June 12, 2024 • 30 mins
Fred Roggin - Jerry West, Lakers legend, Hall of Famer and executive who was inspiration for NBA logo, dies at 86 // GUEST: Ed Garrigues – Director of operation Cotti Foods/Wendy’s here with their new items // Jerry West, Lakers legend, Hall of Famer and executive who was inspiration for NBA logo, dies
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
It's k IF. I am sixforty and you're listening to the Conway Show
on demand on the iHeartRadio app.I woke up this morning to the news
that Jerry West passed away. Andwe just talked about Jerry West yesterday,
I think, well, Mark Thompsonwas here, was it yesterday we talked
(00:20):
about Jerry West? Or Monday?We've been talking about him a couple of
days in a row. Yeah,even I think last week we touched on
it before you took off. Yeah, And I'm and you know, I
hope that you know that that peopleunderstand what a huge fan I was,
right, yeah, Jerry Wise.But I was a big fan of when
Jerry West played. I'm not amanagement guy, you know, but I
(00:41):
was also. I was a bigfan when Jerry West played the game.
But ma'am, I was a biggerfan when I watched that Lakers winning time.
That was my guy. Absolutely,that was my guy. I didn't
know that. I don't know ifit was true or not. I didn't
care. I found that Jerry Westmuch more interesting any Jerry West I've ever
read in the newspaper. Do notcare about Jerry West. Prior for seeing
(01:03):
the mini series. There isn't thatgreat. Did not care? Now,
I'm I'm genuinely sad that he passed. Yeah, I am too. You
know. Uh, he was ahe was a character. Yeah, he
worked his way out of a realhorrible situation. You know, he's a
crazy drunk dad. I think therewas never around, went to you know,
(01:25):
work disass off in school. Ithink he was drafted number two,
but I believe number two and whatand stayed. You know, I think
you grew up in Virginia and theni'm was drafted by I guess then Indianapolis
or I mean Minnesota, and thenthey brought the team out here out to
La But ma'am, my mother wasthe biggest Jerry West fan in the world.
(01:51):
And Krozier, you weren't out herein the seventies. Well, you
weren't anywhere in the seventies. Wellit was in Kansas. Yeah, but
what you were You born am atsixty eight. We were born in sixty
eighth. Okay, all right,that was a crazy year in this country.
That's sixty eighty. Yeah, yeah, that makes sense that you came
around total Yeah, but I thinkthat Jerry West is responsible, maybe solely
(02:15):
responsible in the seventies for all thewomen who loved that game, all the
women who loved that game because mymom bought season seats to see Jerry West.
All right, Fred Rogan is withus, the world's greatest broadcaster,
the world's greatest sportscaster, and oneof my dear friends. Hey how you
(02:36):
Bob, So if your mom boughtthe tickets and Jerry West was hot,
Jerry West was unbelievable. She wouldgo to the game by herself sometimes,
Fred, Sure, you know that'sa big deal. No, I hear
you. Yeah, people love Jerrywas running number of reasons. He was
very charming, he was handsome,and he knew what he was doing.
He was a damn good player.Tim, I think you can make the
(02:58):
argument, and I tried to pointthis out today. I don't know if
there was. First of all,with the Lakers, he was the most
impactful individual in the history of thefranchise because he played went to nine finals,
one to one, an All Starevery year, he played wow third
player in history to reach twenty fivethousand points. But then, perhaps his
(03:20):
greatest accomplishments came as an executive theShaq Kobe years. He was there for
Showtime. He touched people in differentgenerations. So I think you could make
the argument easily he's the most impactfulfigure in the Laker organization. Carried a
step further, he might be themost impactful in the history of the NBA
(03:42):
because he did it on different platforms. I mean, Michael Jordan was a
great player. He tried to ownthe Charlotte Hornets, and that went the
hell. Some guys are really goodplayers. Other people were great executives.
People in the league office have tobe credited as well. Magic and Larry
Birds certainly had an impact in thegame, and you could say save the
game. But who had an impactboth in the front office and on the
(04:05):
court only Jerry West. I thinkyou're right. He was. He was
terrific. I will say though that, you know, watching Winning Time made
me appreciate him more. It gavehim more of a sense that, like,
if I was in basketball, I'dbe like that guy. No,
you wouldn't be like that guy fromWinning Time, Yes I would. No,
(04:28):
you would not. You would notbe on your in your office,
on the floor in your underwear inthe fetal position. No, you would
not. Maybe you don't know,Tim, Oh, that's fair. You
probably you might do this, Youmight pick up a chair and throw it
through a window. He did notdo that. Okay, But the one
(04:48):
thing I said yesterday, I gota lot of crap for yesterday. But
I had heard from some people whowere very close to the Lakers that it
was Bill Sharmon who put together thethe you know, the fast, the
run and gun Los Angeles Lakers withMagic Johnson, and that a lot of
people gave Jerry West the credit forthat when it really should have gone to
Coach Sherman. Well, Bill Shermandid do that. Yeah, there's no
(05:12):
question about it. But Jerry Westwas there the show. But when he
was introduced, it wasn't like theydidn't say, oh, and the guy
who was there when Bill Sharmon putthis team together, Jerry was was a
part of it. Bill Sherman oversawthat. Yes, that's fair, right,
But Jerry West was a part ofit, right, So I don't
think you can dismiss his contribution.I didn't, but I will say that
(05:38):
I think Shaquille O'Neill and Kobe Bryanthave to be his biggest accomplishment in the
In the office though, well,I'll tell you. It was during the
Atlanta Olympics and I was in Atlanta, and for whatever reason, they decided
to hold the news conference there whenthey had signed Shack and they had secured
him as a free agent. AndI went up to Jerry backstage and I
said to him, you look awful. I mean, you look terrible.
(06:00):
He goes, You don't know whatthis has done to me, how emotionally
draining this has been, how muchI put into getting this done. I
thought he was on the verge ofcollapse, and that was the day they
were signing him. But you knowwhat, but Fred, that was always
the vibe with Jerry West, thathe was a nervous wreck, you know,
doing nothing but Tom's and pepto bismo, and he was always on the
(06:21):
edge of collapse. Well, hewould listen during games. He wouldn't even
stay in the form, right,He get in his car and drive around
and come back at the end.Yeah, he was afraid somebody would get
hurt. But here's the thing youhave to know about Jerry West. And
I talked to him many times,certainly a very good acquaintance, if not
a friend. Sure. And Isaid to him one time, what makes
you you why are you the wayyou are? And he looked at me
(06:43):
right in the eye and he goes, listen, you want to go shoot
hoops right now, I'll beat you. You go play golf right now,
I'll beat you. You want togo play ping pong, right now,
I'll beat you. And I'll tellyou this. If you beat me,
we're gonna play again until I beatyou. Okay, that's exactly how you
look. I said to Petro somesome money two years ago, maybe a
year ago, when Jerry West wasa spry eighty four maybe, and I
(07:06):
said, I said, I thinkI can take Jerry West in a one
on one And they both said youwouldn't even get a bucket. You've got
to be kidne meed. You didnot say that. Yeah, well he
was eighty four. Oh my god. Here's the thing that I've learned about
professional athletes. I don't care howold you are. You might be older,
but you still know how to play, You still know how to shoot.
