You want big numbers? Jerry West put up some big numbers as a player and executive.
Fittingly, his retirement from the Los Angeles Lakers organization has inspired tributes to West's long, impressive record. How many great pro athletes exhibit the desire or ability to turn themselves into front-office superstars? West is a unique figure in pro basketball.
I didn't know what would become of West when I hung a big poster of him in my bedroom years ago. I just knew he was the kind of player I wanted to be.
Eventually, the poster came down. I moved out, and on. Meanwhile, West remained a force in basketball. In his four decades with the organization as player, consultant and executive, the Lakers missed the playoffs only once. West took over as Lakers general manager before the 1982-83 season. In the next 18 years, the Lakers won four NBA titles and compiled a .673 winning percentage, best in the league.
The 1999-2000 Lakers' championship was won when West traded center Vlade Divac to the Charlotte Hornets for the rights to a teen-ager by the name of Kobe Bryant, then signed free-agent Shaquille O'Neal to a contract.
As for West's playing career, well, some of us of a certain generation are convinced we will never enjoy watching another player more. This has little to do with who was better, West or Oscar Robertson. Or whether today's players are superior athletes. Probably, they are. Let's hope their basketball exploits give young fans as much enjoyment as West's gave me.
But back to the numbers. West was a 10-time NBA first-team All-Star. He averaged 25 points per game for his career, though even that gaudy stat doesn't do him justice. Mr. Clutch was always better with the game on the line. Or when the playoffs were in session. He holds the NBA single-series record for highest points-per-game average. In 1965, he led the injury-depleted Lakers to the next round by averaging 46.3 points.
For longtime fans of West, it's encouraging to know that he'll be remembered as a big winner. Five times West's Lakers lost in the finals to the Boston Celtics. They lost another final in 1970 to the New York Knicks. West was rarely anything but heroic in those series. Maybe that's why his reputation was never tainted. Or maybe our culture hadn't yet reached the point where great athletes who failed to ``win the big one'' were branded ``losers.''
In 1972, West won his first and only NBA championship as a player on a team that was 69-13 in the regular season after winning a league-record 33 consecutive games.
The numbers speak well of West's career. But the number I keep getting stuck on is 62. This week's stories report that West is 62 years old. How can that be? If West is 62, that would make me . . . never mind.
More and more, this happens: I hear the name of a favorite athlete from my youth being mentioned on TV. I look up and see a paunchy, wrinkled old man on the tube. Something doesn't seem right.
There should be a law protecting us from such startling revelations. For the sake of their fans, great athletes should not be photographed or seen in public after a certain age. It just ruins the illusion of youth. Theirs and ours.
At least Mr. Clutch has kept himself in good shape. If somebody wanted to print posters of sports executives, Jerry West still would look great hanging on somebody's wall.
Reach Bob Molinaro at bmolinar@pilotonline.com or 446-2373.
