Jerry West, one of basketball’s greatest players, dies at the age of 86

Jerry West, who emerged from coal-fired West Virginia to become one of basketball’s greatest players, an iconic figure in Los Angeles Lakers history and a literal icon of the sport — his silhouette on the National Basketball Association logo — died Wednesday. He was 86 years old.

The Los Angeles Clippers announced his death but did not provide any further details. West has been an advisor to the team in recent years.

For four decades, first as a player and then as a scout, coach and executive, West played an enormous role in the evolution of the NBA in general and the Lakers in particular, beginning in 1960 when the team moved from Minneapolis to Los Angeles. Angeles was her first draft pick.

He won championships with several generations of Laker teams and Laker stars and was a star in each of his 14 seasons, but with the exception of his longtime teammate, the great forward Elgin Baylor, who retired without a championship, there may have never been one at all. A bigger player who endured the constant frustration that followed West for the better part of his career on the court.

During his tenure, the Lakers were almost always in contention for the championship, but West had the misfortune to play while the Boston Celtics, with Bill Russell at quarterback, were at the height of invincibility—they beat the Lakers in the Finals six times.

It wasn’t until the Lakers acquired their own giant, Wilt Chamberlain, that they triumphed, but even that took four seasons — and a seventh Finals defeat, to the Knicks in 1970 — to achieve.

The Lakers won 69 games in the 1971-72 season, a record at the time – the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls won 72, and the 2014-15 Golden State Warriors won 73 games, including an unparalleled streak of 33 Consecutive match. When they avenged their loss to the Knicks and won the championship in 1972, West spoke after the last game with an enormous sense of relief, remembering that his thirst for final victory began before he entered the professional world. In 1958, his junior year at West Virginia University, his team reached the national finals against California, but lost by one point.

“The last time I won the championship was when I was in the twelfth grade,” West said after scoring 23 points to lead the Lakers to a 114-100 victory over the Knicks to win the title in five games. He added: “This is a great feeling.” “This is the summer I’m really going to enjoy.”

As general manager of the Lakers, West has often succeeded. He led a team that included Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson and James Worthy to a championship in 1985 — and finally sweet revenge against the Celtics — and again in 1987 and 1988.

In 2000, as executive vice president (his role was supergeneral manager, with authority over employees), he won again, bringing in Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal. West left the Lakers after that season, but the team built largely under his supervision won two more championships in a row.

As a tall guard and point guard, West, who played from 1960-74, is on anyone’s short list of the best backcourt players in the history of the game. At 6-foot-2 or 6-foot-3 and less than 200 pounds, he was not particularly large, even by today’s standards: his great contemporaries Oscar Robertson, John Havlicek, and, a little later, Walt Frazier, were taller, more powerful men. Skilled at deploying opposing guards. (Havlicek also played forward.)

But West, who routinely played through injuries — his nose was said to have been broken nine times — was a fast, powerful jumper with a quick release to the right, all of which allowed him to put his shot wide against taller, stronger defenders.

He wasn’t one of the best dribblers in the league, but he was among the best passers, averaging seven assists per game, and nearly six rebounds per game was better than average for a guard. He had speed in defence, tremendous stamina, a relentlessly active presence on the field – a quality now often described as a great engine – and superior sense on the field.

However, he is perhaps best known for his excellence in tough situations and big games, his willingness to get on the ball when the game was in the balance, and his shooting under pressure.

In the 1970 Finals against the Knicks, West made one of the most memorable shots in league history. With the Lakers trailing by two and the clock ticking, his powerful whistle from outside the half court helped tie the game. The three-point shot was not in effect — the NBA did not adopt it until 1979 — and the Lakers lost in overtime.

“If it comes down to one shot, I like to hit the ball,” West once said. do not worry about that. If he doesn’t get in, he won’t get in.”

West led the NBA in scoring in the 1969-1970 season with 31.2 points per game, scored more than 30 points per game in four seasons, and averaged 27 points during the regular season in his career, the sixth highest number ever in the NBA. For professionals. NBA – 3rd highest at the time of his retirement (behind Chamberlain and Baylor).

But he was better in the playoffs, averaging more than 30 points per game seven times, including 40.6 in 1964.

In the 1969 Finals against the Celtics, he averaged 37.9 points, including 42 in the final game, in which he also had 13 rebounds and 12 assists, and led a fourth-quarter comeback that fell, heartbreakingly, short of a bucket. He was named MVP of the series, still the only time a losing player has been the Finals MVP. After that, the Celtics were eager for praise.

Bill Russell called West “the greatest player in the game,” and Red Auerbach, the famed coach who was then the general manager of the Celtics, called West’s performance in a losing cause one of the most remarkable performances he had ever seen.

“The guy I felt sorry for in those playoffs was Jerry West,” John Havlicek told writer Terry Pluto in his 2000 book Tall Tales: The Glory Years of the NBA. “It was so great, and he was so devastated. When we walked off the field, I went up to Jerry and said, ‘I love you and I just hope you get the championship.’ You deserve it as much as anyone who has ever played this game. It was so emotionally exhausting that He couldn’t say anything, but you could feel his absolute and complete depression over the loss.

The full obituary will appear soon.