Jerry West: The Life and Legend of a Basketball Icon Review

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Jerry West: The Life and Legend of a Basketball Icon ReviewIt's been over thirty-five years since all-time great Jerry West retired from the NBA so it's a daunting task to attempt his biography in a way that will seem fresh and meaningful to longtime Jerry West fans... but author Roland Lazenby succeeded in just such a quest. The author has done yeomen's work in combining archival historical articles, books and interviews... along with recent interviews with former teammates... associates... family members... and probably most impressive of all... former fiery members of competitive teams. I was raised to believe the greatest compliments a ballplayer could receive were from his peers... both teammates and competitors. An example of such haloed praise for West was proffered by Boston Celtic Tom Heinsohn who played... coached... or announced the six straight NBA championship series that West's Lakers lost to the hated Celtics: "WEST AND (TEAMMATE ELGIN) BAYLOR WERE TWO OF THE FIVE GREATEST PLAYERS EVER." Despite the fact that Jerry West finally got his elusive championship as a player by defeating the New York Knicks in 1972... a season that included *THE GREATEST CONSECUTIVE GAME WINNING STREAK BY ANY PROFESSIONAL TEAM IN ANY MAJOR SPORT IN HISTORY (33-STRAIGHT-GAMES)... Jerry's career both in college as an All-American at West Virginia and as a FOURTEEN-TIME-ALL-STAR for the Los Angeles Lakers... will be remembered by Jerry... as well as by those close to him... by the self-imposed anguish that was his daily life. He... like his Mother... was a perfectionist... and a single loss would nag at him inconsolably for months. It's this festering self-doubt and loathing that led some close to him to observe that despite all he accomplished in his career "HE NEVER SEEMED TO FIND ANY JOY IN IT." This self-imposed psychosis is probably the most amazing thing that a reader who is otherwise overly familiar with Jerry West's accomplishments will take away from this book. Hot Rod Hundley who preceded Jerry as a West Virginia All-American... and also preceded West as a first round selection by the Lakers so aptly said: "WEST ACCOMPLISHED TEN TIMES AS MUCH AS I DID IN MY CAREER, BUT HE'S ABOUT A TENTH AS HAPPY AS I AM."
There are plenty of unmatched statistics such as during the six NBA finals series against the Celtics in 1962,63,65,66,68, and 69... he averaged 31,29,34,35,32, and 38. In the 1964-65 six game Western Conference playoff series with the Bullets, "WEST AVERAGED 46.3 POINTS PER GAME, A RECORD THAT HAS WITHSTOOD THE TEST OF EVEN MICHAEL JORDAN'S BEST." Boston Globe columnist Bob Ryan wrote: "NO CELTIC OPPONENT HAS EVER HAD MORE FANS WISHING HE WOULD SWITCH UNIFORMS, AND THAT INCLUDES MICHAEL JORDAN."
*JERRY WEST WAS NAMED THE MOST VALUABLE PLAYER OF THE 1969 NBA CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES... THE ONLY TIME IN LEAGUE HISTORY THAT THE MVP CAME FROM THE LOSING TEAM!*
The reader will hear no holds barred comments from West regarding such luminaries as Wilt Chamberlain, Bill Russell, Jack Kent Cooke, Jerry Buss, Fred Schaus, Phil Jackson... and many others. You will learn... or be reminded that West is probably the most loved and respected player to ever come from the state of West Virginia... in fact the author who is also from West Virginia says that his Father worshipped Jerry West. "I OFTEN TELL PEOPLE THAT THERE WERE TWO PICTURES ON THE WALL OF OUR HOME WHEN I WAS A BOY. ONE WAS OF JESUS. THE OTHER WAS OF JERRY WEST. THE PICTURE OF JESUS, I TELL PEOPLE, WAS HUNG HIGHER THAN THE PICTURE OF JERRY, BUT ONLY BY ABOUT AN INCH OR TWO."
The only part of this book from my perspective that was not five star quality was approximately thirty-odd pages near the beginning of the book that went into the history of West Virginia as far back as the 1700's. Perhaps I... like many other potential readers was simply chomping at the bit to immediately get to the main subject... my childhood hero Jerry West. I grew up in Los Angeles while West was playing for the Lakers. I wore his number 44 on my high school team... my junior college team... and on my military team. I practiced day and night imitating Jerry's unstoppable jump shot until mine was one and the same.
In my house... Jerry's picture was higher on the wall than any other.
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