To Absent Friends - Jerry West

For the second time this month, the sports world in general and the basketball world in particular have been rocked with the news of the passing of one of its most significant figures.   The first was Bill Walton, and this time it was Jerry West, who died earlier this week at the age of 88.

A West Virginia native ("Zeke from Cabin Creek"),  he was born in poverty in a West Virginia mining town with a population fewer that 1,000 people,  and from there he went on to All-America honors at West Virginia University, the Most Outstanding Player award in the 1959 NCAA Tournament, even though the Mountainers lost in the Final game, an Olympic Gold Medal in 1960, and a professional career as both a player and an executive that is unparalleled. 

He spent his entire playing career as a Los Angeles Laker where his teams made the NBA Finals nine times, winning the Championship once.  Following his playing career, he had a three stint as the Lakers coach, wherein his teams made the playoffs all three years.  There then followed a career as Lakers GM.  As GM, West was able to draft Magic Johnson and Kobe Bryant, and trade for Shaquille O'Neal.  His Lakers teams then made it to the Finals eight more times, winning six of them.

Oh, and when the NBA decided to adopt a logo, they used Jerry West as the model:

I will leave it to professional wordsmiths to further encapsulate Jerry West:

In THIS FRONT PAGE TRIBUTE to West that ran in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette  the day after West died, Paul Zeise makes the case that West may well be the greatest "basketball man" ever, as well as the most important person to ever come from the State of West Virgina.

And today's Sunday edition of the PG, GENE COLLIER PAYS TRIBUTE to Jerry West as only Gene Collier can.

I wish that I could say that I saw Jerry West play a lot, but, alas, much of his career as a player took place when those of us in Pittsburgh didn't get to see a lot NBA basketball on television.  I certainly knew who he was and that he was great, though, and I do remember seeing him sink that 60 foot shot at the buzzer against the Knicks in the Playoffs that season that Collier references in his column.

RIP Jerry West.

POST SCRIPT......That 1960 Olympic team referenced above? In addition to Jerry West, others on the team included Walt Bellamy, Bob Boozer, Darrell Imhof, Jerry Lucas, Oscar Robertson, and Adrian Smith.  All you kids out there need to be aware that there were dream teams long before there was The Dream Team.