========

Hacksaw’s Thursday Podcast-1pm
You Tube Channel-Lee Hacksaw Hamilton
Look-Listen-Share-Subscribe
==========
‘JERRY WEST-REMEMBERED’
==========

He was perfection.
He was royalty
He was excellence

Jerry West was the Gold Standard, as a player, as a General Manager, as a person.  He has passed at age (86Y) after a lifetime of achievement.

‘Zeke from Cabin Creek’ was who he was, growing up in poverty in West Virginia, in a family of abuse and dysfunction.  He lost his brother, killed in Korea.

He went to be a Mountaineer at West Virginia, and became an accomplished star.

He was part of the lst greatness of the LA Lakers, tied to Elgin Baylor, Wilt Chamberlain, Gale Goodrich and more, as high scoring guard..

His NBA career was star-studded (27PPG), a 14-year run as an All Star.

He became an executive, then General Manager of the Lakers.

it was Jerry West who created and ruled over Showtime, the era that brought us Kareem-Magic-Worthy and so many others.

He traded for Kobe Bryant and packaged him with Shaquille O’Neal that brought the next group of championship banners to the Great Western Forum.

His reach also extended to telling the Lakers owner Jerry Buss, Pat Riley was ready to coach, and that Phil Jackson would fit in LA in a 2nd tour of star studded coaching duties.

Jerry West became a trusted consultant with the Warriors-Clippers-Memphis where people spoke glowingly about relationships, blueprints, scouting reports.

His work led to 1-ring as a player, only because Red Auerbach and Bill Russell stood in the way so many times in Boston.  As an exec, his Lakers won 4-titles, and after he left, the roster he put in place won 2-more rings too.

Jerry West’s silhouette is the NBA’s logo because of who he was, what he did.

The nationwide reaction was instant:

Basketball was his therapy
He respected the game and people in it
He leaves a legacy of achievement
He changed people’s lives
He was skilled and relentless
He bridged generations in basketball
A basketball sage.

But Jerry West was in reality two very different men.

Passionate about his teams, their talent levels, the coaches he hired, wanting excellence at every stop.

But he was a troubled teen, fighting thru depression and self doubts.  He was complex, complicated and at times a sad inner person.

The man who sought perfection and excellence, never found peace, either on the job or in the shadows of his own personal life.  His biography is filled with how hard his inner self became despite years of therapy and the support of NBA people at every level.

He was basketball royalty, someone I was in awe of, and a guy who always had time to say hello to the media and talk basketball.

‘Zeke from Cabin Creek’ was part country-boy, part Rhodes Scholar in hoops.

What a gifted man in public, sadly a troubled man in private, but a winner in virtually everything he touched.

RIP #44.

==================================

Please follow and like us: