Jerry West dead at 86

[HemiBeers]

All the GOAT talk is way overrated. This man was the f***ing LOGO. 

 

RIP.

[laughedatbytime]

RIP

 

 

Barely saw the end of his career, but he was definitely an all time great...

[TheAccountant]

RIP to one of the very best of all time - and thats from a Celtics fan!!  

 

Please allow me to say a few words about Jerry West - in particular about the 1969 finals.  I am not old enough to have watched them although I have watched the 4th quarter of game 7 on youtube.  That being said, when Jerry passed away there was some talk about how he is the only player to have been the finals MVP.  Allow me to explain why he earned that MVP.

 

The 1969 finals was, in many ways, the twilight of the gods.  It was, for the 7th time Boston vs. LA.  Boston had Bill Russell who was playing in his 13th season.  In his first 12 season's he had played in 11 NBA finals (so make this 12 in 13 seasons) and had won 10 titles.  The one final he had lost he had been injured part wy through game 2 and Boston lost to the Hawks in 6.  Given that Boston had beaten basically the same Hawks team the year before and would beat them 2 more times it stands to reason that if he had been healthy Boston would likely have won that series.  The only year he did not play in the finals Boston lost to a great 76's team (the 1967 76's) in the Eastern conference finals in 5 games.  That was one of the all time great teams so nothing to sneeze at there.

 

Boston also had SamJones - another HOF player.  Both Russell and Jones were in their last season.  Plus Boston had John Havlicek - another HOF'e.  The Celtics also had a number of other decent players (Bailey Howell, Larry Siegfried, Satch Sanders, Don Chaney & Don Nelson).  Still the Celtics had only 2 guys (Nelson and Hondo) who were really in their prime.  The rest were young (Chaney) or past their prime.

 

The Lakers had only 3 name players but what a 3 it was - Elgin Baylor, West and Wilt Chamberlin (the GOAT IMO - not even arguable although Russell (the number 2 all time on the GOAT list IMO) won more but that because Russell generally had better coaches and better teams).  Still Baylor was past his prime but West and Walt were still playing at a very high level.  

 

The Lakers had home court edge for the first time ever vs. Boston.

 

Game 1 - LA wins 120 - 118.  West has 53 points & 10 assists

Game 2 - LA wins 118 - 112.  West has 41 points

Game 3 - Boston wins 111-105.  West has 24 points

Game 4 - Boston wins 89 - 88 (last second shot by Sam Jones).  West has 40 points

Game 5 - LA wins 117-104.  West has 39 points

Game 6 - Boston wins 99 - 90.  West has 26 points

Game 7 - Boston gets out to an early 24 - 12 lead.  LA cuts it to 28 - 25 at the end of the 1st quarter.  At the half Boston leads 59 - 56.  Early in the 3rd quarter LA ties it at 60.  Then Boston dominates the rest of the 3rd quarter and ends the quarter up 15.  The lead went to 21 early in the 4th.  Then things got interesting.  Wilt (who never fouled out of a game in his NBA career) picked up his 5th foul.  The Russell picked up his 5th, then Sam Jones picked up his 5th.  Then Hondo picked up his 5th.  Though all this West kept scoring.  Then Sam Jones fouled out.  With 5+ minutes to go Wilt injured his knee and had to go out of the game.  He asked back in with about a minute to go but his coach (who did not get along with him) kept him out.  Crazy - I know his back up was playing well but to keep Will on the bench - nuts.  West keep scoring and LA got the lead down to 1 but Don Nelson scored when he had a shot hit the rim, bounce so high it was high then the top of the backboard and then it came down and hit nothing but net.  Crazy.  The broke LA momentum - there were a few more baskets each way and Boston on 108 - 106.  West has 42 points, 13 rebounds and 12 assists.  Keep in mind west was a 6-3 guard playing in a game with the 2 greatest rebounders of all time (Wile and Russell) - BTW, Wilt had 27 boards and Russell had 21.

 

So, with that line West got the finals MVP.  If somebody did that now the commentators on ESPN would be raving about them.

 

Also, if they had awarded conference finals MVP's back in West's day he would clearly have won it in 1965.  That year LA was playing the Baltimore Bullets in the Western Conference finals (don't ask me what a team from Baltimore was doing in the Western Conference - I don't know).  Baltimore had Gus Johnson, Bailey Howell & Walt Bellamy - not a bad team.  LA basically just had West & Baylor.  However 5 minutes into game 1 Baylor went down with a knee injury that ended his season.  So it was all on West.

 

Game 1 - LA Wins 121 - 115.  West has 49 points

Game 2 - LA wins 118 - 115.  West has 52 point

Game 3 - Baltime wins 122 - 115.  West has 44 points

Game 4 - Baltimore wins 114 - 112.  West has 48 points

Game 5 - LA wins 120 - 112.  West has 43 points

Game 6 LA wins 117 - 115.  West has 42 points.

 

His reward?  He got to play the Celtics of Russell, Tom Heinsohn, Satch Sanders, K.C. Jones, Sam Jones & Hondo.  Boston won 4 games to 1.  Again, if somebody put up those kinds of #'s in a conference final today the ESPN commentators would be going nuts.

 

With Jerry's passing he is now back together with Wilt, Russell, Baylor and the other greats from the 1960's - an age when giants walked the earth.

 

RIP Jerry. 

[laughedatbytime]

There was a case for him to be the 1970 Finals MVP as well.    Leading scorer by more than 7 ppg, and this all-time great shot to send game 3 to OT

 

 

Edited June 23, 2024 by laughedatbytime