Jerry West, the basketball star whose silhouette inspired the NBA logo, died on Wednesday morning at the age of 86, the Los Angeles Clippers announced.
West was elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame three times in his career as a player, scout, coach and executive and was nicknamed “Mr Clutch” for his late exploits on the court, “Mr Outside” for his perimeter play and “Zeke from Cabin Creek” in jokey reference to his origin humble.
He was a 14-time All-Star, a 12-time All-NBA selection, the captain of the 1960 US Olympic team that won the gold medal, the NBA Finals MVP in 1969, part of the Los Angeles team that won the 1972 championship. -75 NBA in 2021.
A point guard by trade, West still holds the league record for highest points per game average in a playoff series at 46.3.
After retiring from the court, West served as general manager of eight NBA championship teams with the Lakers, helping build the “Showtime” dynasty of Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and James Worthy under coach Pat Riley, before leading Memphis. The Grizzlies went to their first playoff berth in the 2000s.
Jerome Alan West was born on May 28, 1938 in Chelyan, West Virginia, the fifth of six children born to coal mine electrician Howard West and homemaker Cecil Sue West.
He suffered a difficult start in life: his father was abusive and he was haunted by the death of his older brother David during the Korean War in 1951, a trauma that made the initially shy and introverted boy.
Small and frail, West was given vitamin injections by a local doctor at a young age and stayed away from team sports, preferring to hunt and fish in his youth until he discovered a talent for shooting hoops in his neighbor’s yard.
Hours of training in all weathers eventually landed him on the East Bank High School team and, in the summer of 1953, he experienced a growth spurt that reached six feet tall, allowing him to quickly become one of the world’s best small forwards. country.
He was named All-State from 1953 to 1956, then All-American in 1956 when he was named West Virginia Player of the Year after becoming the first high school player in the nation to score more than 900 points in a single season, averaging 32.2. points per game.
Despite the interest of more than 60 universities, he decided to register at West Virginia University in Morgantown in the fall of 1956 and was part of a side that enjoyed a perfect season in the new year, winning all 17 games played. West eventually led the Mountaineers to the 1959 NCAA championship game.
What followed was an illustrious 14-year playing career with the Lakers, but he won just one championship in nine trips to the NBA Finals, suffering the brunt of the Boston Celtics’ dominance in the 1960s.
West was known as a dead-shooter in the era before the advent of the three-point line, with his greatest moment coming when he hit a buzzer beater from 60 feet against the New York Knicks to send Game Three of the 1970 Finals into overtime.
Teammate Rod Hundley once described West as “the biggest competitor I’ve ever seen. I don’t care what you play, he wants to win. His name is ‘Mr Clutch’ and he lives up to that moniker, because every time we’re in that situation , boom, they’ll make the picture.
On the contrary, he hates losing.
“He takes it harder than any player I’ve ever known,” broadcaster Chick Hearn said of West. “He would sit alone and stare into space. The loss would just tear him apart.”
After hanging up his sneakers, West coached the Lakers from 1976 to 1979, signing for three years and then serving as general manager for eight years during their heyday in the 1980s, winning five championship rings before rising to the top and serving as executive until 2000.
He went on to become the general manager of the Grizzlies from 2002 to 2007, then a board member of the Golden State Warriors from 2011 to 2017 before finally moving to the Clippers for his last dance.
Jerry West was married twice: to his college sweetheart Martha Jane Kane from 1960 to 1976, with whom he had three sons, and to Kristine “Karen” Bua from 1978 until his death, with whom he had two more children.
He recounted his life story in a 2011 memoir West by West: My Charmed, Tormented Life and received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Donald Trump in 2019.