Jerry West: Forever Logo Male Lakers Godfather Multi-Team Mentor Casting Historical Mysteries

Drunk and floating

2024-06-12 22:45Posted in Jiangxi Sports Creator

Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Monroe and other eight U.S. presidents are all from Virginia, the hometown of U.S. presidents, but the 40 counties in western Virginia joined the American Confederation in the south in 1861 because of their opposition to the abolition of black slavery, and broke away from Virginia to become today's West Virginia.

Although the two states are adjacent to each other, West Virginia, as a city on coal mines, is relatively poor in terms of economy, and the big boy who came out of here naturally did not become a politician, but embarked on an inspirational road to become a legend, and he is NBA legend Jerry West. Now the NBA legendary LOGO man has passed away at the age of 86, looking back on his legendary life.

Childhood Shadows: War Fuels Basketball

Born in 1938, Jerry West was only 12 years old when the Korean War broke out, and he naturally had no way to face the cruelty of war, but because his brother who served in the army died in the three-year war, Jerry West indirectly realized the horror of death early. The gloom of his teenage years casts an indelible shadow over Jerry West's life, as he mentions in his autobiographical book West by West, "Whenever I mention my brother David, I choke up and start to get depressed." ”

People who suffer from depression are accustomed to escaping from the distractions of the outside world and always living in their own world, and Jerry West's best companion in life has grown up is basketball. Jerry West, who is growing up, is also gradually showing extraordinary basketball talent, even if he is only 1.88 meters tall (he is almost bench in his first year of high school because he is not tall enough), he has become an absolute star in high school, college and the Olympics, he is a superstar who can dominate everything on the basketball court, maybe this can give him a sense of self-control over his own destiny.

Playing career: Greatness and failure of the Logo man

It is undeniable that just being a logo man who is not officially recognized by the NBA (once admitted, he has to pay Jerry West's huge portrait royalty) is enough to prove Jerry West's unparalleled brilliance in his playing career. Member of the Basketball Hall of Fame, one of the top 50 superstars of all time, 14-time NBA All-Star, champion, FMVP and All-Star MVP winner, the third club player with 25,000 points in history, one of the greatest guards in history, etc., such honors are stacked on top of each other, the word "great" has been everywhere, and it is well deserved to erect a memorial statue of him at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.

However, greatness does not cover all aspects, it also leaves an indelible shadow, and it is once again deeply imprinted in Jerry West's heart. As another famous label among his three nicknames, "Mr. Key", you can imagine how many key shots Jerry West has made in his career, especially in the third game of the 1970 Finals, Jerry West hit a magical long-range shot 60 feet away in the last minute against the Knicks, but the Lakers are still tragic at the end of the tiebreaker, and it has become the best epitome of Jerry West's career tragedy.

Jerry West's 13-year NBA career is not long, but he has led the team to the Finals nine times, which shows that he has always remained among the super teams. However, they met the Celtics, a green dynasty that dominated a whole era, and Jerry West has never won 6 Finals Finals against the Green Shirts in his career, plus two defeats to the Knicks led by Willis Reed, and only won the only championship in 1972.

The Godfather of the Lakers: Creating Showtime and the OK Dynasty

Jerry West's unhappy relationship with the Lakers at the end of his career led to his dismal retirement in 1974, but he did not leave the City of Angels, and completed his transformation as head coach of the Lakers the year after retiring. Admittedly, the team's coach was only a brief transition in Jerry West's life, and he led the team to a 145-101 record in three seasons, but helped the Lakers return to the playoffs, and his subsequent transformation into a scout is also a testament to Jerry West's constant repositioning of himself.

In 1982, he became the general manager of the Lakers was the official beginning of Jerry West's third nickname "The Godfather of the Lakers", and at that time there were still many people questioning Jerry West's ability, but Chamberlain once had a classic quote about Jerry West, "Everyone is talking about Jerry (Jerry West) with such a height, to achieve such great achievements, but everyone ignores his arm span, he ordered the shirt with the same sleeve length as me." "Long sleeves are good at dancing", this is Jerry West's interpretation of the other side of the different player era after becoming a Lakers executive, with a smart trade and skill draft, the Lakers gathered Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and James Worthy in the 80s to open the Showtime era, achieving the historical peak of the Lakers and Celtics' black-and-white confrontation.

Admittedly, Jerry West's first General Manager of the Year award was won in 1995 when he helped the Lakers rise back to the playoffs after an immersion in the early '90s, but 1996 was Jerry West's most textbook milestone. At that time, Jerry West used the already famous center Divac from Huang Feng in exchange for the promising high school student No. 13 show Kobe, and re-signed the big shark O'Neal, and recommended Zen master Jackson as the Lakers coach, thus creating the first and only OK triple championship dynasty in the post-Jordan era, and the title of "Godfather of the Lakers" is absolutely deserved.

Grizzly Bear Mentor: Operate the development of a strong team in the small ball market

With only one championship trophy in his playing career and six championships brought to the team by Lakers management, Jerry West has no reason to stop picking and choosing, especially since he has single-handedly cultivated Kupchak to play for most of the tedious work. Grievances only blame him for meeting another "power-hungry" Zen master Jackson, although the Zen master does not read the past recommendation of some resentment to repay virtue, but the human spirit may be so unwilling to condescend to others "thorns", after being set aside by the Zen master and the old Bass, Jerry West chose to resign and give up his position to his disciple Kupchak, and he went to the Memphis Grizzlies in 2002 to become the basketball director.

Compared with the deceit of the Lakers, the Grizzlies are an absolutely young and even immature team, and it is not long after moving back to the United States from the foreign country of Vancouver, Jerry West no longer has to be deeply involved in the "power struggle" Zhen Huan's biography, and it is also a challenge for him to get rid of the giants' golden signs and display his abilities. Undoubtedly, the first playoff journey in the history of the Grizzlies was Jerry West's operation, through the transformation of the roster around the core Gasol, the Grizzlies successfully transformed from a 50-loss team in the previous season to a 50-win team, and reached the playoffs for three consecutive years, becoming a team to be reckoned with in the West, and Jerry West also won his second best general manager award in 2004.

Without the support of a superstar, Jerry West successfully transformed the Grizzlies from a fish belly that never made the playoffs to a strong team that advanced to the playoffs for three consecutive seasons. Jerry West helped the Grizzlies break through with ease, just because he faced an even more difficult situation in the early moments of his life, which he repeatedly mentioned in his autobiography, "When you have a father who is used to abusing you, as I have experienced, I still struggle to adapt." "Constantly adapting to difficult situations and rising to them is Jerry West's philosophy of success.

Historical Mystery: Who is behind the robbery of the grizzly bear?

If it weren't for the 2006-07 season when Pau Gasol suffered a serious injury, the Grizzlies' record plummeted again, and the more crucial team owners who wanted to sell the team, perhaps Jerry West wouldn't have been on the fence again in the summer of 2007. But not long after he left, the Grizzlies completed a shocking deal with Jerry West's former club, the Lakers, which shocked the entire league, and exchanged the star Gasol for just a bunch of "garbage", making the Lakers complete two consecutive championships in 09 and 10, perhaps no wonder Spurs coach Popovich angrily denounced this as an out-and-out "robbery", and the league should ban it.

It is undeniable that Jerry West had resigned and left at that time, but almost everyone thought that the reason why the Lakers were able to empty the white wolf and Kupchak was able to complete such a wonderful operation was entirely due to the fact that his mentor Jerry West used his "position" to seek personal interests for the Lakers. Of course, the truth of history never comes out sometimes, and the Lakers did come out on top, and Jerry West did have no argument that he had no influence on the deal, but the Grizzlies' rise to the top of the West over the rest of the season proved that they weren't the losers in that trade.

Of course, Jerry West has also served in the management of the Warriors and Clippers, and the old man still uses his professionalism and dedication to contribute to the NBA and basketball.

(Text/Drunken Sleeping)

View original image 272K

• 

• 

• 

• 

•