Jerry West: The Life and Legend of a Basketball Icon

Biographer Roland Lazenby describes Los Angeles Lakers great Jerry West as "the most influential figure in the history of American basketball." Lazenby takes on the task of trying to explain the "mystery that is Jerry West."Lazenby was told that to understand West, he needed to understand West Virginia, where West was born and raised and played for the University of West Virginia. Lazenby spends the first 75 pages, detailing the history of West Virginia, exploring West's ancestry and interviewing many of his family members, relatives and boyhood friends. While this does help to explain West, I'm afraid it's about 50 pages too long for many readers.But, by the time you finish this nearly 400-page biography, you'll have completely forgotten about the book's slow start.Lazenby achieves his goal of explaining the mystery of Jerry West. Jerry's mother was a perfectionist, who was a loner and shy. Jerry, who had little relationship with his abusive father, took after his mother. He was also deeply affected by the death of his older brother in the Korean War.West was never able to enjoy his accomplishments. Nothing he ever did was good enough. Instead, he settled for disappointment, harsh criticism or perceived slights by others. He would go through long periods of depression when he wasn't playing well. He was extremely competitive, had more heart than any other player, obsessed with winning and driven to greatness. He was humble, shy and reserved.Lazenby says West's rise to the top of basketball was "absolutely improbable." West was physically frail through high school, college and much of his NBA career. As an NBA rookie he was 6-foot-3 and 172 pounds. Coach Bill Sharman called West, known as Mr. Clutch, "the tallest 6-foot-3 player ever." Sharman also felt West was "probably the greatest defensive guard ever."Lazenby gives a good account of West's high school and college basketball careers, particularly the rivalry between West and Oscar Robertson of the University of Cincinnati to be considered the best college player in the nation. The book is equally divided between West's pre-NBA years and NBA career.West's heroics and heartbreaks in the NBA, losing year after year to the Boston Celtics for the championship, are well chronicled. West and the Lakers finally won a championship in 1972, beating the New York Knicks. Lazenby points out that if West had scored a total of 10 more points in five games, he would have had an NCAA title and four NBA titles.After his playing days, West served three unhappy years as the Lakers coach and then became their successful general manager.This is an insightful biography about one of the NBA's greatest players ever. It should be on every basketball fan's "must-read" list.

I enjoyed this book as Jerry West is an interesting person. Too much about his pro basketball ball career and not enough about his GM days.I enjoyed the books section about his West Virginia family history most.I have not read West’s autobiography, but I think that would be the one book I would read about Jerry West instead of this one.....

Having been a Laker fan since the early 70's, I couldn't wait to read about my all-time favorite Laker. The author does an excellent job following the life and career of Jerry West. Starting with his childhood in the Depression, this is the time in his life where his "perfectionism" began. With hard work and the demands of his mother, Jerry would carry this burden through-out his entire life. Looking back over the years, Jerry said he had no idea why he played so hard except he was desperate to please his mother, to make up for the great loss she had suffered due to the death of his brother, David. During his college years, Jerry encounters "Hot Rod Hundley"(from West Virginia and future Laker) and Oscar Robertson. The 60's were especially difficult due to the constant losing to the Boston Celtics. During the '72 season the Lakers finally hit pay-dirt with a World Championship and a record 33 game winning streak. After his career was over, Jerry would be the Lakers' general manager and be involved with the organization he loved. I enjoyed most of the book, but found myself saddened with the fact of the underlining events that haunted this super-star. The demand for perfection is impossible to endure yet essential to greatness, basketball's select few---this is Jerry West. Jerry once said certain players, the elite, have a little extra "dust sprinkles" on them at birth---this is Jerry West. The image and character of Jerry West is what being a professional is all about. Maybe that is why Jerry's silhouette is the logo for the NBA. Would also recommend Wilt: Larger Than Life and Chick: His Unpublished Memoirs and the Memories of Those Who Loved Him as companion reading.

This book is different than the average sports book you'll read - some reviewers have commented on the excess pages of West's beginnings and yes, while it's a tad extensive - almost half the book covers his life thru college - it is refreshing, too. Far too many sports books have too many game summaries but you don't learn much about the person - if you're reading this, you know who Jerry West is and don't want to bother with trivial game descriptions - a few game summaries are okay but a book with too many is tiresome reading. And speaking about you know who Jerry West is, why do so many reviewers try to give you his life story, like we don't know who he is?? - if you're reading all these reviews, then you obviously know who Jerry West is and it's tiresome reading to slog thru those kinds of reviews - I mean, we know who Jerry West is, just tell us about the book.

This book is a must-read for any Los Angeles Lakers fan. I love college basketball and I'm from West Virginia, which is why I picked up this book. I thought the first half was really great, as the author describes West's childhood and career in high school and college. Then, the second half of the book details his years with the Lakers as a GM, a player, and a head coach. The second half of the book, in my opinion, was written as well as the first half of the book. Also, there's very little written here about his years as a GM with the Memphis Grizzlies. Only a paragraph or two, actually, which I found to be puzzling. However, it's worth reading if you love basketball, and I ultimately found it very enjoyable.