(07:27):
If you're jets, I guess Iunderstand. Yeah, And I'll tell
you if you wanted to go outand try to shoot some free throws or
you know, three pointers against JerryWest when he was eighty four. He'd
have mopped you up. He'd mopthe floor with you. He was on
with us once. I think we'reat Kala Sex and I asked him a
sort of a CNN question and hethought I was just pulling his leg.
(07:50):
But I said to him, Isaid, are you a basketball players an
executive or an executive as a basketballplayer? And He's like, got him
mighty? I said, what doyou Larry King? But he had a
great sense of humor. Right,Oh, he was great, And Tim,
(08:11):
I, I gotta be honest withyou. If he trusted you,
he trusted you to me for me, and I might have been very lucky
or a number of people. Hewas always available. If I called Jerry
West at home and said Jerry,I have a question, he'd answer it.
Jerry, will you come on?He'd come on. And the best
thing about it was when you wouldinterview Jerry West. When the interview was
(08:35):
over, then the conversation would beginand he knew what to say on camera,
and then you turn off the cameraand then he told you the real
story. He gives it all toyou, and it was fascinating. He
must have been Jerry West. FredRogan's with this by the way, Fred
Rogan, everybody on five seventy amwith your partner Rodney every single day on
(08:56):
what are the hours? There,give me the hour noon to three,
noon to three. All right,there you go. But but he was
he was so he was almost biggerthan life. You know. The the
NBA logo, as you know,is a is a silhouette of himself.
And in year twenty twenty, duringyou know, George Floyd and the unrest,
there was a lot of talk aboutchanging that logo and the NBA came
(09:20):
down and in the middle of allthat and said, we are never changing
this logo. We're never changing it. Yeah, I don't know where all
the talk came from. It wasnever from the NBA, right, No.
But when the NBA addressed it,they said, we're not changing it.
This is Jerry West. That's ourlogo. It'll always be our logo.
You know. The funniest thing theynever confirmed. David Stern, the
(09:41):
former commissioner, never confirmed that itwas Jerry West. As a matter of
fact, nobody in the NBA hasever said it's Jerry West. But Adam
Silver, the current commissioner, said, you know what, sure looks it
awful up like them looks exactly what. That's wild. But you know what,
nobody ever said that the figure outsidein front of Disneylands Mickey Mouse.
(10:05):
But it looks a lot like MickeyMouse. Well that's fair, that's fair.
Yeah, but you know you wentto here. How they got the
logo, Sure, they went throughsome pictures. Dick Schaff had a collection
of pictures from Sport magazine. Thenthe commissioner at that time went through the
pictures and said, I like thatone, Walter Kennedy. So they took
the picture and they enlisted somebody andthey wanted to look like the baseball logo,
(10:28):
so they made it red, whiteand blue. They had no voting,
no research, nobody had a focusgroup. The guy in charge went,
I like it. That's the logo. That's what it was creat the
old days. Yeah, that's great, no computer generated nothing, that's classic.
But I really appreciate you coming on. I miss you on Channel four
every single night, and I hopethey come to their senses and bring you
(10:50):
back for ten million dollars a year. I hope they never do. Thank
you. I don't need that heady. No, I don't care for how
much, but I love it betteron radio because it's the real You.
Do you know that I do aTV show in Palm Springs. I did
not know that six thirty every night, The Rogan Report on NBC Palm Springs.
Well, look at we've created anew model for local news since no
one is watching the old model.And that's right, that's right. I
(11:13):
got to look at that. It'savailable online. It's online, it's on
Facebook, it's everywhere you want itto be. Six pm live. Yep.
Okay, buddy, you're the best. Thanks for coming on, Fred,
Okay, my friend. All rightthere, he goes Fred Rogan.
I've known that guy forever. I'veknown Fred I don't know, maybe thirty
thirty five years, and every timewe ask him on, he goes,
buddy, what time he and hechanged his schedule. Greatest guy in the
(11:35):
world. We're live on KFI.We'll come back with a real big basketball
fan and to talk more about JerryWest. You're listening to Tim Conway Junior
on demand from KFI AM six forty. Jerry West passed away is a big
part of Los Angeles and so weinvited in an ext NBA player. I
(11:56):
think he played for the NBA edGarages and also Terry with us as well.
They they both played for the NBA. But now they're at Wendy's right.
Yeah, yeah, let's step up. That's right. But you were
a big Milwaukee Bucks fan Chicago Chicago, Well, you were a Chicago fan,
but you couldn't be a Chicago fanbecause they were losing fifty games a
(12:18):
year, sixty games. You know, They're just losing the Bucks every year
until you guys finally took Kareem andbrought them over here and then we finally
started winning. But you were you, You survived and and you were the
glory days of Michael Jordan era musthave been a dream for you. It
was unbelievable. Yeah. I meandid you get to any of those games?
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah yeah. So you grew up in that
(12:39):
area. Yeah, I grew upin the area. Notre Dame fan.
Uh, I had to. There'sno Katim out of Illinois that plays all
them any sports, Theloni. Yeah, I mean Northwestern. You know it
was Purdue out there. Uh,produce in Indiana, but yeah it's close.
(13:00):
Not bad. Now they they're kickingass and Northwestern is still producing doctors.
Yes, that's right although Northwestern.When I went to visit a friend
of mine, this is how longago it was, was nineteen eighty one
eighty two, and I was goingto Bowling Green State University in Ohio,
just south of Toledo, and Idrove to Chicago to visit a friend of
mine who's going to Northwestern. Andwe went down to get a beer because
(13:22):
I got one in Ohio and drinkingage is eighteen, but in Chicago and
Illinois was twenty one. So Isaid, oh f that. I said,
let's go to Milwaukee and get drunk. So we drove to Milwaukee and
we got lucky because there was anold stripper named Big Red who really lived
up to her name, by theway, and she was retiring and we
(13:43):
got to see the last performance ofthis fifty eight or fifty nine year old
legend in the Midwest called Big Red. And she was a big stripper there.
