 |
| |
|
The Official Web Site of the WVU Varsity Club |
|
|
|
Profile: Jerry West
Many there that day believed West was prematurely ending an NBA basketball career that ranks among the finest in the history of the sport. He averaged more than 20 points per game in his final season in 1974, once again ranking among the league leaders. By most standards his 1974 season was a good reason to continue -- for everyone that is except West -- an admitted perfectionist. “I’m not willing to sacrifice my standards,” he said. “Perhaps I expect too much.” West soon immersed himself in the game of golf -- which much like basketball -- was something he could master by himself. As he did when he was a kid growing up in Cheylan, W.Va., West practiced and perfected his golf game to the point where he shot a round of 62 at Bel Air Country Club. Yet golf didn’t provide him with the same competitive fire that basketball did. His first stab at post-basketball-playing employment was a three-year coaching stint with the Lakers from 1976-79, leading LA to a 145-101 record and a spot in the playoffs every year. But he had difficulty getting the Laker players to understand and play the game the way he did. The most famous basket of his career came in the fifth game of the NBA finals in 1970 when he made a mid-court shot at the buzzer to send the game into overtime. Remembered New York Knicks guard Walt Frazier, “The man’s crazy. He looks determined and he thinks it’s really going in!” His team went on to lose the game in overtime, and a dejected West could barely talk about the miraculous shot, saying, “It doesn’t really matter, does it? We lost the game.” “He took a loss harder than any player I’ve ever known,” long-time Lakers broadcaster Chick Hearn once said. “He would sit by himself and stare into space.” West knew his role as head coach wasn’t working, and he was even more uncomfortable with the advisor role he accepted for three seasons with the Lakers from 1980-82. It was only when he became the Lakers general manager working in a position behind the scenes that he once again flourished. He soon helped Los Angeles become the premiere team of the 1980s – something his Laker teams, primarily because of the Boston Celtics, failed to do in the 1960s when he was a player. And once LA began to grow old and stale in the early 1990s, he shook up the organization first by trading established center Vlade Divac for the draft rights to then-unknown high school player Kobe Bryant, and then he freed up salary cap room to sign all-star center Shaquille O’Neal. That bold move led to three more NBA titles for the Lakers and universal acclaim for West as one of professional sports most brilliant executives. There have been great players and there have been great general managers, but never has there been a combination quite like Jerry West. Like most kids growing up in West Virginia in the 1940s, things didn’t come easy for West. The son of a coal-mine electrician, he saw first-hand what living in Appalachia was like during the depression. He found comfort in shooting baskets at a neighbor’s house, developing a quick release shot that became his trademark. He practiced so incessantly that he had to take vitamin injections for added nutrition. The solitude of the dirt basketball court also provided West with the emotional shelter he needed after learning at 12 that his older brother David was killed in the Korean War. More than 40 years later during the taping of the ESPN Sports Century Series, West had difficulty talking about his older brother’s unfortunate fate. Although West was gaining confidence as a shooter, his body hadn’t quite caught up yet. It wasn’t until the summer of his senior year in high school in 1955 when he grew six inches that he began to mature physically. He led the state in scoring with more than 900 points that year to guide East Bank High School to the 1956 state title. More than 60 college recruiters made a pitch for West, but one persistent coach won out in West Virginia University’s Fred Schaus. Perhaps it was the fact that West became familiar with Schaus, a former WVU player, while listening to Jack Fleming’s broadcasts of Mountaineer games that finally won him over. Whatever it was, West was joining an up-and-coming Mountaineer program that already had an established star in Hot Rod Hundley. Unlike West, Hundley had a reputation for clowning in games and didn’t always take himself too seriously. West Virginia had no trouble getting through the Southern Conference with Hundley, but when it came time for the NCAA tournament West Virginia was eliminated early. West Virginia observers soon developed a different outlook when watching West on a freshmen team that included all-state forward Willie Akers, guard Butch Goode and forward Jim Ritchie. The Mountaineer freshmen went 17-0 behind the brilliant play of West, who averaged 19.5 points and 17.7 rebounds per game. Just six games into his sophomore season, Jerry sank a shot with 12 seconds to play to send the Richmond game into overtime. Then he scored seven of the team’s nine points in overtime to win it. Later in the year against Villanova, the Wildcats held a 14-point lead with eight minutes to play. West scored 17 of the team’s remaining 23 points in a miraculous comeback. In the game’s final 40 seconds, he scored two field goals and fed 6-foot-10 center Lloyd Sharrar for the game-winner with two seconds left on the clock. West finished the game with 37 points, 13 rebounds and five assists.
