West! "Great" is not enough to describe his contribution to basketball. Goodbye
Jerry West, who is called "Logo Man" by fans because he is the prototype of the NBA logo, is a testament to his brilliant career.
On June 12, Beijing time, according to the official news of the Clippers, team consultant and NBA Hall of Fame legend Jerry West passed away on the morning of the 12th local time at the age of 86. Jerry West was one of the league's 50 greatest stars. Throughout his career, he was selected to the All-Star team 14 times, won 12 All-NBA teams, 1 championship and 1 Finals MVP. It is worth mentioning that Jerry West is also the only Finals MVP in the history of the league who lost.
Photo, Los Angeles, Jerry West at a press conference on June 19, 2017. On that day, the NBA Los Angeles Clippers held a press conference and officially hired NBA star Jerry West as a team consultant.
I believe that many people will look back on his legendary basketball career when the curtain falls on this legend, but to be honest, although he is the "logo man", West is always a little bit away from the "Top Ten in NBA History" - in the selection of mainstream media such as ESPN, West appears more often between 11 and 15. The reason is not difficult to understand. Although he has never missed an All-Star game in his 14-year career, won the scoring title and assists title, and was selected to the first team 10 times, West has never won an MVP in his career and has only one championship, which has led to some deficiencies in his decisive honors.
So if we discuss his achievements as a player, West would be more often associated with the word "regret". For example, he was ranked second on the MVP list four times but never won his own Most Valuable Player award. Another example is that he made it to the finals nine times in his career but only made it to the top once - if he could win two or three more championships, it would be enough to keep him in the top ten in history.
Fortunately, West has his own way of "making up for regrets" - he has a greater "management career".
In the 1982-83 season, West served as the general manager of the Lakers. At that time, the Lakers already had two superstars, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Magic Johnson, as well as All-Stars like Wilkes and No. 1 pick James Worthy. Their lineup was not bad, and with Jerry West's shrewd operations, such as the trade for Byron Scott, the core member of the championship in 1983, the Lakers were extremely competitive throughout the 1980s, and won the championships in 1985, 1987 and 1988, becoming the second team in history to achieve consecutive championships after the Celtics. It was not until 1991 that the Lakers' dream came to an abrupt end after Magic Johnson was diagnosed with AIDS. They slowly fell out of the ranks of strong teams. For three consecutive years, the Lakers only won 43 wins, 39 wins and 33 wins. In 1994, they did not even enter the playoffs. In the same year, James Worthy also announced his retirement. It can be said that the Lakers in the West era entered a trough for the first time.
Fortunately, the Lakers' slump did not last too long, and one of the reasons was West. In the early 1990s, the management led by West used the low-ranking draft picks to select many high-quality players, the most famous of which were Divac with the 26th pick in 1989, Nick Van Exel with the 10th pick in the second round in 1993, and Eddie Jones with the 10th pick in 1994 - all three of them have been selected as All-Stars, and Divac is also a member of the Hall of Fame.
In addition, the Lakers traded for Ceballos in 1994. This trade is also not often mentioned, but judging from the 1994-95 season alone, the acquisition of Ceballos helped the Lakers return to the playoffs. They improved from 33 wins the previous year to 48 wins and successfully made it to the second round of the playoffs, which also allowed Jerry West to successfully win his first career best general manager award. His era of "best general manager" has just begun.
In the summer of 1996, West made two very epoch-making moves. First, he traded starting center Divac to the Hornets for Kobe, a 17-year-old high school student with the 13th pick. This deal is now considered the most successful deal in the history of the Lakers. However, at that time, choosing a high school student was actually quite risky. Even with Garnett's success the previous year, it had been nearly 20 years since a high school player entered the league.
In the summer of the same year, West also defeated the Knicks and other teams in the free market and successfully signed O'Neal. Jerry West was extremely attentive to O'Neal's signing. At that time, the Lakers had offered 95 million for 7 years, and O'Neal had originally planned to accept the offer, but West traded Lynch and Piller away from the team, thus increasing O'Neal's contract to 120 million for 7 years, and O'Neal finally accepted it. In 1999, O'Neal once said: "Jerry West is the reason why I chose the Lakers that year."
Signing O'Neal and trading for Kobe brought the Lakers back into the championship race. As we later learned, the OK combination successfully helped the Lakers win three consecutive championships, making the Lakers the third team in history after the Celtics and the Bulls to achieve three consecutive championships.
After helping the Lakers reach the top again, Jerry West once again made an unbelievable move. In 2002, the Lakers won three consecutive championships, but Jerry West left the team and joined the bottom-ranked Grizzlies.
The Grizzlies had just moved to Memphis for a year at this time. They had only won 23 games the previous year. After West arrived, it took him two years to successfully revive the team - the Grizzlies achieved 50 wins and 32 losses in the 2003-04 season, and Jerry West also won the second best general manager award in his career. Thereafter, the Grizzlies made the playoffs for three consecutive years. That was also the first sweet period after the Grizzlies were established.
Unfortunately, in the 2006-07 season, Gasol was injured and the Grizzlies once again only won 22 games. After the season ended, West chose to leave on the grounds that he was "no longer young". He was 69 years old at this time - there are two things you may need to know. First, it was West who chose Lowry for the Grizzlies, which once again proved West's vision. Second, when the Lakers and Grizzlies made the trade for Gasol, West was no longer the general manager of the Grizzlies. Of course, the reason why the deal was completed was also due to West's connections and courage.
It wasn't until 2011 that West returned to the Warriors as a team consultant. During his time with the Warriors, West did three things to establish the dynasty.
First, he promoted Curry in his first season and traded Monta Ellis away. At that time, Curry was just a glass man with an ankle injury, while Ellis was extremely popular in Golden State. The trade of Ellis once made Warriors fans extremely angry. They even booed the boss at Mullin's jersey retirement ceremony. However, we all know the result. Curry became the core of the Warriors' three championships in four years.
Second, he was strongly opposed to trading Thompson for Love. The story goes like this: After being eliminated in the first round in 2014, the Warriors wanted to trade Thompson for the Timberwolves' All-Star forward Love, but this deal was strongly opposed by West, who even threatened to resign. In the end, the Warriors did not trade Thompson, which also preserved the Warriors' championship foundation.
Third, recruit Durant. After losing the championship in 2016, the Warriors successfully signed Durant in the free market. West played an indispensable role in this. He personally called Durant on the fourth day of the free market and listed many reasons for Durant to join, including "don't follow the old path of 9 finals and 1 championship" and "the championship will eliminate all doubts." In the end, Durant joined the Warriors and won two championships.
After winning the championship in 2017, West left the Warriors and joined the Clippers as a team consultant. At this time, West was already 79 years old. In his first season with the Clippers, West used Paul to sign and then trade for players such as Lou Williams, Beverley, and Harrell from the Rockets. Later, he traded Griffin, breaking the whole into parts, constantly optimizing the chips in his hands, and freeing up space. In the second year alone, the Clippers made it to the playoffs.
With eight championships and two Best General Manager awards, it can be said that West's insights into basketball may be far superior to others. He can always see further. Even at an advanced age, he is still as active as a young man - the word "great" is not even enough to describe his contribution to basketball.
