Ball is living, Jerry West its brand

Sports has a tendency to lure its legendary players up to the game much after their playing days have ended, if at all, more than any other team activity.

Ball is living. This is what is said on American trampolines. Sports has a way of bringing its legendary players up to the game much after their playing days have ended, if at all, more than any other team activity. Their pervasiveness has usually tied its potential to its present.

Jerry West, the Hall of Famer turned senior, was the most embodied of this. The veteran. His passing on Wednesday leaves a gap that no sport is close. There are now the unimaginable darkness that Tommy Heinsohn and Bill Russell were also delivering the NBA Finals MVP prize named in his honor and West was also consulting for another candidate.

For so much, generations of fans was swing their youngest on a knee, level to the front row and state," There goes a story". Before he ever played in the NBA, West may be remembered as a West Virginia wunderkind, a Mountaineers legend, and an Olympic gold medalist.

And, man, what an NBA occupation it was. He was an Every- Star each year of his 14- time occupation, including 10 All- NBA initial- team selections. He was the nature of the team's band culture, losing seven NBA Finals — six to Russell's Celtics — before breaking through at time 33 alongside Wilt Chamberlain on the 1972 Los Angeles Lakers. Just one losing team has always won the title of Finals MVP. In four distinct regular-season MVP tribes, he also came in second behind Chamberlain, Willis Reed, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

West, however, is taken in vain by no sports fan. He was a jump-shooting watch unlike the NBA had never seen. Hardly anyone before him perhaps knew someone 6- foot- 3 had post 27 points, seven assists and six rebounds in a game, let single average as some for a career. He was Mr. Beyond and Mr. Clutch. If you want to understand why, see his 60- url to send Game 3 of the 1970 NBA Finals to work.

He is the NBA's symbol, for goodness ' sake, and that's not even the third of it.

" Jerry would push cock in a way that was so skilled and relentless", Pat Riley, who credited West for his illustrious career as both instructor of the Lakers and president of sports activities for the Miami Heat, said in a statement Wednesday. " I was therefore glad to be there in his presence. I watched, I learned. He made me believe. Being in that image of glory was mesmerizing. I was told,' Pat, only observe him and type yourself after Jerry.' He was intelligent, determined, arrogant, brave, good, ultra- competitive, stubborn, but with great grace. Just a few of the traits he had embedded himself into my mind.

West served as a hunter, coach and eventually the general director of the Lakers from 1976- 2000, building a pair of kingdoms in L. A. West owed his entire playing career to Magic Johnson, Shaquille O'Neal, and Kobe Bryant, who all won 10 titles for the franchise.

West's Memphis Grizzlies team won the second Executive of the Year award in 2004. Even after stepping down, West did not stay away from the game for long. He joined the Golden State Warriors as a consultant in 2011, famously convincing them not to trade Klay Thompson and recruiting Kevin Durant. Another dynasty on his record. Up until his passing, West advised the Los Angeles Clippers about the acquisitions of Paul George and Kawhi Leonard. More is accomplished by no executive. West won eight NBA championship rings in a span of eight decades. So much for second place.

Never mind his pioneering contributions to the league's mental health discussion.

" He never stopped", Clippers owner Steve Ballmer said in a statement on Wednesday. Not even a year after receiving the 2019 Presidential Medal of Freedom. The work was never done. He never lost his game.

As long as the grandson on your knee is willing to hear it all, they are necessary to tell the story of basketball's history. When the legend could still be seen on the sidelines, it was simpler.

Those days are fading, though. We lost Heinsohn in 2020, Elgin Baylor in 2021, Russell in 2022, Reed in 2023 and Bill Walton late last month, just to name a handful. Many of these legends stayed with us and continued to play the game for a long time. We can still call on Bob Cousy, as The Boston Globe's Dan Shaugnessy did this week, when we need to feel connected to the game's beginnings.

But not forever.

" I'm 95]expletive ] years old with one foot in the grave and I can barely move", Cousy told Shaugnessy during this year's Finals. " I know I'm in overtime. So everything in your life becomes more meaningful. And the Celtics ' banner No. 1 should be one of the last things I want to see. 18".

We must remember these monumental figures because of how important they are to us and the game we love so much even though their legacy may last forever. I saw Oscar Robertson at this year's All- Star Game in Indianapolis. He should have been stopped, I suppose. I should have said," Thank you".

So thank you, Jerry. Ball is life, and you were its Logo.