And a guy would walk around thestrip bar. He was a shorter
fellow, and he had some breakinbarow on and in the brim of the
soebrero were chips. In the middlewas guacamole, and you'd take a chip
(14:05):
out of his hat and stick itin the guacamole and eat it while you're
watching Big Red. Quite a night. I'm not sure if I can go
on with this one quite a night, you know. But that's that's that
was the late eighties, late seventies, early eighties. Now you can't do
that. Yeah. See, whenI was growing up, you went up
to Milwaukee because that's where the brewerieswere, that's right. And the breweries
(14:26):
had one warehouse for Milwaukee. Yeah, in one warehouse for the rest of
the Midwest, because Milwaukee drank asmuch as the Midwest. I didn't know
that. Oh yeah, Oh that'swild. But would you go up and
grab the beer and bring it backor did you grow up and drink it
up there? Oh no, youcouldn't bring it back. It was twenty
one you know. Waits Wait,so you couldn't go to Milwaukee buy beer
(14:46):
and bring it back. Oh no, well you could, but they had
these things called police that wait atthe border. All right, all right,
let's talk real quickly. Now you'rewith Wendy's. You've left the NBA
and now you're with Wendy's, andU I love Wendy's. They you're coming
out with this huge chili. UhYeah, we're coming out with a bucket
of chili. I'll probably be startingin about a month or two, as
(15:07):
soon as we get the container here. You know, it takes a while
to get to California. How muchchili isn't a container? It's four large
chilies, so four pounds. It'sabout four pounds and sixteen ounces, easy,
beautiful, you know, give metwo. But the burger you brought
in was a nine patty. Yeah, it's called the t Rex. You'll
see it on the internet every oncein a while. What does that run
(15:28):
in California? Yeah, probably aboutone hundred and twenty five dollars? Did
this is my Wendy's? Is theEmpire Center? Yes, And that's the
busiest Wendy's in southern California, itis. And she said to say,
Hi, I love that. Ilove the lady wh runs that place out
there. But also any Wendy's,you go to the guy or the gal
(15:52):
running the window worth their weight inchili or gold or whatever. But they
really roll people through there. Theyare pretty here in California. They are
the best. But I really appreciatecoming up. You're always a big part
of our charity event. Come Novemberwith Katerina's Club. And how much did
you guys raise this year? Iwant to say it was about one hundred
and eighty one hundred and eighty thousanddollars. Body, You're always welcome here,
(16:19):
you know, and I appreciate it. And anytime one of your fellow
NBA athletes goes down, you're myguy. Yeah. And remember we got
those new nuggets coming out. Ohthat's right, yeah, twenty for know,
the icy nuggets. They nugget it'sthe Buffalo Nuggets. Yeah. When
did they come out? They cameout on the eighth. Okay, Juneaton
(16:42):
start hitting TV in about another week. But it's a good product, all
right. The garlic palm, theywere really good. But you know,
but the old nuggets were good too. Are you getting rid of the old
nuggets? Oh no, they're stillthere. Let's just you know, takes
it up another notch with the saucealready on it. What that deal?
I love it. Man, Reallyappreciate coming by. Fella's nice to see
him. Terry and ed with Wendy'sformerly the NBA formally of the NBA played
(17:07):
with Kareem you know back then.But that's what your tattoo is Korea.
Wow, that's pretty cool. Stretcha little over there. Yeah, okay,
you're listening to Tim Conway Junior ondemand from KFI AM six forty Belly.
Oh wait a minute, all ofthem second before you take off here,
you know, because you're always buzzingaround. I have no idea where
you are half the day. Butdid you know Jerry West? Did you
(17:30):
ever meet Jerry West? You workedfor the Lakers. I did meet him.
I didn't know him that well.Did he know who you were?
Maybe not? But does Shaq knowyou? Shack did know who I was.
So if if Shaq came into thestation, he would say, oh,
Sharon Belly, how are you?Yeah, isn't that well? No,
I don't think he'd say I don'tthink he'd remember my name. He'd
(17:52):
probably remember my face other parts.I don't know. Oh really really joking?
Your hair? Hair, guy,I had a lot of hair.
But Kobe Bryant certainly knew who youwere. Yeah, then did you take
care of Kobe's kids? I didn'ttake care of his kids. I thought
during the game. You didn't entertainthe kids in the hallway before we go
(18:14):
in the locker room. Yeah,i'd say hi and stuff, But you
bragged that you were like the likethe nanny or something. I never said
that. I never said that.All right. The one thing I do
know about Jerry West is that,like what Fred was saying, that he
was very nervous about the game andabout players getting hurt. That if it
was close, he'd have to leavethe arena. You'd see him like pacing,
you know, back in the tunnel. He could not be out there
(18:37):
when it was like a close game. Nervous guy, very nervous. Yeah.
Who would you compare Jerry West's nervousnessto anybody here on air on KOFIVE
on air, Yeah, like maybeSteve Gregory or Neil Sevadra, maybe Gary
from Gary and Sham, Mark Thoms, Mark Thompson marks a good one.
It's a good one, yeah,Mark, Mark Thompson. Yeah, a
(19:00):
little not that marks a nervous person. But oh, God's consider him nervous.
Yeah, all right, a littleanxiety about things. Yeah, And
I don't know if this segment's goingto help him out. Maybe we don't
tell him about it, somebody willcall it. But I'm saying he's not
a nervous person. But he he'sbut I understand you're what you're saying because
(19:22):
he likes I'm picking up what you'reputting down. Okay, I'm not understanding
what I'm saying because he cares somuch about something that's right that it makes
him nervous if if the you know, if it doesn't pan out the way
he would like it to. Whatwas your reaction though, when you heard
the Jerry West passed away because you'rea big lak. You work for Lakers.
Round No ten? Wow, almostten? That's wild? No,
(19:45):
it was. It's heartbreaking. Yeah, what a legacy. Yeah, great
legacy. I got to watch himplay because I'm older than you. Yeah,
And I lived in California and mymom got seasoned seats. But my
mom had six kids and she gottwo season seats. Two. Well,
(20:06):
they're pricey and you can rotate thekid based on their behavior right now,
but we always, but you always, but going to the game. You
couldn't go with friends or your otherfamily or brothers. It would just be
you and mom or pat mom orJamie and mom or Kelly. And she'd
never let you take a friend orsomething young, maybe you and your brother.
I mean, I was nine yeah, that makes sense. I couldn't
(20:26):
get down there on the RTD atnine. No, you should should be
able to do that, but youcan't. So when you went to the
game, it was with mom,and if they were losing at halftime,
by twenty she's gone, she's gone. So some of the incredible comebacks,
you know, Jerry West in ahalf quarter. Never saw it. How
cool you got to see him playthough, Yeah, of the greatest Lakers.
(20:48):
I was sitting I remember it wascenter court up about twenty five maybe
twenty. I think it was roadtwenty eight, so we're twenty eight rows
back at the Great Western four,and I remember getting to see some of
Jerry West, you know, whenhe shoots those half quarters at the end
of a quarter, half or whatever. It was really cool to wint.
I love that. It was reallyan amazing team. And I remember that
(21:12):
those Lakers back in the seventies,they never complained to the referees. I
don't remember any of them complaining tothe referees that they didn't foul somebody,
because everybody in the stadium knew theygot fouled. They were really rough fouls.
Yeah, yeah, like the KermitWashington type foul you know. Yeah,
that was that was that era.Yeah, and it was great,
(21:34):
great to watch. It was greatto see. And then the whole Magic
Johnson era. I mean that thatfranchise has given me a lot of pleasure.
You got to see like the Showtimeeras like yeah, wow, but
we didn't have seats back then.But I remember being so into the Lakers
when they lost. It was theMemorial Day massacre and they lost to Boston
by I don't know, thirty pointswhatever. I went to McDonald's on Beverly
(21:56):
Glenn and Santa Monica, which Idon't know if still there or not,
but that's when they used to haveashtrays at McDonald's because you could smoke at
McDonald's. And I crushed that aluminumash tray in my hand and it ripped
four of my fingers open. Wow, because you know it's alluminit sharp illumina,
and I cut my fingers open.I went to the emergency room nine,
so I'm drinking because you're watching thegame, and I show up at
(22:18):
the emergency room and it was almostlike that sketch on Satday Live the Appalachian
Emergency Room, Like, Hey,how'd you do that? Where I was
that McDonald's Lakers lost and I crushingash straight room five. Bell, you
are nice to see you, littlebuddy. All right, dged Wong with
you. You're gonna stay for usto show you gotta get out of here.
I gotta go, all right,see you tomorrow. You're listening to
(22:40):
Tim Conway Junior on demand from KFIAm six forty. We're talking about Jerry
West and the man who inspired theNBA logo. He passed away and we
just lost Bill Walton. I thinklast week? Was it Bill Walton?
Last week? So the coming trees, I don't know. I don't know.
(23:04):
But Jerry West inspired the NBA logo. It's a big deal. A
lot of people have that logo athome on their shirt or pants, socks,
or on their shoes, the NBAlogo. Have that come together.
One of the greatest figures in thehistory of American sports, one of the
greatest players, and one of themost important people in the history of basketball
(23:27):
in this or any country, hasdied. Jerry West has died at the
age of eighty six. That wasannounced by the Los Angeles Clippers that he's
been working for today. West,where do you begin to describe a person's
career. It has been argued,and I would argue it loudly that there
aren't a handful of people who hadmore significant careers in basketball than Jerry West
(23:48):
did first as a player, oneof the greatest collegiate players ever, an
Olympian, one of the great Ithink he's correct. I think he's exactly
right. Loud. You got tomake sure that that's loud and proud.
But it wasn't sort of loud.I mean, he said he's going to
be loud, and then he didn'tget loud right he said this. It
has been argued, and I wouldargue it loudly. Okay, well,
(24:12):
if you're going to say that,you're gonna argue it loudly, then you
got to be loud. Maybe Ican help you out. It has been
argued, and I would argue itloudly that they're all into a handful of
people who had more significant careers inbasketball than Jerry West did. For here
you go, all right, now, let's leave loudly. Let's leave it
loud. It's got to be loud. It's got to be loud. It
(24:33):
has been argued, and I wouldargue it loudly that they're all into a
handful of people who had more significantcareers in basketball than Jerry West did.
That's loud at first. As aplayer, one of the greatest collegiate players
ever, an Olympian, one ofthe greatest NBA players ever. Of course,
he is the logo, the silhouettethat you see. He's the logo
on the NBA logo. Every singletime you see the NBA logo, that
(24:56):
is a silhouette of Jerry West.He was one of the great players of
all times, scoring points and enormousnumbers at a time where there were no
three point shots in basketball, leadingthe Lakers to nine NBA finals in his
thirteen seasons, winning just once,but interestingly, to this day, still
the only person ever to be namedthe MVP of the finals that his team
(25:17):
lost. He isn't that crazy,the MVP of the finals where his team
lost. To this day, stillthe only person ever to be named the
MVP of the finals that his teamlost. He finished his playing career as
one of the greatest players ever.He was on the fifty Greatest Players list,
and that certainly isn't even beginning todo him justice. He's in the
(25:37):
handful of greatest players that ever toucheda basketball in their lives. He then
went on to a brief but successfulcareer in coaching and then an enormous career
as an executive, particularly running theLos Angeles Lakers. His acquisitions included James
Worthy, Shaquille O'Neill, Kobe Bryanthiring Phil Jackson as their coach. I
don't think it's overstating it to saybasketball as we know what today has been
(26:00):
shaped by Jerry West about as muchas it has been by any other person
that ever lived. And that iswith the exclusion of no one. That
is a big deal. That's abig deal. Jerry West, the probably
the most important person in the historyof the NBA, passed away today.
You know what impact Jerry was hadon basketball? When you become the logo
(26:23):
of the NBA. That's Magic Johnsonsaying that, you know what's impact heer
he was had on basketball When youbecome the logo of the NBA, the
symbol baby, the symbol. That'swhat type of impact Jerry was had,
known by most NBA fans as thelogo. Jerry West's career was defined by
(26:45):
his quiet confidence and clear focus notonly in winning, but to perfection.
Yeah. The West, Virginia nativeplayed for the Mountaineers and led them to
the nineteen fifty nine NCAA title game, where they lost to con He won
a gold medal a year later atthe Olympics in Rome before the Minneapolis Lakers
took West with the second overall pick. That's a big waste. Made second
(27:11):
overall pick is a huge deal.West made the All Star Team his rookie
season, an honor he received thirteenmore times throughout his career. He became
known as Mister Clutch due to hisrepeated last second heroics. He would let
it go and he would just startrunning to the locker rooms. There wasn't
(27:33):
a better clutch player in the historyof the NBA than Indiana us and West
led the Lakers to nine NBA Finalsappearances, but lost six times to Bill
Russell Celtics. West's greatest performance camein the nineteen sixty nine finals against Boston
Back when he averaged nearly thirty eightpoints a game. He won MVP honors,
(27:57):
the only player to earn that distinctfrom a losing team. Jerry West
was absolutely fast. That was oneof the greatest exhibitions I ever saw in
my life. Watch the finals.Losses took their toll on West. It
was horrible. I really wanted toquit. I mean I did not want
to go on. It was justtoo painful for me. Sometimes it takes
(28:18):
a lot of courage to just goout and play again, and I think
with my mentality and the way Ifelt about the game, it hurt too
much. West finally won his onlyNBA championship three years later, beating the
New York Knicks in five games.After retiring in nineteen seventy four, West
coached the Lakers for three seasons andthen became the general manager in nineteen eighty
(28:42):
two, just as the Showtime Lakerswith Magic Johnson began to flourish. And
the most valuable player is Pyjack Johnsons. He's the Los Angeles Lakers and even
the World Chapions. Jerry actually helpedme when I first got to LA because
he would always take me aside afterevery practice or every game and just point
(29:03):
out the good plays and the badplays. So this man had a wealth
of knowledge. Gave me that knowledge, and then I applied it on the
court. West won three titles asGM during the Showtime era, and in
nineteen ninety six he revived the Lakersby trading for high school player Kobe Bryant
and signing Shaquille O'Neill. The tandemwould capture three straight NBA crowns, whoa
(29:26):
he had in a lot of ways, purged the roster to get a guy
who had just played nothing but highschool ball, and to get a guy
who a lot of people liked togive a bad time about rap music and
free throw shooting. He took alot of grief for that turned out to
be the movie of the decade.After the Lakers won the title in two
thousand, West retired, and theonly way he knew how quietly, West
(29:49):
wrote a letter to Lakers fans thankingthem for his time there. Wow,
what a classy guy. He's knownas the best general, one of the
best players ever had. You know, a lot of people can't do that.
So I'm just happy that he wentout on a great note. For
the man who came from a smalltown in West Virginia, Jerry West achieved
larger than life's success both as aplayer and as an executive. His life
(30:14):
is one that left a huge impressionon the game of basketball, forever immortalized
by the NBA logo. Yeah,Jerry West eighty six years old and passed
away today. Man oh man,there's gonna be a huge, huge service
forum. I imagine may even belive on TV here. Maybe some of
the new stations will cover it live. Certainly it'll be the talk of the
(30:37):
town. Jerry West passed away ateighty six Conway Show on demand on the
iHeartRadio app. Now you can alwayshear us live on KFI AM six forty
four to seven pm Monday through Friday, and anytime on demand on the iHeart
Radio app.
