Jerry West

• 1. Introduction

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  Jerry West died in Los Angeles on the 12th of June, 2024, at the age of 86. That same night, before game 3 of the NBA Finals between the Celtics and the Dallas Mavericks, the league held a moment of silence in his honor. It was a fitting tribute for a man who had spent his entire life inside the game. West grew up dirt-poor in Chelyan, West Virginia, retired as the greatest scorer in Lakers history, became the face of an entire league without ever asking for it, and then rebuilt franchises from the front office for another four decades. His silhouette became the NBA logo. His nickname was Mr. Clutch. And yet, by nearly every account, he was never satisfied. How does a boy who slept with a loaded shotgun under his bed out of fear of his own father become the most iconic figure in professional basketball? And how does a man described as obsessive, tormented, and never happy with his own performance win eight championships as an executive after winning just one as a player? Those are the questions Jerry West's life keeps asking.

• 2. Chelyan to Morgantown

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  Jerry Alan West was born on the 28th of May, 1938, the fifth of six children of Cecil Sue West, a housewife, and Howard Stewart West, a coal mine electrician. His father physically abused him, and for a time West slept with a loaded shotgun under his bed, fearing he might have to kill his father in self-defense. In 1951, his older brother David was killed in action in the Korean War. The grief turned an outgoing, aggressive child into a shy and introverted one. The basketball hoop that a neighbor had nailed to a storage shed became West's constant companion. He shot from every angle in the backyard, ignoring mud and snow, and regularly came home hours late for dinner after his mother's warnings.

  At East Bank High School, West was benched during his freshman year by coach Duke Shaver for being too short. Shaver's emphasis on conditioning and defense left a permanent mark. West grew significantly during the summer of 1953 and eventually became the starting small forward, then the captain, then a legend. By 1956, he had averaged 32.2 points per game and became the first high school player in West Virginia history to score more than 900 points in a single season. The state named him Player of the Year. He led East Bank to a state championship on the 24th of March that year, and the school began renaming itself "West Bank High School" every year on March 24 in his honor. That practice continued until the school closed in 1999.

  More than 60 universities pursued West after graduation. He chose West Virginia University in Morgantown, staying in his home state. As a freshman his squad went 17-0. In his junior year, he averaged 26.6 points and 12.3 rebounds per game, tied the NCAA five-game tournament record with 160 points, and earned Most Outstanding Player at the Final Four despite a 71-70 loss to California in the championship game. In that same tournament he broke his nose against the Kentucky Wildcats, kept playing in intense pain, and scored 19 points in the second half to lead an upset victory. By the end of his college career he had totaled 2,309 points and 1,240 rebounds, and he co-captained the U.S. men's basketball team with Oscar Robertson to a gold medal at the 1960 Summer Olympics.

• 3. Mr. Clutch and Mr. Outside

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  West entered the 1960 NBA draft and was selected second overall by the Minneapolis Lakers, a franchise that relocated to Los Angeles that same year. He became the first draft pick in the history of the relocated franchise. His college coach Fred Schaus was hired to coach the Lakers that same season, this time deploying West as a guard rather than the forward he had played in college. The adjustment was social as much as physical. His high-pitched Appalachian voice earned him the nickname "Tweety Bird" from Lakers captain Elgin Baylor. Baylor once joked that rumors were safe with West because nobody could understand him.

  By his second season, 1961-62, West was averaging 30.8 points, 7.9 rebounds and 5.4 assists per game after Baylor was called away by the Army Reserves. On the 17th of January, 1962, he scored a career-high 63 points in a win over the New York Knicks. Lakers announcer Chick Hearn gave him the nickname Mr. Clutch, and it stuck. That same season West stole the ball near half-court in game 3 of the NBA Finals with three seconds left and converted a running layup to tie the score. In game 7, the Lakers tied it at 100 late, but Frank Selvy missed an open 8-foot shot that would have won the championship. Boston prevailed in overtime, 110-107. The rivalry between Los Angeles and the Celtics had begun.

  The 1964-65 season produced one of the most extraordinary individual playoff runs in NBA history. With Baylor suffering a career-threatening knee injury in the first round against Baltimore, West took over entirely. He scored 49 points in game 1, 52 in game 2, 44 and 48 in the two road losses, and 42 in the deciding game 5 win. His playoff average of 46.3 points per game remains an NBA record. Against the Celtics in the Finals, even 45 points in game 2 and 49 in game 3 were not enough. Defensive guard K. C. Jones held him to just 26 points in game 1, which the source notes as a relative success for Boston. West finished those playoffs averaging 40.6 points per game and still lost the title.

• 4. Tragedy in the Finals

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  West played in nine NBA Finals during his career, winning only once. The losses were not close calls at the margin; they were a recurring pattern that tested him in increasingly dramatic ways. The 1969 Finals encapsulates the story. Before game 1, West privately told Bill Russell he was exhausted. He then scored 53 points in that game and won it by two. He scored 41 in game 2. After Russell began double-teaming him in game 3, the fatigue showed and the Lakers lost. Then, in game 5, West lunged for a loose ball and seriously pulled his hamstring. Limping through the rest of the series, he still produced a triple-double in game 7: 42 points, 13 rebounds, 12 assists. The Lakers trailed by 15 after three quarters, closed to within one, and then West committed costly turnovers and Los Angeles lost 108-106.

  West became the only player in NBA history to be named Finals Most Valuable Player despite being on the losing team. After the game, Bill Russell held his hand. John Havlicek told him: "I love you, Jerry." Lakers owner Jack Kent Cooke had filled the rafters of the Forum with balloons in anticipation of a Lakers win. West later said the display of arrogance had motivated the Celtics and angered him.

