How is the West statement not the latest post or 1st picture, it is like 4th. I dont have IG but usually it is from newest post, no? _________________ Previously CamReddish
Joined: 20 Jul 2006 Posts: 8622 Location: Left coast
Posted: Wed Jun 12, 2024 11:54 am Post subject:
Jenn wrote:
One of the very best to ever do it. My sports hero as a kid. While a college sophomore in 1974, I found out that the Lakers always played a pre-season inter-squad game prior to the pre-season at the old Loyola gym (picture an old high school gym). Tickets were $2 and you could sit anywhere, first come, first served. I drove up from OC early in the day. FINALLY a chance to see my hero! While driving up, it was announced on the radio that Jerry had decided to retire. When I got to the gym (very early), I saw Jerry's 240Z parked nearby, license plate "Clutch 44". Gail Goodrich was outside reading the late edition sports page with a story about Jerry retiring. At the start of the game, there was Jerry, sitting in the bleachers under one of the baskets, chatting with injured center Elmore Smith, who had just replaced Wilt Chamberlain, just the two of them alone. I think that I stared at Jerry West that whole game.
I went to the old Loyala gym in '77 and Jerry was coach. Norm Nixon was a rookie with Kenny Carr, Brad Davis, and James Edwards. Ernie DiGregorio, Lou Hudson, etc. West was a tough coach, Nixon vowing not to be his "whipping boy" the next year. The stats were fun to watch, but it drove West was chasing perfection. 2 years later, he gave it up.
Ownership is disconnected from the team's rich legacy. It was shameful how the Clippers were the ones to break the news of the passing of Jerry West, followed by a Lakers acknowledgement which was both delayed and oddly distant. It was Jerry West who either won or helped architect all but one of the championship teams in Los Angeles. As a kid in the Southland, Jerry West personified everything that a basketball player and an LA Laker should be in his relentless drive to win, lead, and perfect his craft.
Joined: 15 Sep 2012 Posts: 30195 Location: La La Land
Posted: Wed Jun 12, 2024 1:43 pm Post subject:
I've been tough on Jerry in recent years.
The rules change committee that diminished the post game (while our Lakers were winning chips with the Triangle).
Who he accepted the Presidential Medal of Freedom from.
But he is undoubtedly a legend. Did so many things for our franchise during and after his playing career.
Rest well, Mr. Clutch. _________________ When the world grows. Grow with it.
Last edited by kikanga on Wed Jun 12, 2024 1:45 pm; edited 1 time in total
Ownership is disconnected from the team's rich legacy. It was shameful how the Clippers were the ones to break the news of the passing of Jerry West, followed by a Lakers acknowledgement which was both delayed and oddly distant. It was Jerry West who either won or helped architect all but one of the championship teams in Los Angeles. As a kid in the Southland, Jerry West personified everything that a basketball player and an LA Laker should be in his relentless drive to win, lead, and perfect his craft.
what your brought up is so ironic when you think about it. we've criticized Jeannie Buss overly use lakers' past glorious history in courting free agents and head coaches. but except on Jerry West, she chose to ignore his existence in Laker history. why? because West had criticized her and her ex phil jackson decades ago.
Hollis Johnson's was such a legendary place. There's a book Kingdom on Fire that's about UCLA basketball that talks about how Bill Walton would walk over from his dorm at UCLA to eat there and would often find Jerry West there and they had great conversations. Jerry became a mentor to Bill and now they are sadly both are gone.
For West, though, the final straw came when the Lakers repealed the lifetime season tickets he said the late Dr. Buss had promised him so many years ago. Without any warning or explanation, his wife, Karen, received a text message from the Lakers last season informing her that the family’s seats for their games would no longer be granted
Didn't know this happened. Jeanie (bleep) sucks as an owner.
RIP Logo, you are an icon, as a player, as a GM, as a human being. Thank you for your contributions to the NBA and especially to the Lakers. _________________ “When it looks as if it is a realistic possibility, I want to focus on winning a ship like it’s a goal that can’t be denied. I didn’t see that this off season.”
Jerry West simplifying the game for Harrison Barnes:
Working with the Warriors and Clippers when he should have been here, mentoring and coaching our youngins. Almost unforgivable... _________________ Yi Jianlian Fanboy. Respect The Chair.
Starting anew. I'm retiring my main.
Joined: 12 Mar 2012 Posts: 1852 Location: San Francisco, CA
Posted: Wed Jun 12, 2024 3:25 pm Post subject:
I'm not old enough to have been able to watch him Play or really appreciate him but this is still really sad. To me, he's the guy that got us Kobe. He was always there and I think when Kobe passed, seeing how hurt Jerry was really made me respect and appreciate Jerry as a man.
Seeing the hurt people are going through and the grieving makes me appreciate him as a man even more and appreciate the impact he had on the people he interacted with on a regular basis and the people who knew him best. It's similar to how the Bill Walton death felt but this one is more personal because Jerry was so important to the Lakers and also important to why I love basketball having been the man responsible for getting us Kobe.
I saw some people saying "He chose death before watching the Celtics win again" and people were kind of saying that that's offensive but I think he would have smiled at that comment. I think that that's the kind of thing someone who truly embodied what being a Laker is and having fought those Celtics battles would probably have wanted said in this context.
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