It's k IF. I am sixforty and you're listening to the Conway Show
on demand on the iHeartRadio app.I woke up this morning to the news
that Jerry West passed away. Andwe just talked about Jerry West yesterday,
I think, well, Mark Thompsonwas here, was it yesterday we talked
(00:20):
about Jerry West? Or Monday?We've been talking about him a couple of
days in a row. Yeah,even I think last week we touched on
it before you took off. Yeah, And I'm and you know, I
hope that you know that that peopleunderstand what a huge fan I was,
right, yeah, Jerry Wise.But I was a big fan of when
Jerry West played. I'm not amanagement guy, you know, but I
(00:41):
was also. I was a bigfan when Jerry West played the game.
But ma'am, I was a biggerfan when I watched that Lakers winning time.
That was my guy. Absolutely,that was my guy. I didn't
know that. I don't know ifit was true or not. I didn't
care. I found that Jerry Westmuch more interesting any Jerry West I've ever
read in the newspaper. Do notcare about Jerry West. Prior for seeing
(01:03):
the mini series. There isn't thatgreat. Did not care? Now,
I'm I'm genuinely sad that he passed. Yeah, I am too. You
know. Uh, he was ahe was a character. Yeah, he
worked his way out of a realhorrible situation. You know, he's a
crazy drunk dad. I think therewas never around, went to you know,
(01:25):
work disass off in school. Ithink he was drafted number two,
but I believe number two and whatand stayed. You know, I think
you grew up in Virginia and theni'm was drafted by I guess then Indianapolis
or I mean Minnesota, and thenthey brought the team out here out to
La But ma'am, my mother wasthe biggest Jerry West fan in the world.
(01:51):
And Krozier, you weren't out herein the seventies. Well, you
weren't anywhere in the seventies. Wellit was in Kansas. Yeah, but
what you were You born am atsixty eight. We were born in sixty
eighth. Okay, all right,that was a crazy year in this country.
That's sixty eighty. Yeah, yeah, that makes sense that you came
around total Yeah, but I thinkthat Jerry West is responsible, maybe solely
(02:15):
responsible in the seventies for all thewomen who loved that game, all the
women who loved that game because mymom bought season seats to see Jerry West.
All right, Fred Rogan is withus, the world's greatest broadcaster,
the world's greatest sportscaster, and oneof my dear friends. Hey how you
(02:36):
Bob, So if your mom boughtthe tickets and Jerry West was hot,
Jerry West was unbelievable. She wouldgo to the game by herself sometimes,
Fred, Sure, you know that'sa big deal. No, I hear
you. Yeah, people love Jerrywas running number of reasons. He was
very charming, he was handsome,and he knew what he was doing.
He was a damn good player.Tim, I think you can make the
(02:58):
argument, and I tried to pointthis out today. I don't know if
there was. First of all,with the Lakers, he was the most
impactful individual in the history of thefranchise because he played went to nine finals,
one to one, an All Starevery year, he played wow third
player in history to reach twenty fivethousand points. But then, perhaps his
(03:20):
greatest accomplishments came as an executive theShaq Kobe years. He was there for
Showtime. He touched people in differentgenerations. So I think you could make
the argument easily he's the most impactfulfigure in the Laker organization. Carried a
step further, he might be themost impactful in the history of the NBA
(03:42):
because he did it on different platforms. I mean, Michael Jordan was a
great player. He tried to ownthe Charlotte Hornets, and that went the
hell. Some guys are really goodplayers. Other people were great executives.
People in the league office have tobe credited as well. Magic and Larry
Birds certainly had an impact in thegame, and you could say save the
game. But who had an impactboth in the front office and on the
(04:05):
court only Jerry West. I thinkyou're right. He was. He was
terrific. I will say though that, you know, watching Winning Time made
me appreciate him more. It gavehim more of a sense that, like,
if I was in basketball, I'dbe like that guy. No,
you wouldn't be like that guy fromWinning Time, Yes I would. No,
(04:28):
you would not. You would notbe on your in your office,
on the floor in your underwear inthe fetal position. No, you would
not. Maybe you don't know,Tim, Oh, that's fair. You
probably you might do this, Youmight pick up a chair and throw it
through a window. He did notdo that. Okay, But the one
(04:48):
thing I said yesterday, I gota lot of crap for yesterday. But
I had heard from some people whowere very close to the Lakers that it
was Bill Sharmon who put together thethe you know, the fast, the
run and gun Los Angeles Lakers withMagic Johnson, and that a lot of
people gave Jerry West the credit forthat when it really should have gone to
Coach Sherman. Well, Bill Shermandid do that. Yeah, there's no
(05:12):
question about it. But Jerry Westwas there the show. But when he
was introduced, it wasn't like theydidn't say, oh, and the guy
who was there when Bill Sharmon putthis team together, Jerry was was a
part of it. Bill Sherman oversawthat. Yes, that's fair, right,
But Jerry West was a part ofit, right, So I don't
think you can dismiss his contribution.I didn't, but I will say that
(05:38):
I think Shaquille O'Neill and Kobe Bryanthave to be his biggest accomplishment in the
In the office though, well,I'll tell you. It was during the
Atlanta Olympics and I was in Atlanta, and for whatever reason, they decided
to hold the news conference there whenthey had signed Shack and they had secured
him as a free agent. AndI went up to Jerry backstage and I
said to him, you look awful. I mean, you look terrible.
(06:00):
He goes, You don't know whatthis has done to me, how emotionally
draining this has been, how muchI put into getting this done. I
thought he was on the verge ofcollapse, and that was the day they
were signing him. But you knowwhat, but Fred, that was always
the vibe with Jerry West, thathe was a nervous wreck, you know,
doing nothing but Tom's and pepto bismo, and he was always on the
(06:21):
edge of collapse. Well, hewould listen during games. He wouldn't even
stay in the form, right,He get in his car and drive around
and come back at the end.Yeah, he was afraid somebody would get
hurt. But here's the thing youhave to know about Jerry West. And
I talked to him many times,certainly a very good acquaintance, if not
a friend. Sure. And Isaid to him one time, what makes
you you why are you the wayyou are? And he looked at me
(06:43):
right in the eye and he goes, listen, you want to go shoot
hoops right now, I'll beat you. You go play golf right now,
I'll beat you. You want togo play ping pong, right now,
I'll beat you. And I'll tellyou this. If you beat me,
we're gonna play again until I beatyou. Okay, that's exactly how you
look. I said to Petro somesome money two years ago, maybe a
year ago, when Jerry West wasa spry eighty four maybe, and I
(07:06):
said, I said, I thinkI can take Jerry West in a one
on one And they both said youwouldn't even get a bucket. You've got
to be kidne meed. You didnot say that. Yeah, well he
was eighty four. Oh my god. Here's the thing that I've learned about
professional athletes. I don't care howold you are. You might be older,
but you still know how to play, You still know how to shoot.