West Virginia finished the 1958 season with a 26-2 record and the nation’s top ranking. However, due to some key late-season injuries West Virginia was upset by Manhattan in the first round of the NCAA tournament. During West’s junior season in 1959, the Mountaineers returned to the NCAA tournament and advanced all the way to the finals where they were knocked off by California, 71-70. West won the Final Four’s Most Outstanding Player Award after tying the NCAA five-game tournament scoring record with 160 points. West Virginia made it to the second round of the NCAA tournament during West’s senior season in 1960 before losing to NYU in overtime. In three years with Jerry West in the lineup, West Virginia posted records of 26-2, 29-5 and 26-5. West finished his three-year career with 2,309 points, 1,240 rebounds and averages of 24.8 points and 13.3 rebounds per game. He was a two-time consensus All-American and ranked with Cincinnati’s Oscar Robertson as the game’s two greatest players of the time. The two later teamed up to play for the United States team in the 1960 Summer Olympics, leading the U.S. to the gold medal in Rome. West was drafted in the first round that year by the Lakers, which moved from Minneapolis before the start of the season. Joining West in Los Angeles was his college coach Fred Schaus, who eased Jerry into action. West did not crack the starting lineup until midway through his rookie season and averaged 17.6 points per game. Teaming with all-star forward Elgin Baylor, West helped the Lakers make a nine-game improvement on their record of the previous season. The Lakers defeated Detroit in the first round of the playoffs before losing the division semifinals to St. Louis. During West’s remaining 13 seasons the Lakers only missed the NBA finals four times. However, Los Angeles lost eight of those NBA final appearances. ESPN’s Bob Carter wrote, “Year after year the Boston Celtics won the championship trophy and Jerry took home the consolation prize: praise for the runner-up.” In the seventh game of the 1969 Finals West scored 42 points, pulled down 13 rebounds and handed out 12 assists while playing with a groin injury. Said Celtics center Bill Russell, “Los Angeles has not won the championship, but Jerry West is a champion.” West’s 29.1 points per game average in the postseason is only second all-time to Michael Jordan’s 33.4 average. He was the NBA’s scoring champion in 1969-70 (31.2) and was a first team NBA all-star 10 times and made the all-defensive team four years. He played in the NBA all-star game 14 times and was the game’s MVP in 1972.
West became just the third player in NBA history to score more than 25,000 points following Wilt Chamberlain and Oscar Robertson. He was inducted into the Pro Basketball Hall of Fame in 1979 and was also listed among the NBA’s 50 greatest players. A silhouette of West represents the NBA’s official logo. After watching the Lakers capture their second NBA championship in 2001, West stepped down as the team’s general manager. In April 2002, West – at 63 -- accepted another challenge when he agreed to become president of basketball operations for the Memphis Grizzlies. Memphis has now become one of the NBA's top teams. For West the competitive fires still burn. |
Standing
at the podium announcing his retirement from professional basketball
in 1975, Jerry West, at 36, had to be wondering what he was going to
do with the rest of his life.
West was considered the “tallest” 6-foot-3
player in college basketball. He had marvelously quick hands, a
broad but slender frame with long arms and springy legs. Not only
was he the team’s leading scorer with an average of 17.8 points per
game, but he was also the team’s second-leading rebounder with an
average of 11.1 per game.
He got his only NBA championship trophy in
1972. West averaged 25.8 points and led the league in assists with
an average of 9.7 per game to help the Lakers win a record 33
straight games. Los Angeles finished the season with a 69-13 record,
the NBA’s best until Chicago topped it with a 72-10 record in 1996. |
This site is the property of the
Mountaineer Sports Network, 2004 |
|