The NBA logo, Jerry West, left his mark

That Jerry West left a mark on the NBA was more than a cliché. His silhouette, a depiction of him dribbling, became the inspiration for the logo of the league. Or if you choose, the Association.

Could there be a better affirmation of what he meant to the game in general and to the Los Angeles Lakers in particular?

Dribble. Shoot. Rebound. There was nothing West couldn’t do on the court. It was written he wasn’t so much a point guard as a guard who got points. 

West died Tuesday, it was announced. He was 86. He not only had the perfect game, but history will show that in the history of pro basketball, the relocation, the perfect name: West.

That’s where America was going. That’s where sports was going. The Giants and Dodgers moved to California in 1958. In 1962 the Philadelphia Warriors, with Wilt Chamberlain, would leave for San Francisco. The Minneapolis Lakers did it before the 1960 season. They had a star named Elgin Baylor. In the April 1960 draft, they grabbed Jerry West. 

Both were familiar to the Bay Area. Elgin took over the 1958 NCAA’s at the Cow Palace.  Another year in 1959, Cal defeated the Big O and Cincinnati in the semifinals, and West and West Virginia in the final 71-70.

 Exciting times for pro hoops, for a then-young sports writer. Jerry West was born in 1938; so was the Big O, Oscar Robertson. So was a kid journalist who was getting his feet wet and his bylines occasionally published in the late, not-so-great, Santa Monica Evening Outlook.

Jerry was a rookie, as was I. There was camaraderie. There was understanding. 

It was the first of numerous near-misses for Jerry. He once came back from a long road trip to score 60 points—  the 3-point basket had yet to be introduced. But in the playoffs, he was without luck. And the Lakers kept running and shooting into Bill Russell and the Boston Celtics. Disappointment after disappointment in LA. Eight trips to the finals without a win.      

Not until the marvelous Laker team that won 33 in a row in 1972 row did he at last reach the summit.

West was from Cheylan, W.V., a town not far from a burg named Cabin Creek. Thus did Baylor, obsessed with nicknames, labeled Jerry, “Zeek from Cabin Creek.”

The Warriors who would have loved to have West as a player — who wouldn’t —  were blessed with his advice when he went to work briefly as a consultant. But in time he was gone. Jerry worked on his golf game — as you might imagine — he was very efficient and kept busy in other ways.

A month ago, we lost Bill Walton. Now the great Jerry West. Sadness all around.