(07:27):
If you're jets, I guess Iunderstand. Yeah, And I'll tell
you if you wanted to go outand try to shoot some free throws or
you know, three pointers against JerryWest when he was eighty four. He'd
have mopped you up. He'd mopthe floor with you. He was on
with us once. I think we'reat Kala Sex and I asked him a
sort of a CNN question and hethought I was just pulling his leg.
(07:50):
But I said to him, Isaid, are you a basketball players an
executive or an executive as a basketballplayer? And He's like, got him
mighty? I said, what doyou Larry King? But he had a
great sense of humor. Right,Oh, he was great, And Tim,
(08:11):
I, I gotta be honest withyou. If he trusted you,
he trusted you to me for me, and I might have been very lucky
or a number of people. Hewas always available. If I called Jerry
West at home and said Jerry,I have a question, he'd answer it.
Jerry, will you come on?He'd come on. And the best
thing about it was when you wouldinterview Jerry West. When the interview was
(08:35):
over, then the conversation would beginand he knew what to say on camera,
and then you turn off the cameraand then he told you the real
story. He gives it all toyou, and it was fascinating. He
must have been Jerry West. FredRogan's with this by the way, Fred
Rogan, everybody on five seventy amwith your partner Rodney every single day on
(08:56):
what are the hours? There,give me the hour noon to three,
noon to three. All right,there you go. But but he was
he was so he was almost biggerthan life. You know. The the
NBA logo, as you know,is a is a silhouette of himself.
And in year twenty twenty, duringyou know, George Floyd and the unrest,
there was a lot of talk aboutchanging that logo and the NBA came
(09:20):
down and in the middle of allthat and said, we are never changing
this logo. We're never changing it. Yeah, I don't know where all
the talk came from. It wasnever from the NBA, right, No.
But when the NBA addressed it,they said, we're not changing it.
This is Jerry West. That's ourlogo. It'll always be our logo.
You know. The funniest thing theynever confirmed. David Stern, the
(09:41):
former commissioner, never confirmed that itwas Jerry West. As a matter of
fact, nobody in the NBA hasever said it's Jerry West. But Adam
Silver, the current commissioner, said, you know what, sure looks it
awful up like them looks exactly what. That's wild. But you know what,
nobody ever said that the figure outsidein front of Disneylands Mickey Mouse.
(10:05):
But it looks a lot like MickeyMouse. Well that's fair, that's fair.
Yeah, but you know you wentto here. How they got the
logo, Sure, they went throughsome pictures. Dick Schaff had a collection
of pictures from Sport magazine. Thenthe commissioner at that time went through the
pictures and said, I like thatone, Walter Kennedy. So they took
the picture and they enlisted somebody andthey wanted to look like the baseball logo,
(10:28):
so they made it red, whiteand blue. They had no voting,
no research, nobody had a focusgroup. The guy in charge went,
I like it. That's the logo. That's what it was creat the
old days. Yeah, that's great, no computer generated nothing, that's classic.
But I really appreciate you coming on. I miss you on Channel four
every single night, and I hopethey come to their senses and bring you
(10:50):
back for ten million dollars a year. I hope they never do. Thank
you. I don't need that heady. No, I don't care for how
much, but I love it betteron radio because it's the real You.
Do you know that I do aTV show in Palm Springs. I did
not know that six thirty every night, The Rogan Report on NBC Palm Springs.
Well, look at we've created anew model for local news since no
one is watching the old model.And that's right, that's right. I
(11:13):
got to look at that. It'savailable online. It's online, it's on
Facebook, it's everywhere you want itto be. Six pm live. Yep.
Okay, buddy, you're the best. Thanks for coming on, Fred,
Okay, my friend. All rightthere, he goes Fred Rogan.
I've known that guy forever. I'veknown Fred I don't know, maybe thirty
thirty five years, and every timewe ask him on, he goes,
buddy, what time he and hechanged his schedule. Greatest guy in the
(11:35):
world. We're live on KFI.We'll come back with a real big basketball
fan and to talk more about JerryWest. You're listening to Tim Conway Junior
on demand from KFI AM six forty. Jerry West passed away is a big
part of Los Angeles and so weinvited in an ext NBA player. I
(11:56):
think he played for the NBA edGarages and also Terry with us as well.
They they both played for the NBA. But now they're at Wendy's right.
Yeah, yeah, let's step up. That's right. But you were
a big Milwaukee Bucks fan Chicago Chicago, Well, you were a Chicago fan,
but you couldn't be a Chicago fanbecause they were losing fifty games a
(12:18):
year, sixty games. You know, They're just losing the Bucks every year
until you guys finally took Kareem andbrought them over here and then we finally
started winning. But you were you, You survived and and you were the
glory days of Michael Jordan era musthave been a dream for you. It
was unbelievable. Yeah. I meandid you get to any of those games?
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah yeah. So you grew up in that
(12:39):
area. Yeah, I grew upin the area. Notre Dame fan.
Uh, I had to. There'sno Katim out of Illinois that plays all
them any sports, Theloni. Yeah, I mean Northwestern. You know it
was Purdue out there. Uh,produce in Indiana, but yeah it's close.
(13:00):
Not bad. Now they they're kickingass and Northwestern is still producing doctors.
Yes, that's right although Northwestern.When I went to visit a friend
of mine, this is how longago it was, was nineteen eighty one
eighty two, and I was goingto Bowling Green State University in Ohio,
just south of Toledo, and Idrove to Chicago to visit a friend of
mine who's going to Northwestern. Andwe went down to get a beer because
(13:22):
I got one in Ohio and drinkingage is eighteen, but in Chicago and
Illinois was twenty one. So Isaid, oh f that. I said,
let's go to Milwaukee and get drunk. So we drove to Milwaukee and
we got lucky because there was anold stripper named Big Red who really lived
up to her name, by theway, and she was retiring and we
(13:43):
got to see the last performance ofthis fifty eight or fifty nine year old
legend in the Midwest called Big Red. And she was a big stripper there.
