JERRY WEST

In one playoff game in Boston, K.C Jones managed to hold Jerry West to a scant 16 points. In the locker room after the game, Jones was praised by his teammates and asked what the secret was to his success. He replied he had figured out that West liked to throw the ball down to the right as a fake and then take his first step to the left. In the next game, West made some adjustments and scored 45 points.

West was only the third player in NBA history to score 25,000 points, a distinction first achieved by Wilt Chamberlain and Oscar Robertson. He scored 44 points in a game by sinking 16 of 17 shots from the floor and hitting 12 of 12 free throw attempts. He also pulled down 12 rebounds, made 12 assists, and blocked 10 shots to record an extraordinary quadruple-double.

As the original “Mr. Clutch,” West was even more deadly in the postseason. He fired off the most famous buzzer-beater in history, a 60-foot swish that tied Game 3 of the 1970 finals against the Knicks. Only Michael Jordan had a higher career scoring average in the playoffs, 33.5 versus 29.1. West was the Finals MVP in the 1969 championship series against the Celtics, the only time a player from the losing team has won the award.

West was both a great playmaker and a great shooter and he was equally strong on offense and defense. Standing a mere 6-2, he was able to reach up 16 inches above the rim when he jumped and was an outstanding rebounder. His jump shot was so elegant that his silhouette became the NBA’s logo symbol.

West played in nine NBA finals with the Lakers, the same number of times he broke his nose, but won just a single championship. That came in 1972 against the Knicks. He described the defeats, especially the six championship encounters with the Celtics, as times of “unbelievable frustration.” When the Lakers honored their star at the end of his playing career, Celtics great Bill Russell nonetheless could say to him: “Jerry, you are, in every sense of the word, truly a champion.”