NBA Summer League honors Jerry West on first day of play

The baseline seats are where the iconic Jerry West always sat when he attended the NBA Summer League, and so to honor the former Lakers great and Hall of Famer who died last month at 86, a T-shirt with his face on it was placed on a chair.

There was a cup from Dairy Queen also on the chair, put there because West loved to eat ice cream while watching the games.

Over the course of the next 11 days of games at the Thomas & Mack Center, those items will remain in the chair and no one will be allowed to sit there.

Warren LeGarie, the director of the NBA Summer League, decided he wanted to honor West with a tribute for all he has done for the game of basketball.

“One of the most instrumental people, players, executives in the history in developing this game,” said Pat Riley, president of the Miami Heat and once the coach of the 1980s “Showtime” Lakers, in a video tribute.

West was the architect of the Lakers’ team that won five NBA championships with Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. West put together the team in the 2000s that saw Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal win three straight championships and saw Bryant win two more.

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It was his eye for talent that made West stand out and his willingness to travel anywhere to watch games.

Mitch Kuphak, who played for the Lakers and worked in their front office, talked about how West loved to go out and “watch kids play.”

Kupchak said they’d go to watch San Diego State play, and to UC Santa Barbara because “Brian Shaw is playing in Santa Barbara tonight.” He’d also watch games at UCLA and Loyola Marymount.

“That’s the one thing: He’d love to sit in the crowd and watch a kid play,” Kupchak said. “He’d love to meet young players and, of course, they were drawn to him. … He loved to watch them and he would take notes. That was his passion.”

Kupchak told a story of how West asked him to work in the front office after he retired in 1986.

Kupchak had dealt with an assortment of injuries.

“For me, it was a huge opportunity,” Kupchak said Friday before the Timberwolves and Pelicans played. “I like to joke about it. He says he wanted some help, but what I think is he wanted the roster spot more than he wanted my help.”

West is the only person to be inducted into the Hall of Fame three times — as a player, executive and contributor.

He last worked for the Clippers as a consultant, a job West still loved to do because it kept him involved in basketball.

West reached the NBA Finals nine times during his illustrious playing career with the Lakers. He lost eight of them, six times to the Boston Celtics.

Those Celtics players respected West.

“Jerry was the type of player that would embarrass you,” former Boston Celtics great John Havlicek, who died in 2019, said in a video tribute. “He was so quick and fast. I mean, he’d just blow right past you.”

“He was the guy I could not guard, because he was so quick,” former Ceitics great and Hall of Famer Sam Jones, who died in 2021, said in a video tribute. “And he could leap and he could get to his spot and all of a sudden he’s up. You don’t even have time to get up and block the shot. That’s how good he was.”

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.