He was a participant, a coach after which the supervisor of the Los Angeles Lakers, with whom he gained 5 NBA titles within the Nineteen Eighties. West, who died on June 12, aged 86, and whose silhouette turned the image of the American league, embodied American basketball for six many years.
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Few athlete’s silhouettes might be mentioned to final perpetually. Jerry West, who died on Wednesday, June 12, aged 86, was a type of exceptions. A celebrity within the NBA within the Nineteen Sixties and early Nineteen Seventies, the Los Angeles Lakers guard turned the mannequin for the North American basketball league’s brand in 1969, incomes himself a nickname –”The Emblem” – with which he maintained a sophisticated relationship all through his life. And but, it could have been exhausting to give you a more sensible choice than this elegant, iconic picture of a dribbling participant: For six many years, West embodied basketball.
“Jerry West was a basketball genius and a defining determine in our league for greater than 60 years,” saluted NBA president Adam Silver in an announcement launched on Wednesday, calling him a “consummate competitor” and “one of many best executives in sports activities historical past.”
The native of Chelyan, West Virginia, got here up in opposition to the Boston Celtics’ hegemony all through his whole enjoying profession. Confronted with the East Coast powerhouse – which is on the right track for an 18th NBA championship in 2024 – and its star Invoice Russell, his Californian franchise by no means discovered the correct answer, dropping six occasions within the NBA Finals (1962, 1963, 1965, 1966, 1968 and 1969). And whereas he ultimately reached the Holy Grail in 1972, two years earlier than the top of his enjoying profession – not with out first dropping a seventh last – this single title proved inadequate to redeem West’s pent-up frustrations. “Haunted by these misplaced finals,” West set about fixing the Celtics’ puzzle as soon as he had put away his sneakers.
A tireless offensive participant on the court docket (he scored over 27 factors per recreation in his profession, at a time when three-point taking pictures did not exist), “Mr Clutch” – his first nickname, as a consequence of his propensity for scoring decisive baskets on the finish of video games – turned an uncompromising chief in his second profession, in perpetual pursuit of excellence. Because the architect of two dynasties that dominated the NBA, the 1960 Olympic champion (in Rome) by no means wavered in his willpower to maintain “his” Lakers on the prime of the league. Just like the legendary Crimson Auerbach with the Celtics, West was on the coronary heart of the Angeleno group’s many rebirths – and teardowns.
Absolute dominance
As basic supervisor of the Californian franchise (after transient stints as coach after which scout), he constructed one of many NBA’s most spectacular groups within the Nineteen Eighties. Led by the likes of Earvin “Magic” Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, the Lakers gained 5 league titles between 1980 and 1988 (together with two in opposition to the Celtics) and went down in historical past because the “Showtime” period.
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