Take a look at the official NBA logo. That figure dribbling the basketball is none other than Jerry West.
Known as “Mr. Clutch” for his sharp shooting from outside and “Zeke from Cabin Creek” for the town near where West was born in West Virginia, West was such a classic player that the league decided to make his silhouette its own image. And why not? There’s never been a better all-around guard in the sport than West: smooth shooter, shut-down defender, great passer, and steady leader.
West played his entire career for the Los Angeles Lakers. Team owner Jerry Buss once said, “Nobody has meant more to the Los Angeles Lakers franchise than Jerry West.”1
Who could argue? West scored 25,192 points during fourteen seasons with the team, placing him second on the franchise’s all-time scoring list. (Only Kobe Bryant has scored more points playing for the Lakers.) He made the All-Star game every season of his career, averaged 27 points per game, and won the 1972 NBA title. In 1980, West entered the Hall of Fame. Sixteen years later, he was selected one of the 50 greatest players in NBA history.
West also was a key player for the 1960 U.S. Olympic team that won a gold medal. That squad, along with the 1992 Dream Team, is considered the best ever put together and had four Hall of Famers on it.
An All-American at West Virginia University, where a street was renamed Jerry West Blvd. in 2000, West led the Mountaineers to the national championship game, where they lost to California. After the Olympics, he joined the Lakers—and never looked back.
The release on his jump shot was so quick that even the NBA’s best defenders couldn’t come close to blocking it. West was at his best shooting off the dribble, and his perfect release for years was used as a teaching tool by coaches: “Shoot like this, shoot like Jerry West.”
To West, any shot that missed didn’t make sense.
“I’m surprised when the ball doesn’t go into the hoop,” West said. “I think I should make every shot.”2
He made enough of them—and enough free throws, where he was a lifetime 81 percent shooter—to average more than 30 points a game four times and more than 25 points a game in eleven of his fourteen pro seasons.