  In the 1970 Finals against the New York Knicks, game 3 saw DeBusschere hit a mid-range jumper with three seconds left to put the Knicks ahead 102-100. West caught the inbound pass and threw up a 60-foot shot. Walt Frazier later said: "The man's crazy. He looks determined. He thinks it's going in!" It connected. The NBA later called it one of the greatest moments in Finals history. Because the three-point line did not yet exist, the shot only tied the game. The Knicks won in overtime.

• 5. The 1972 Championship and Retirement

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  Before the 1971-72 season, West considered retiring. Instead, the Lakers hired former Celtics guard Bill Sharman as head coach. The team embarked on an unprecedented 33-game winning streak and finished with a then-record 69 wins. West led the league in assists at a career-high 9.7 per game and was voted MVP of the 1972 All-Star Game. During the 33-game streak, West started every game. In the five games before and after when he was injured and absent, the Lakers lost three. He had a personal winning streak of 41 consecutive starts, which the source describes as the longest such streak in major American professional sports history.

  In the 1972 NBA Finals against the New York Knicks, West admitted to playing "terrible basketball." He later said: "I played terrible basketball in the Finals, and we won. It was particularly frustrating because I was playing so poorly that the team overcame me. Maybe that's what a team is all about." It was his first and only championship ring as a player.

  The 1973-74 season was West's last. Now 36 years old and dealing with a strained groin, he played only 31 games. A contract dispute with owner Jack Kent Cooke ended badly. West said Cooke's agent told him to go to hell, and added: "I felt I was deceived. When you feel that you're deceived you don't want any part of the organization that deceived you. I could've played another very good year. Every athlete says that. But I could've." At the time of his retirement, West had scored more points than any other player in Lakers franchise history. His career totals stood at 25,192 points, 6,238 assists and 5,366 rebounds in 932 games, a 27.0 points per game average that only Michael Jordan, Elgin Baylor, and Wilt Chamberlain surpass among retired players.

• 6. Building Dynasties

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  After three seasons as Lakers head coach, where he posted a 145-101 record and reached the playoffs every year, West shifted to the front office. He became general manager of the Lakers before the 1982-83 season, succeeding Bill Sharman. What followed was the Showtime era. Under coach Pat Riley and featuring Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and James Worthy, the Lakers won five championships: in 1980, 1982, 1985, 1987, and 1988.

  After a slump in the early 1990s, West rebuilt the team and received his first Executive of the Year Award in 1995. He then made two moves that defined the next decade of NBA history: he traded center Vlade Divac for the draft rights to Kobe Bryant in 1996, signed free agent center Shaquille O'Neal that same year, and brought in Phil Jackson as coach in 1999. West departed after the 1999-2000 season amid a power struggle with Jackson. The franchise went on to win three consecutive championships, all built on the foundation West had laid.

  In 2002, West became general manager of the Memphis Grizzlies, explaining: "After being a part of the Lakers success for so many years, I have always wondered how it would be to build a winning franchise that has not experienced much success. I want to help make a difference." He turned a franchise on the verge of being sold into a reliable playoff team, working with players such as Pau Gasol, James Posey, and Jason Williams and hiring coach Hubie Brown, who won Coach of the Year in 2004. West himself won his second Executive of the Year Award that same year.

  On the 19th of May, 2011, West joined the Golden State Warriors as an executive board member, reporting to owners Joe Lacob and Peter Guber. The role came with a minority ownership stake. The Warriors won their first championship in 40 years in 2015; West earned his eighth title as an executive in 2017. He then joined the Los Angeles Clippers and remained there until his death, a total of eight championships across three franchises in the front office alone.

• 7. The Logo and the Man

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  The NBA logo was designed in 1969. Its designer, Alan Siegel, based the silhouette on a photograph of Jerry West. West never received compensation for this use and expressed his own complicated feelings about the association. In March 2008, ESPN voted him the third greatest shooting guard of all time. When the Athletic ranked the top 75 players for the NBA's 75th Anniversary in 2022, West placed 14th.

  Off the court, West was described by those closest to him as a bundle of nerves. Lakers coach Fred Schaus once recalled two weeks during which his guard never said a single word. Broadcaster Chick Hearn said: "He took a loss harder than any player I've ever known. He would sit by himself and stare into space. A loss just ripped his guts out." His first wife, Martha Jane Kane, recalled that after big losses he would drop her at the door and drive away without speaking, an experience she said killed her as a wife.

  The NBA described West as having "obsessive perfectionism, unabashed confidence, and an uncompromising will to win... a level of intensity so high it could melt lead." Even before his sole championship in 1972, the Lakers held a Jerry West Night. His perennial opponent Bill Russell appeared and said: "Jerry, you are, in every sense of the word, truly a champion. If I could have one wish granted, it would be that you would always be happy."

  In 2011, West published a memoir with author Jonathan Coleman titled West by West: My Charmed, Tormented Life, which became a New York Times bestseller. In a television interview, he revealed that his father's abuse had caused depression that followed him his entire life. When the HBO series Winning Time depicted him as a temperamental, foul-mouthed executive in 2022, West demanded a retraction within two weeks, calling the portrayal cruel and deliberately false. He was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame three times: as a player in 1980, as a member of the 1960 U.S. Olympic team in 2010, and as an executive and consultant in 2024, making him the first person to be enshrined in all three categories and the first three-time inductee. On the 5th of September, 2019, he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Donald Trump.