![Jerry West](https://cdn.statically.io/img/www.sportico.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/GettyImages-1244186918-e1718204081830.jpg?w=1280&h=721&crop=1)
Jerry West, the basketball legend who led the Los Angeles Lakers to a championship as a Hall of Fame player and built the team’s “Showtime”-era dynasty as general manger in the ’80s and whose silhouette inspired the NBA logo, died Wednesday morning, the Los Angeles Clippers announced. He was 86.
West was “the personification of basketball excellence and a friend to all who knew him,” the Clippers said in announcing his death, per Deadline. West’s wife, Karen, was by his side when he died, the Clippers said.
He won nine NBA titles as a player and executive spanning 45 years, seven with the Lakers and two with the Golden State Warriors. He also was a two-time NBA Executive of the Year in 1995 annd 2004.
“Jerry West was a basketball genius and a defining figure in our league for more than 60 years,” NBA commissioner Adam Silver said in a statement. “He distinguished himself not only as an NBA champion and an All-Star in all 14 of his playing seasons, but also as a consummate competitor who embraced the biggest moments.”
Nicknamed “Mr. Clutch,” West joined the Lakers just as the team relocated from Minnesota for the 1960-61 season. A 14-time All-Star, he led the team to six NBA Finals that decade but lost to the Bill Russell-led Boston Celtics each time. West was named MVP of the 1969 NBA Finals despite losing to Boston and in 1970 made more of the most famous shots in NBA history—a buzzer-beating 60-footer to send Game 3 of the Finals into overtime. But the Lakers went on to lose that game, and the NBA title, to the New York Knicks.
He finally got a ring in 1972, when the Lakers beat the Knicks for the championship.
He became the Lakers coach for the 1976-77 season, two years after retiring as a player. West’s teams made the playoffs each of his three years in the job but never advanced past the Western Conference Finals. He then was a scout for three seasons, during which the Lakers drafted Magic Johnson and won the 1980 NBA title, before taking over as Lakers general manager in 1982.
Then the magic really began.
Under West, the Lakers became the Team of the ’80s, winning four more championships led by Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and James Worthy as the NBA exploded in popularity. The team’s intense rivalry with the Larry Bird-led Celtics became one of the most bitter and exciting in sports.
Those legendary teams were chronicled in HBO’s 2022-23 drama series Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty, in which Jason Clarke played West.
West also was the architect of the Lakers’ championship three-peat from 2000-03, having made a then-controversial draft day deal to acquire high school phenom Kobe Bryant and later trading for center Shaquille O’Neal.
In 2002, he left the Lakers to become GM of the Memphis Grizzlies, who recently had relocated from Vancouver. He led that club for several seasons before joining the Golden State Warriors’ front office. During his six-year stay, the team won its first NBA title in 40 years and won another two seasons later.
In 2017, he returned to Los Angeles as an executive for the Clippers and remained in that role until his death.
Born on May 28, 1938, in Chelyan, W. Va., West starred for the West Virginia University Mountaineers before being drafted second overall by the brand-new Los Angeles Lakers in 1960—behind fellow NBA all-timer Oscar Robertson. The duo would co-captain Team USA to a gold medal at the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome.
As a pro, West excelled in all facets of the game. He made the NBA All-Star team every season during his 14-year Laker playing career from 1960-74, including being All-NBA for five straight seasons—twice. He was the NBA scoring champion in 1970, led the leagues in assists in 1972 and made the All-Defensive Team four straight years from 1970-73.
His 27 ppg NBA scoring average remains fourth all-time, and he trails only Michael Jordan in all-time playoff scoring average. West also held the NBA record for scoring 20-plus points in 25 consecutive NBA Finals games, a mark later topped by Jordan. He also holds the NBA record for highest scoring average in a single playoff series with 46.3 in a six-game series against the Baltimore Bullets in 1965.
He was named as one of the 50 greatest players in NBA history for the league’s golden anniversary season in 1996-97 and inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1980. His No. 44 jersey was retired in by the Lakers in 1983 and still hangs in the rafters at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles.
(This story has been updated with more details about West’s life and career.)