Jerry West, the star who inspired the NBA logo, dies

Jerry West, NBA legend and the man who inspired the logo of the best basketball competition on the planet, died this Wednesday at the age of 86. Star of the Los Angeles Lakers, he was a fourteen-time All Star and was part of the NBA’s ideal team ten times. He won the gold medal at the 1960 Rome Olympic Games with an American team in which Oscar Robertson also stood out and was NBA champion in 1972. He currently worked as an executive at the Los Angeles Clippers, a franchise that reported the death of the myth.

The figure of Jerry West is one of the most transcendental in the history of the NBA. Member of the Hall of Fame since 1980 and chosen among the 50 best players of all time 16 years later, the legendary shooting guard played for fourteen seasons in the Los Angeles Lakers and could have earned an even more amazing record if he had not come across the hegemonic Celtics .

They played in the NBA Finals nine times, but lost eight of them, six at the hands of the Massachusetts team and another two against the New York Knicks. The Bostonian tyranny, commanded by the insurmountable Bill Russell, closed his path to glory until, in 1972, he finally reached the top. The Knicks, who had stood in West’s way in 1970 and would do so again in 1973, would end up kneeling in the fifth game of a Finals in which the Lakers appeared with a very powerful quintet in which the leading voice was Wilt Chamberlain and Jerry West wore them.

West, who had been MVP of the Finals in 1969 after averaging 37.9 points despite the Lakers being defeated by the Celtics, an achievement that no one has repeated since then, was thus able to remove the thorn and record the high point of a career who would have his continuity in the offices once the star opted to retire and after a less than brilliant period of three years reluctantly occupying the Lakers bench (1976-1979). From his position as general manager of the Memphis Grizzlies, he would oversee the conversion of the Spanish Pau Gasol into the franchise player of the Tennessee team, before sending him to the Lakers in a transfer that West, hero of the purple and gold, described as “great.” » for Californians.

Kobe Bryant Discoverer

By then West, who averaged 27 points throughout his fourteen seasons in the NBA and always dazzled by the elegance of his movements, which is why, among other factors, his silhouette served as inspiration for Alan Siegel when commissioner Walter Kennedy commissioned him In 1969, the publicist was asked to create a logo that would serve as a brand image for a competition that at that time rivaled the ABA. He had already been one of the architects of ‘showtime’, the name by which the years of splendor they lived in are known. the Lakers in the eighties of the last decade under the leadership of Pat Riley from the wing and with the guidance of Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on the hardwood. From his position as executive, West created an unforgettable team that amazed with the quality of its basketball and managed to secure five rings: 1980, 1982, 1985, 1987 and 1988.

West, whose childhood was marked by the physical abuse he suffered at the hands of his father and the death of one of his brothers in the Korean War, events that contributed decisively to forging an introverted and solitary character, continued as the gray brain of the Californians until 2000, cementing the block led by Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal that would achieve three more championships: 2000, 2001 and 2002.

Jerry West, then executive vice president, had been credited with betting on the Black Mamba, chosen with number 13 in the 1996 draft by the Charlotte Hornets but immediately recruited by the Lakers in exchange for Vlade Divac in an operation masterfully conceived by West.

The Lakers once retired the number ’44’ worn by the legendary guard, characterized by his rebounding ability as well as his good wrist and tireless spirit, and also erected a statue that serves as a tribute to him in the vicinity of the Staples Center ( today known as Crypto.com Arena). He also worked in the offices of the Golden State Warriors, where he avoided a Klay Thompson-for-Kevin Love trade that likely would have prevented the dynasty the Bay Area established, and the Los Angeles Clippers, where he paired Paul George with Kawhi Leonard. .