He won an Olympic gold medal as a player. He was the most outstanding player of the Final Four in 1959 and NBA Finals in 1969 even though his team, in both cases, didn’t win the title. He was named the NBA Executive of the Year twice.
Former Lakers player and General Manager Jerry West looks on as the Boston Celtics play the Los Angeles Lakers in Game One of the 2010 NBA Finals at Staples Center on June 3, 2010, in Los Angeles, California.
And his tenure as a coach of the Los Angeles Lakers lasted only three seasons, so he would never be mentioned as the greatest coach ever. But if you look at what he did, it was actually pretty good, as he made the playoffs in all three seasons and got to the conference finals once. There are literally hundreds of stories that establish West’s basketball genius, his prowess as an executive and his eye for talent. He saw the game in a way that few others have and had incredible vision when he was building teams.The one that stands out to me is when he was an executive with the Golden State Warriors in 2014 and threatened to resign if the general manager went through with his plans to trade Klay Thompson for Kevin Love.
A favorite of mine came back when I was a young reporter for the Post-Gazette and tasked with writing a story about Sandy Stephens shortly after he died in 2000. Stephens was a two-sport superstar athlete from Uniontown who, in 1960, led Minnesota to the national title and became the first Black quarterback to be named an All-American.
I had the honor of interviewing West three times, and I was always struck by exactly that — a gentleman on the surface with a clear, burning intensity underneath. He was quiet when he talked but loud in what he said, and while he was always approachable, he gave the vibe of a man you just didn’t want to mess with.
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