LAS VEGAS — The NBA summer season league in Las Vegas began off with a touching tribute to the legendary Jerry West.
Previous to tipoff of the primary sport Friday between the Minnesota Timberwolves and New Orleans Pelicans, a virtually 20-minute tribute was held for West, who died on June 12 on the age of 86.
A 3-minute video tribute performed earlier than Rod Thorn and Mitch Kupchak talked about considered one of their closest mates.
“Whenever you take a look at Jerry, you’re looking at one of many best gamers within the historical past of the sport,” Thorn, who performed with West at West Virginia, mentioned. “Definitely goes down as one of many two or three best normal managers within the historical past of the sport. A mixture you do not see fairly often.
“… After I was a sophomore, junior in highschool, he was my idol. It is a super loss for not solely the basketball group but additionally this nation. A terrific man, and I can not say sufficient about all the nice occasions we had and the way fantastic he was to me.”
The Corridor of Famer, who was a guide for the Clippers for the previous seven years, was a relentless presence at summer season league and liked being on the Thomas & Mack Middle to observe the subsequent wave of stars from a courtside seat alongside the baseline.
The Las Vegas summer season league positioned a shirt displaying West and the phrase “The Soul of Summer time League” atop the courtside seat the place he used to observe video games. A big Dairy Queen cup, representing West’s favourite deal with, was on the chair, too.
“The one factor that Jerry would like to do… he wished to get out and go watch youngsters play,” Kupchak, a former Laker who later joined West within the workforce’s entrance workplace, mentioned. “[He would often say] ‘Hey Mitch, let’s go to San Diego and watch San Diego State play.’ ‘Let’s go as much as Santa Barbara, Brian Shaw is enjoying at Santa Barbara tonight.’ ‘Let’s go to the UCLA sport or the Loyola Marymount sport.’ That’s the one factor, he liked to take a seat within the crowd and watch a child play.
“He would love to take a seat proper there, and have the gamers come as much as him, and he would love to observe and he would take notes too. That was his ardour.”
Throughout final month’s NBA draft, the Clippers positioned West’s favourite snacks on an empty seat of their draft conflict room to honor him over each nights. He liked your entire draft course of and had a legendary eye for locating expertise, together with Kobe Bryant.
