RIP to Jerry West. Maybe (up until today) my favorite living athlete.
Jerry lead the Lakers against the Celtics and Knicks in the finals 8 times before finally winning in his 9th time. That sisaphesian-effort alone makes him almost some kind of Greek tragic hero. To get near the top of the mountaintop that many times and still get back up and go again is inspiring.
After retiring as a player he built not one but two great Laker dynasties, the Showtime™ Magic-Kareem teams and the Shaq-Kobe teams. He would later serve as a front office executive for other teams, including my Golden State Warriors during the Curry championship years.
I think what allowed him to succeed in every era of the game was his respect for the current players and the changing game. Rather than insist things be done “his way” or the way it was done when he was a player, he adapted and respected the players as the skills the league valued and the style of play changed. There is no common thread to the championship winning teams he constructed, because he was the kind of thinker who evaluated and respected the tools he had at his disposal with fresh eyes and with a lack of deference to old dogma. He was able to build teams around many of the league’s most unique talents. Kareem, the great stoic. Shaq and Kobe, the best of frenemies, and Curry a one-of-one player who heralded a new era of three point shooting.
We will miss you, Jerry.