Jerry West

** Elected to Basketball Hall of Fame in 1979.**

Jerry Alan West (born May 28, 1938, in Chelyan, West Virginia) is a retired American basketball player who played his entire professional career for the NBA's Los Angeles Lakers. West has also had a successful career as a coach and as an executive. He was enshrined in the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1980, and his dribbling silhouette has long been used in the National Basketball Association's official logo.

West was a standout in high school and at college, attending West Virginia University and leading it to the 1959 NCAA championship game (of which he was named Most Valuable Player) before embarking on a 14-year career with the Los Angeles Lakers. He also played for, and co-captained with Oscar Robertson, the 1960 U.S. Olympic gold medal team in Rome.

His nicknames included "Mr. Clutch," for his skill and ability to make a shot in a clutch situation, and "Zeke from Cabin Creek," given to him by teammate Elgin Baylor, and one West was not particularly fond of. The latter name is somewhat of a misnomer, but not completely; Cabin Creek is the name of both a stream and a community near West's hometown of Chelyan. The community of Cabin Creek is on the opposite side of the stream from Chelyan as it enters the Kanawha River. He also has a nickname, "The Logo", referring to the NBA logo featuring his silhouette .

Early life
Jerry West attended East Bank, West Virginia, High School from 1952-1956. He was named an All-State from 1953-56, and an All-American in 1956, when he was also named West Virginia Player of the Year after becoming the state's first high-school player to score more than 900 points in a season (32.2 ppg, 1956). He also led East Bank to a state championship that same year. Due to West's tremendous play in the state championship, the school of East Bank changes its name every year on that same day to West Bank.


Collegiate Career
Jerry West played for the West Virginia University Mountaineers in Morgantown, West Virginia from 1956-1960.

In 1958, West broke onto the national scene as a sophomore by scoring 17.8 points per game and averaging 11.1 rebounds per game. West started all 28 games of the season, while shooting 49.6% from the field and 73.2% from the free throw line. That season, West earned second-team and third-team All-American and first-team all-Southern Conference honors. He was also named Southern Conference Tournament MVP. West scored a season-high 37 points against Villanova mid-way through the season, along with 13 rebounds. The Mountaineers went 26-2 that season, ending the season with an 89-84 loss to Manhattan College in the post-season tournament.

The following season, West's junior one in 1959, established West as one of the best shooters in West Virginia basketball history. While being named a consensus All-American, Southern Conference Player and Athlete of the Year, and Southern Conference Tournament MVP for the second consecutive season, West averaged 26.6 points per game while starting all 34 games. Along with 86 assists on the season, he also averaged 12.3 rebounds per game. West shot a career-high 51.8% from the field, but a career-low 69.7% from the free throw line. West's best game on the season came against Tennessee, when he scored a career-high 44 points, while grabbing 12 rebounds and going 10 for 11 from the free throw line. His 31 rebounds against George Washington late in the season is a career-high of West's. The Mountaineers went 29-5 on the season. West's 903 points on the season was the most in a season by a Mountaineer, until West broke it the following season, while his 340 field goals made is the most in a season.

In West's final collegiate season, 1960, West put up the best performances of his career. He scored a career-high 29.3 points per game and a career-high 134 assists on the season. He also set a career-high of 16.5 rebounds per game. He shot 50.4% from the field and a career-high of 76.6% from the free throw line. West was again a consensus All-American selection, first-team all-Southern Conference, and Southern Conference Tournament MVP (for the third consecutive season). West's best performance of the season was a 40-point and 16-rebound game against Virginia. West's 908 points on the season is the most points scored in a season by a Mountaineer while his 510 rebounds on the season is also a school record. His 30 double-doubles on the season is also a Mountaineer record while his 15 30-point games is also a record.

In his career, West totaled 2,309 points and 1,240 rebounds. He averaged 24.8 points per game for his career and 13.3 rebounds per game. West currently holds the career-school records for most points scored, most points per game, most field goals made (843 FGs), most free throws made (623 FTs), most free throws attempted (851 FTs), most rebounds, most double-doubles (70), most 20-point games (64), and most 30-point games. West also has the second most field goals attempted in a career (1,660 FGs), second most career rebounding average (13.33), and second most career 10-point games (89). West is often considered the greatest basketball player in Mountaineer history.

