Jerry West

Basketball Player

• Born: May 28, 1938
• Place of Birth: Cheylan, West Virginia
• Died: June 12, 2024
• Place of Death: Los Angeles, California

Jerry West is best remembered as one of the most successful American basketball players in the National Basketball Association (NBA). He later continued to lead teams to championship victory as a professional basketball coach and manager.

Background

Jerry Alan West was born on May 28, 1938, in Cheylan, West Virginia, a small town of approximately five hundred people near the state capital of Charleston. Life in the coal-mining community of Cheylan was quiet and conservative. West's father, Howard, worked as a machine operator, gas station owner and operator, and electrician. The family lived in a six-bedroom house. West, one of six children, had three brothers and two sisters.

West participated in several junior high school and high school sports. Basketball, however, became his most successful sport.

Rising to Excellence

West first played basketball on the Cheylan Junior High School team and went on to play at East Bank High School. He set basketball records for East Bank High School in field goals, free throws, and total points.

West’s high school coach, Roy Williams, instilled in West the desire to learn all aspects of the game: shooting, defense, passing, and playmaking. During his sophomore year in high school, West broke an ankle, the first of a series of major injuries in his career. After much hard work and practice, he was able to continue his brilliant high school basketball career.

West led East Bank High School to the West Virginia state championship in 1956. In his senior year, he averaged 34.2 points per game and became the first player in West Virginia to score more than nine hundred points in a single season. He was selected to the all-state and all-tournament teams.

Fred Schaus, West Virginia University basketball coach and, later, general manager of the Los Angeles Lakers, recruited West to attend West Virginia University. As a sophomore, West played on the West Virginia team, which was ranked number one in the country in 1958.

During his three-year varsity career at West Virginia, West averaged 24.8 points and 13.3 rebounds per game, while shooting 50.6 percent. He was voted most valuable player (MVP) each of his three years on varsity. He also played for the winning 1958 Pan-American Games team and the 1960 gold-medal Olympic team in Rome, Italy. Finally, West was the MVP in the 1959 National Collegiate Athletic Association Final Four.

Champion Player

West entered the NBA in 1961, playing for the Los Angeles Lakers. His first year as a professional was disappointing, as he averaged only 17.6 points per game. With much dedication and perseverance, he finished his second year with an average of 30.8 points per game. One of the highlights of his second season came on January 17, 1962, when he scored 63 points against the New York Knicks; at the time, the point total was a single-game scoring record for guards. West averaged a career high of 31.3 points per game during the 1965-66 playing season.

By this time in his career, West began to be recognized as “Mr. Clutch” for his ability to win numerous college and professional games in high-pressure situations. One of his most memorable shots was a sixty-foot basket he made in Game 3 of the 1970 NBA Finals against New York to send the game into overtime.

West became the fifth player in NBA history to score 20,000 points and the third player to score 25,000 points. He was also recognized for his defensive skills and was selected to the NBA all-defensive team from 1969 to 1973. He led the Lakers to the NBA Finals nine times. In the 1969 finals, against the Boston Celtics, West became the first player on a losing team to win the NBA Finals MVP award.

In 1972 West led the Lakers to the franchise’s first NBA Championship in Los Angeles. Including the playoff games, the Lakers record for the 1971–72 season was an incredible 81–16. Despite incurring numerous injuries throughout his playing career, he overcame them to become a thirteen-time NBA all-star. He was named to the all-NBA first team twelve times and, long after his retirement from playing, continued to hold many Lakers team records. He was named to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1979 and to the NBA thirty-fifth anniversary all-time team in 1980.

Sports Executive

After a distinguished fourteen-year career in the NBA, West was appointed as the Lakers’ head coach in 1976. In three seasons, he guided the team to a 145–101 record. From 1979 to 1982, he served as a scout and special consultant for the Lakers. He was hired as general manager in 1982 and appointed president of the Lakers in the summer of 1988, helping build the Lakers dynasty of the 1980s.

