"Every time that I hear the national anthem, I'm immediately back to that point in time.
"It made the biggest impression on me more than anything, more than winning an NBA Championship."
The elusive NBA title was finally his in 1972 when the Lakers defeated the New York Knicks
West, who was by drafted the Los Angeles Lakers in 1960 and was in their first team that played in southern California following the club's move from Minneapolis, did win an NBA championship but not until 1972.
He was one of the league's top players, an All-Star in every one of his 14 seasons.
In the 1969-70 season, he led the league in scoring at 31.2 points per game. He was always a big-time scorer, but especially in the post-season. In seven of his play-off campaigns, West averaged more than 30 points a game.
Once, in 1964, he averaged 40.6 ppg!
West was also known for his toughness and broke his nose on numerous occasions.
As excellent as he was as a player, West was equally famous for his long stretch as the Lakers general manager.
He was GM when Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's sky hooks, Magic Johnson's ball-handling and passing and James Worthy's fast-break dunks made the team perennial NBA title contenders under coach Pat Riley.
Those Lakers teams captured five NBA crowns in the eighties and played in some of the best Finals showdowns of all time against the Celtics, the team that routinely denied West's Lakers championships when he was a player.
His moves were legendary.
In 1996, West sent popular center Vlade Divac to the Charlotte Hornets to acquire the draft rights to Kobe Bryant, and that same year he signed Shaquille O'Neal.
West ended up leaving the Lakers after nearly two decades as GM but, not long after, took on the same role with the Memphis Grizzlies.
He later served as an executive board member of the Golden State Warriors, who won a couple of titles when he held the position, and then worked for the LA Clippers as an executive board member and consultant.
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