In addition to the Olympic Games, he was a member of the U.S. Pan American Games gold medal-winning team (1959).


NBA playing career
Drafted by the Los Angeles Lakers of the NBA with the 2nd overall pick in the 1960 entry draft, Jerry West became the first draft pick by the Lakers after their move to Los Angeles. West spent his entire professional career (1960-74) with the Los Angeles Lakers franchise. Although he was teamed with Hall-of-Fame scorer Elgin Baylor for most of his career, West still averaged more than 30 points per game in four different seasons and led the league in scoring during the 1969-70 season. One of the most memorable moments of the '69-'70 season came in the NBA Finals, against the New York Knicks. In Game 3, West hit a 60-foot shot at the buzzer to send the game into overtime. Although the Knicks won the game and the series, West's shot is often called one of the most memorable moments in Finals history. Remarkably, since there was no three point line in the NBA at that time, West's shot only counted for 2 points and sent the game to overtime, after which the Lakers lost. In today's NBA, the shot would have won the game.

An excellent playmaker, West also led the league in assists per game during the 1971-72 season. Although steals weren't recorded by the NBA until West's final season, at age 35 West became the first player in the league to ever record 10 steals in a single game — still the Lakers franchise record.

Heralded as one of the most legendary clutch shooters in the NBA's history, West averaged 29.1 points per game in 153 playoff games, including 40.6 in 11 playoff games in 1965, in 1969 he became the only losing player to win the NBA Finals MVP award.

West played in nine NBA Finals, but finished his career with only one championship, won in the 1971-72 season, the year the Lakers established a modern North American professional sports record of 33 straight wins. He retired two years later, after leading the Lakers to yet another Pacific Division title in the 1973-74 season — this, in spite of the loss of legendary center Wilt Chamberlain to retirement. As a testimony to West's on-court leadership and presence, the Lakers fell to the Pacific Division cellar the year after he retired, posting a 30-52 record. West later became a coach who carried the Lakers into the playoffs in his three seasons 1976-1979, after which he was hired as an executive for the club in various positions.

When he retired, West had scored 25,192 points, averaged 27.0 points per game (the forth highest career average in NBA history), and made 7,160 free throws and 6,238 assists. During his career, West was named to the NBA All-Defensive First Team four times (the NBA All-Defensive Team did not exist until West's ninth season), to the All-NBA First Team 10 times, and played in the All-Star Game 13 times. West was named the All-Star Game MVP in 1972. He remains the only player ever to be named NBA Finals MVP when on a losing team. He accomplished this in the 1969 NBA Finals against Boston, the first year the award was given. In 1980 he was named to the NBA's 35th Anniversary All-Time Team and in 1996 was selected as one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History.


Coaching career
After the Lakers endured two losing, non-playoff seasons, West was hired as coach for the 1976-77 season. With the recently-acquired Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, West was able to turn the Lakers around and coach them to the NBA's Pacific Division title. However, the Lakers were unable to overcome the Portland Trail Blazers and Bill Walton in the Western Conference Finals. West coached the Lakers for two more seasons, with two more playoff appearances, before moving to the Lakers' front office.

After winning the 1980 NBA Finals, the Lakers lost in the first round of the playoffs to the Houston Rockets the next season under coach Paul Westhead. Westhead was blamed for a slow start by the Lakers the following season and was fired by owner Jerry Buss. At an ensuing press conference, Buss named then-executive West as head coach. West, in full earshot of the reporters at the press conference, replied "Like hell!", to which Buss turned to then-assistant coach Pat Riley and asked if he wanted the job. Riley reluctantly agreed, but only if West would sit at the sidelines for a few games until he felt comfortable. After the Lakers and Riley showed improvement (and apparently satifying owner Buss), West returned to the front office.


Legacy
Jerry West is considered the greatest basketball player in West Virginia history, and one of the greatest athletes in the school's history. Along with becoming one of the greatest collegiate players in the NCAA and leading the Mountaineers' to the school's only national title appearance (a loss in 1960), West is considered as one of the greatest players in professional basketball history and one of the best of his era in the NBA.