And a guy would walk around thestrip bar. He was a shorter
fellow, and he had some breakinbarow on and in the brim of the
soebrero were chips. In the middlewas guacamole, and you'd take a chip
(14:05):
out of his hat and stick itin the guacamole and eat it while you're
watching Big Red. Quite a night. I'm not sure if I can go
on with this one quite a night, you know. But that's that's that
was the late eighties, late seventies, early eighties. Now you can't do
that. Yeah. See, whenI was growing up, you went up
to Milwaukee because that's where the brewerieswere, that's right. And the breweries
(14:26):
had one warehouse for Milwaukee. Yeah, in one warehouse for the rest of
the Midwest, because Milwaukee drank asmuch as the Midwest. I didn't know
that. Oh yeah, Oh that'swild. But would you go up and
grab the beer and bring it backor did you grow up and drink it
up there? Oh no, youcouldn't bring it back. It was twenty
one you know. Waits Wait,so you couldn't go to Milwaukee buy beer
(14:46):
and bring it back. Oh no, well you could, but they had
these things called police that wait atthe border. All right, all right,
let's talk real quickly. Now you'rewith Wendy's. You've left the NBA
and now you're with Wendy's, andU I love Wendy's. They you're coming
out with this huge chili. UhYeah, we're coming out with a bucket
of chili. I'll probably be startingin about a month or two, as
(15:07):
soon as we get the container here. You know, it takes a while
to get to California. How muchchili isn't a container? It's four large
chilies, so four pounds. It'sabout four pounds and sixteen ounces, easy,
beautiful, you know, give metwo. But the burger you brought
in was a nine patty. Yeah, it's called the t Rex. You'll
see it on the internet every oncein a while. What does that run
(15:28):
in California? Yeah, probably aboutone hundred and twenty five dollars? Did
this is my Wendy's? Is theEmpire Center? Yes, And that's the
busiest Wendy's in southern California, itis. And she said to say,
Hi, I love that. Ilove the lady wh runs that place out
there. But also any Wendy's,you go to the guy or the gal
(15:52):
running the window worth their weight inchili or gold or whatever. But they
really roll people through there. Theyare pretty here in California. They are
the best. But I really appreciatecoming up. You're always a big part
of our charity event. Come Novemberwith Katerina's Club. And how much did
you guys raise this year? Iwant to say it was about one hundred
and eighty one hundred and eighty thousanddollars. Body, You're always welcome here,
(16:19):
you know, and I appreciate it. And anytime one of your fellow
NBA athletes goes down, you're myguy. Yeah. And remember we got
those new nuggets coming out. Ohthat's right, yeah, twenty for know,
the icy nuggets. They nugget it'sthe Buffalo Nuggets. Yeah. When
did they come out? They cameout on the eighth. Okay, Juneaton
(16:42):
start hitting TV in about another week. But it's a good product, all
right. The garlic palm, theywere really good. But you know,
but the old nuggets were good too. Are you getting rid of the old
nuggets? Oh no, they're stillthere. Let's just you know, takes
it up another notch with the saucealready on it. What that deal?
I love it. Man, Reallyappreciate coming by. Fella's nice to see
him. Terry and ed with Wendy'sformerly the NBA formally of the NBA played
(17:07):
with Kareem you know back then.But that's what your tattoo is Korea.
Wow, that's pretty cool. Stretcha little over there. Yeah, okay,
you're listening to Tim Conway Junior ondemand from KFI AM six forty Belly.
Oh wait a minute, all ofthem second before you take off here,
you know, because you're always buzzingaround. I have no idea where
you are half the day. Butdid you know Jerry West? Did you
(17:30):
ever meet Jerry West? You workedfor the Lakers. I did meet him.
I didn't know him that well.Did he know who you were?
Maybe not? But does Shaq knowyou? Shack did know who I was.
So if if Shaq came into thestation, he would say, oh,
Sharon Belly, how are you?Yeah, isn't that well? No,
I don't think he'd say I don'tthink he'd remember my name. He'd
(17:52):
probably remember my face other parts.I don't know. Oh really really joking?
Your hair? Hair, guy,I had a lot of hair.
But Kobe Bryant certainly knew who youwere. Yeah, then did you take
care of Kobe's kids? I didn'ttake care of his kids. I thought
during the game. You didn't entertainthe kids in the hallway before we go
(18:14):
in the locker room. Yeah,i'd say hi and stuff, But you
bragged that you were like the likethe nanny or something. I never said
that. I never said that.All right. The one thing I do
know about Jerry West is that,like what Fred was saying, that he
was very nervous about the game andabout players getting hurt. That if it
was close, he'd have to leavethe arena. You'd see him like pacing,
you know, back in the tunnel. He could not be out there
(18:37):
when it was like a close game. Nervous guy, very nervous. Yeah.
Who would you compare Jerry West's nervousnessto anybody here on air on KOFIVE
on air, Yeah, like maybeSteve Gregory or Neil Sevadra, maybe Gary
from Gary and Sham, Mark Thoms, Mark Thompson marks a good one.
It's a good one, yeah,Mark, Mark Thompson. Yeah, a
(19:00):
little not that marks a nervous person. But oh, God's consider him nervous.
Yeah, all right, a littleanxiety about things. Yeah, And
I don't know if this segment's goingto help him out. Maybe we don't
tell him about it, somebody willcall it. But I'm saying he's not
a nervous person. But he he'sbut I understand you're what you're saying because
(19:22):
he likes I'm picking up what you'reputting down. Okay, I'm not understanding
what I'm saying because he cares somuch about something that's right that it makes
him nervous if if the you know, if it doesn't pan out the way
he would like it to. Whatwas your reaction though, when you heard
the Jerry West passed away because you'rea big lak. You work for Lakers.
Round No ten? Wow, almostten? That's wild? No,
(19:45):
it was. It's heartbreaking. Yeah, what a legacy. Yeah, great
legacy. I got to watch himplay because I'm older than you. Yeah,
And I lived in California and mymom got seasoned seats. But my
mom had six kids and she gottwo season seats. Two. Well,
(20:06):
they're pricey and you can rotate thekid based on their behavior right now,
but we always, but you always, but going to the game. You
couldn't go with friends or your otherfamily or brothers. It would just be
you and mom or pat mom orJamie and mom or Kelly. And she'd
never let you take a friend orsomething young, maybe you and your brother.
I mean, I was nine yeah, that makes sense. I couldn't
(20:26):
get down there on the RTD atnine. No, you should should be
able to do that, but youcan't. So when you went to the
game, it was with mom,and if they were losing at halftime,
by twenty she's gone, she's gone. So some of the incredible comebacks,
you know, Jerry West in ahalf quarter. Never saw it. How
cool you got to see him playthough, Yeah, of the greatest Lakers.
(20:48):
I was sitting I remember it wascenter court up about twenty five maybe
twenty. I think it was roadtwenty eight, so we're twenty eight rows
back at the Great Western four,and I remember getting to see some of
Jerry West, you know, whenhe shoots those half quarters at the end
of a quarter, half or whatever. It was really cool to wint.
I love that. It was reallyan amazing team. And I remember that
(21:12):
those Lakers back in the seventies,they never complained to the referees. I
don't remember any of them complaining tothe referees that they didn't foul somebody,
because everybody in the stadium knew theygot fouled. They were really rough fouls.
Yeah, yeah, like the KermitWashington type foul you know. Yeah,
that was that was that era.Yeah, and it was great,
(21:34):
great to watch. It was greatto see. And then the whole Magic
Johnson era. I mean that thatfranchise has given me a lot of pleasure.
You got to see like the Showtimeeras like yeah, wow, but
we didn't have seats back then.But I remember being so into the Lakers
when they lost. It was theMemorial Day massacre and they lost to Boston
by I don't know, thirty pointswhatever. I went to McDonald's on Beverly
(21:56):
Glenn and Santa Monica, which Idon't know if still there or not,
but that's when they used to haveashtrays at McDonald's because you could smoke at
McDonald's. And I crushed that aluminumash tray in my hand and it ripped
four of my fingers open. Wow, because you know it's alluminit sharp illumina,
and I cut my fingers open.I went to the emergency room nine,
so I'm drinking because you're watching thegame, and I show up at
(22:18):
the emergency room and it was almostlike that sketch on Satday Live the Appalachian
Emergency Room, Like, Hey,how'd you do that? Where I was
that McDonald's Lakers lost and I crushingash straight room five. Bell, you
are nice to see you, littlebuddy. All right, dged Wong with
you. You're gonna stay for usto show you gotta get out of here.