In 1995, West was promoted to executive vice president of basketball operations for the Lakers. After the team posted its best record in four campaigns, he was named the NBA executive of the year for 1995. As part of the celebration of the golden anniversary of the NBA during the 1996–97 season, he was named one of the fifty greatest NBA players of all time. In 1999, he was named one of the twenty best NBA players of all time. After the Lakers won the NBA Championship in 2000, West announced his retirement from basketball. When the Lakers repeated in 2001, he had the satisfaction of knowing he had built the team.

In 2002, West became the president of basketball operations for the Memphis Grizzlies. The Grizzlies had been one of the worst NBA teams, but through West’s efforts, the Grizzlies won fifty games during the 2004 season. He was named executive of the year by the NBA. West left his position with the Grizzlies in 2007. Afterward, he focused on helping the Lakers as an interested fan who could be trusted to impart some valuable words of wisdom. He helped mold championship teams in Los Angeles in 2009 and 2010.

In 2011, West was hired by the Golden State Warriors as an executive board member and acted as a special consultant to the team, which in 2015 won its first NBA title in forty years. Also in 2011, he published his autobiography, West by West: My Charmed, Tormented Life. The Warriors made the 2016 playoff finals but were defeated by the Cleveland Cavaliers, who had lost the finals to them the year before. The following year, on June 14, 2017, just days after the Warriors's championship win over the Cavaliers, it was announced that West was leaving the Warriors to join the Los Angeles Clippers in a similar advisory role. It was to be his last.

In April 2024 West inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame again for his work as a team executive and consultant, making him its first member elected as both a player and a contributor. He died shortly thereafter, on June 12, 2024, in Los Angeles.

Impact

West is widely considered to have been among the all-time best players in the history of the NBA, and his tenure as a coach and manager was also highly successful. For many fans, the names “Mr. Clutch” or “Mr. Consistency” were synonymous with Jerry West. Former opponents, teammates, coaches, fans, and officials respected his talent and referred to him as the complete ballplayer. His speed, shooting ability, leadership, consistency, perfectionism, dedication, and calm and collected personality made him one of college basketball’s and the NBA’s best players. His success inspired many young people to participate in basketball. It is appropriate that a silhouette of him dribbling a ball was used in the NBA’s official logo starting in 1969.

On September 5, 2019, President Donald Trump presented West the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, at a private ceremony in the Oval Office. On receiving the award, West said, “It never ceases to amaze me the places you can go in this world by chasing a bouncing ball.”

Personal Life

West met his wife, Jane, while they were students at West Virginia University. They had three sons, David, Michael, and Mark. After his first marriage ended in divorce, West married Karen Bua in 1978. She had been a cheerleader at Pepperdine University. They had two sons. Their son Jonnie also attended West Virginia University, where he played basketball for the Mountaineers.

Bibliography

Hareas, John. NBA’s Greatest. Dorling Kindersley, 2003.

Itkowitz, Colby. “Trump Jokes He Gave Medal of Freedom to NBA Great Jerry West Because the Former Player’s Home State Voted for Him.” The Washington Post, 5 Sept. 2019, www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-jokes-he-gave-medal-of-freedom-to-nba-great-jerry-west-because-the-players-home-state-is-pro-trump/2019/09/05/e9cb619e-d02f-11e9-8c1c-7c8ee785b855‗story.html. Accessed 7 Aug. 2024.

Kupper, Mike. “Jerry West, Lakers Legend and Architect of ‘Showtime’ Era, Dies at 86.” The Los Angeles Times, 12 June 2024, www.latimes.com/obituaries/story/2024-06-12/jerry-west-lakers-showtime-dead. Accessed 14 June 2024.

Lace, William W. The Los Angeles Lakers Basketball Team. Enslow, 1998.

Lazenby, Roland. The Lakers: A Basketball Journey. St. Martin’s, 1993.

Martin, Annabelle T. Superstars of the Los Angeles Lakers. Amicus, 2016.

Ramen, Fred. Jerry West. Rosen Central, 2002.

Thornley, Stew. Basketball’s Original Dynasty: The History of the Lakers. Nodin, 1989.

West, Jerry, and Jonathan Coleman. West by West: My Charmed, Tormented Life. Little, 2011.