West was known for his long-range jump shot (in a time when there was no three-point shot line), tough defense, and his will to win. West was the third player in NBA history to reach 25,000 points along with greats Wilt Chamberlain and Oscar Robertson. West was an All-Star every year of his 14-year career and led the Lakers to five NBA Finals appearances. He is one of the greatest Lakers' in history after being drafted second overall in 1960.

For a period of time in certain parts of West Virginia, West's home state, pee-wee basketball was known as Jerry West basketball. It was used in the same context that youth baseball leagues use with Babe Ruth baseball, or youth football leagues use Pop Warner football. In the summer of 2000, the city of Morgantown, West Virginia, and West Virginia Governor Cecil Underwood, dedicated the road outside of the West Virginia University Coliseum, "Jerry West Boulevard." The same road is shared on the south end of Morgantown with Don Knotts Boulevard, in honor of another WVU alumnus. Also, on November 26, 2005, his number 44 became the first basketball number to be retired by West Virginia University and on February 17, 2007, a bronze statue of him was honored outside of the WVU Coliseum.

Jerry West is one of the most popular players ever to play in the NBA, he has achieved universal respect, as a player, coach and an executive. No-one had more respect for him than the rival Celtics- After the final game of the 1969 NBA Finals, which the Lakers lost to the Celtics, (and during which West scored 42 points, grabbed 13 rebounds and handed out 12 assists), West was devastated after losing to the Celtics once again. The Celtics went immediately to the Lakers locker room. "(Bill) Russell took West's hand and held it silently.

"'Jerry,' (John) Havlicek professed 'I love you.'"
From "The Show" by Roland Lazenby. Another Celtic, Larry Siegfried once said of West "He is the master, they can talk about the other, build them up, but he is the one. He is the only guard."


Management
In 1982, Jerry West was named general manager of the Lakers, and through shrewd trades and draft picks, maintained the Lakers' status in the NBA elite for the rest of the decade. These teams were built around the core of Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and James Worthy, and would go on to win four more championships in 1982, 1985, 1987 and 1988, becoming the first team to win back-to-back championships since the great Boston Celtics dynasty did so in 1968 and 1969.

Following a slump in the early 1990s, West received the NBA Executive of the Year Award in 1995 after his Lakers reached the playoffs with a team built around Nick Van Exel, Eddie Jones, Cedric Ceballos, and Vlade Divac. West is credited for bringing Kobe Bryant onto the team, trading Divac to the Charlotte Hornets for Bryant's draft rights, and signing free agent Shaquille O'Neal to the team, which would later go on to win three consecutive NBA titles.

In 2002 he was hired as president of basketball operations by the Memphis Grizzlies. Although it was the worst team in the NBA at that time, West quietly rebuilt the squad. In 2004, the Grizzlies won 50 games for the first time in their history, and West was named NBA Executive of the Year for the second time. The Grizzlies made the playoffs 3 straight years from 2004 to 2006, getting swept in the first round each time. In 2007, the team slumped to the worst record in the NBA once again, leading West to announce that he would retire after the end of the season. West sold his Memphis home to Michael Heisley's Hoops LP company for $3.7 million dollars.

On May 27, 2007, ESPN reporter Ric Bucher reported a story that Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers had expressed to him an ultimatum that involved West. Supposedly, Kobe demanded for the Lakers to bring back West to the front office and give him "full authority" otherwise he would ask to be traded out of Los Angeles. Hours later Kobe refuted the story. Bryant said he did not link his future with the Lakers to the hiring of West, as ESPN.com reported Sunday, May 27, 2007. He has not asked for a trade and did not foresee seeking one if West was not hired. "I would love for him to be a part of this," Bryant said. "But it's not something where I demand he comes here. All I can do is offer my thoughts. I love being a Laker. I want to retire a Laker. I want to fix this thing, or at least help any way I can." West was responsible for bringing together Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant. West has said that he is going to stay with Memphis until a replacement GM is found. It has been reported that after he leaves Memphis, that West will indeed return to the Lakers front office, but only as a summer consultant, however it is reported that it is very unlikely for West to come back full-time, mostly due to his son playing collegiate basketball at West Virginia University.