I gotta go, all right,see you tomorrow. You're listening to
(22:40):
Tim Conway Junior on demand from KFIAm six forty. We're talking about Jerry
West and the man who inspired theNBA logo. He passed away and we
just lost Bill Walton. I thinklast week? Was it Bill Walton?
Last week? So the coming trees, I don't know. I don't know.
(23:04):
But Jerry West inspired the NBA logo. It's a big deal. A
lot of people have that logo athome on their shirt or pants, socks,
or on their shoes, the NBAlogo. Have that come together.
One of the greatest figures in thehistory of American sports, one of the
greatest players, and one of themost important people in the history of basketball
(23:27):
in this or any country, hasdied. Jerry West has died at the
age of eighty six. That wasannounced by the Los Angeles Clippers that he's
been working for today. West,where do you begin to describe a person's
career. It has been argued,and I would argue it loudly that there
aren't a handful of people who hadmore significant careers in basketball than Jerry West
(23:48):
did first as a player, oneof the greatest collegiate players ever, an
Olympian, one of the great Ithink he's correct. I think he's exactly
right. Loud. You got tomake sure that that's loud and proud.
But it wasn't sort of loud.I mean, he said he's going to
be loud, and then he didn'tget loud right he said this. It
has been argued, and I wouldargue it loudly. Okay, well,
(24:12):
if you're going to say that,you're gonna argue it loudly, then you
got to be loud. Maybe Ican help you out. It has been
argued, and I would argue itloudly that they're all into a handful of
people who had more significant careers inbasketball than Jerry West did. For here
you go, all right, now, let's leave loudly. Let's leave it
loud. It's got to be loud. It's got to be loud. It
(24:33):
has been argued, and I wouldargue it loudly that they're all into a
handful of people who had more significantcareers in basketball than Jerry West did.
That's loud at first. As aplayer, one of the greatest collegiate players
ever, an Olympian, one ofthe greatest NBA players ever. Of course,
he is the logo, the silhouettethat you see. He's the logo
on the NBA logo. Every singletime you see the NBA logo, that
(24:56):
is a silhouette of Jerry West.He was one of the great players of
all times, scoring points and enormousnumbers at a time where there were no
three point shots in basketball, leadingthe Lakers to nine NBA finals in his
thirteen seasons, winning just once,but interestingly, to this day, still
the only person ever to be namedthe MVP of the finals that his team
(25:17):
lost. He isn't that crazy,the MVP of the finals where his team
lost. To this day, stillthe only person ever to be named the
MVP of the finals that his teamlost. He finished his playing career as
one of the greatest players ever.He was on the fifty Greatest Players list,
and that certainly isn't even beginning todo him justice. He's in the
(25:37):
handful of greatest players that ever toucheda basketball in their lives. He then
went on to a brief but successfulcareer in coaching and then an enormous career
as an executive, particularly running theLos Angeles Lakers. His acquisitions included James
Worthy, Shaquille O'Neill, Kobe Bryanthiring Phil Jackson as their coach. I
don't think it's overstating it to saybasketball as we know what today has been
(26:00):
shaped by Jerry West about as muchas it has been by any other person
that ever lived. And that iswith the exclusion of no one. That
is a big deal. That's abig deal. Jerry West, the probably
the most important person in the historyof the NBA, passed away today.
You know what impact Jerry was hadon basketball? When you become the logo
(26:23):
of the NBA. That's Magic Johnsonsaying that, you know what's impact heer
he was had on basketball When youbecome the logo of the NBA, the
symbol baby, the symbol. That'swhat type of impact Jerry was had,
known by most NBA fans as thelogo. Jerry West's career was defined by
(26:45):
his quiet confidence and clear focus notonly in winning, but to perfection.
Yeah. The West, Virginia nativeplayed for the Mountaineers and led them to
the nineteen fifty nine NCAA title game, where they lost to con He won
a gold medal a year later atthe Olympics in Rome before the Minneapolis Lakers
took West with the second overall pick. That's a big waste. Made second
(27:11):
overall pick is a huge deal.West made the All Star Team his rookie
season, an honor he received thirteenmore times throughout his career. He became
known as Mister Clutch due to hisrepeated last second heroics. He would let
it go and he would just startrunning to the locker rooms. There wasn't
(27:33):
a better clutch player in the historyof the NBA than Indiana us and West
led the Lakers to nine NBA Finalsappearances, but lost six times to Bill
Russell Celtics. West's greatest performance camein the nineteen sixty nine finals against Boston
Back when he averaged nearly thirty eightpoints a game. He won MVP honors,
(27:57):
the only player to earn that distinctfrom a losing team. Jerry West
was absolutely fast. That was oneof the greatest exhibitions I ever saw in
my life. Watch the finals.Losses took their toll on West. It
was horrible. I really wanted toquit. I mean I did not want
to go on. It was justtoo painful for me. Sometimes it takes
(28:18):
a lot of courage to just goout and play again, and I think
with my mentality and the way Ifelt about the game, it hurt too
much. West finally won his onlyNBA championship three years later, beating the
New York Knicks in five games.After retiring in nineteen seventy four, West
coached the Lakers for three seasons andthen became the general manager in nineteen eighty
(28:42):
two, just as the Showtime Lakerswith Magic Johnson began to flourish. And
the most valuable player is Pyjack Johnsons. He's the Los Angeles Lakers and even
the World Chapions. Jerry actually helpedme when I first got to LA because
he would always take me aside afterevery practice or every game and just point
(29:03):
out the good plays and the badplays. So this man had a wealth
of knowledge. Gave me that knowledge, and then I applied it on the
court. West won three titles asGM during the Showtime era, and in
nineteen ninety six he revived the Lakersby trading for high school player Kobe Bryant
and signing Shaquille O'Neill. The tandemwould capture three straight NBA crowns, whoa
(29:26):
he had in a lot of ways, purged the roster to get a guy
who had just played nothing but highschool ball, and to get a guy
who a lot of people liked togive a bad time about rap music and
free throw shooting. He took alot of grief for that turned out to
be the movie of the decade.After the Lakers won the title in two
thousand, West retired, and theonly way he knew how quietly, West
(29:49):
wrote a letter to Lakers fans thankingthem for his time there. Wow,
what a classy guy. He's knownas the best general, one of the
best players ever had. You know, a lot of people can't do that.
So I'm just happy that he wentout on a great note. For
the man who came from a smalltown in West Virginia, Jerry West achieved
larger than life's success both as aplayer and as an executive. His life
(30:14):
is one that left a huge impressionon the game of basketball, forever immortalized
by the NBA logo. Yeah,Jerry West eighty six years old and passed
away today. Man oh man,there's gonna be a huge, huge service
forum. I imagine may even belive on TV here. Maybe some of
the new stations will cover it live. Certainly it'll be the talk of the
(30:37):
town. Jerry West passed away ateighty six Conway Show on demand on the
iHeartRadio app. Now you can alwayshear us live on KFI AM six forty
four to seven pm Monday through Friday, and anytime on demand on the iHeart
Radio app.
Tim Conway Jr. on Demand News
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