Fans of St. Louis basketball found out in a hurry how gifted Jerry West was as an all-round playmaker.
Whether facing the St. Louis University Billikens as a college senior or the St. Louis Hawks as a NBA rookie, West performed with excellence, totaling consistently impressive numbers of points, rebounds and assists.
A 6-foot-3 guard who played three varsity seasons at West Virginia University and 14 seasons with the Los Angeles Lakers, West averaged 24.8 points per game in college and 27 in the pros. (The NBA career leader is Michael Jordan at 30.1). West, the inspiration for the NBA logo, was 86 when he died on June 12, 2024.
College classic
As a junior at West Virginia, West averaged 26.6 points and 12.3 rebounds per game. West Virginia reached the championship final of the 1959 NCAA Tournament, but lost to California, 71-70. West had 28 points and 11 rebounds in that game. Boxscore
With West back for his senior season, West Virginia roared to a 6-0 start before facing St. Louis University in the first round of the Kentucky Invitation Tournament at Lexington in December 1959.
St. Louis assistant coach Fred Kovar, who scouted West that month when he scored 28 against Richmond, described him to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch as “a great all-round player with a lot of finesse and a fine jump shot. He’s a dynamic rebounder and defensively tough.”
The Billikens tried having one of their top players, 6-foot-5 Pete McCaffrey, guard West, but it didn’t work out. West scored 25 points in the first half and his team led, 51-36, at halftime.
St. Louis head coach John Benington made a defensive adjustment for the second half, having his team go to a zone-and-chaser defense. The chaser was George Latinovich, a 5-foot-11 sophomore. Described by the Post-Dispatch as “agile and aggressive,” Latinovich chased and hounded West.
As the newspaper noted, “The idea was to make West think he could take the short defender into the middle. West did, and that’s where the taller, zone-playing other Billikens ganged him and cut down his scoring.”
With West slowed, the Billikens clawed back from a 20-point deficit in the second half. As the West Virginia lead evaporated, Benington had his Billikens switch to a zone press. West fouled out with 22 seconds remaining.
St. Louis trailed by two, 87-85, when Billikens senior Jim Dailey was fouled with one second left. Dailey made the first free throw, but the second “hit the right side of the rim, looped, and rolled off the left side,” the Post-Dispatch reported.
West Virginia escaped with an 87-86 win. West had 37 points (12 in the second half) and 22 rebounds. “He’s the best I ever played against,” McCaffrey, who finished with 22 points, told the Post-Dispatch. “West can jump higher and he is quicker than Oscar (Robertson). Oscar is a better team player, though.”
The next night, St. Louis beat North Carolina, 68-52, in the consolation game, and West scored 33 to lead West Virginia to a 79-70 triumph over Kentucky for the tournament title.
Tough rookie
Three outstanding guards _ all destined for induction to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame _ were taken among the first six picks in the opening round of the 1960 NBA draft. Oscar Robertson, chosen first, went to the Cincinnati Royals. The next pick, West, went to the Minneapolis Lakers. With the sixth selection, the St. Louis Hawks took Lenny Wilkens.
West’s first season with the Lakers was their first in Los Angeles. They relocated from Minneapolis before the 1960-61 season and hired Fred Schaus, West’s college coach, to be their head coach.
Among the highlights of West’s rookie season were a pair of regular-season games against the Hawks.
On Feb. 2, 1961, as part of a NBA doubleheader at Philadelphia’s Convention Hall, the Lakers beat the Hawks, 116-115. West’s drive to the hoop resulted in a basket that tied the score at 115-115 with 38 seconds left. The Lakers won on Frank Selvy’s free throw in the final five seconds.
With forward Elgin Baylor sidelined because of an ankle injury, West snared 21 rebounds to go along with his 29 points. Boxscore
Ten days later, the Lakers faced the Hawks at St. Louis’ Kiel Auditorium. Though Baylor was in the lineup, West was a force on the boards again. He grabbed a career-high 24 rebounds and scored 17 points in a 105-95 Lakers victory. Boxscore
As the Post-Dispatch noted, West “caused no little embarrassment among the Hawks” and was “a major factor in the Lakers’ wide edge in rebounding. West charged the boards while his teammates blocked out the taller St. Louis players.”
Hawks head coach Paul Seymour told the newspaper, “To let their small men go in for rebounds as they did had to insult our guards.”
The loss was a rare one at home for the Hawks that season. It dropped their home record to 24-3. The other two losses were to the Boston Celtics.
In his 1970 book, “Mr. Clutch,” West said, “The fans in St. Louis were the toughest in the league. At Kiel Auditorium, they were closer to the court than in most arenas, and it was hard not to hear them. I have no complaints with most fans. They pay their way in and have a right to express themselves within reason. The sort of support they give teams in St. Louis, Boston and Philadelphia really helped those teams.”
West also was impressed with the Hawks’ standout player, Bob Pettit. “He was the most agile 6-foot-9 forward I ever faced and one of the greatest competitors,” West said in his 1970 book.
The Hawks (51-28) were regular-season conference champions in 1960-61, but the NBA then (like all professional sports now) had a playoff system that allowed also-rans in as wild cards. The Lakers (36-43) were one of the teams “rewarded” with a wild card spot.
Though undeserving of a playoff berth based on their record in the regular season, the Lakers took advantage of the gift and nearly knocked out the Hawks in the conference finals. The Lakers won three of the first five games before the Hawks eked out a 114-113 win in overtime in Game 6 and a 105-103 triumph in Game 7. West, the rookie, averaged 24.7 points and 8.7 rebounds per game in that series.
In his autobiography, West criticized the NBA for awarding playoff berths to clubs with mediocre or losing records. “If the games in October and November aren’t going to count, why charge for them?” West said. “It isn’t a big-league operation if the fourth-place team can win the championship.”
Class act
West had several other noteworthy performances against St. Louis. In 1962, he scored 46 points in a game at Los Angeles and 45 at St. Louis. Boxscore and Boxscore
He also dished out 16 assists to go with 23 points in a 1966 game versus St. Louis. Boxscore
Facing St. Louis in the 1966 conference finals, West averaged 34.6 points, 6.1 rebounds and 6.1 assists per game. West was the Lakers’ high scorer in six of the seven games in that series.
Guarded by St. Louis player-coach Richie Guerin, West scored 42 in Game 4. As the Post-Dispatch noted, “West was able to score because of his phenomenal skill firing in baskets despite hands in his face and constant harassment.” Boxscore
In the Game 7 finale, a 130-121 win for the Lakers, West had 35 points and six assists, even though he was called for his fifth foul late in the third quarter. West played the rest of the game without committing a disqualifying sixth foul.
“We did our best to take him under the basket, where he might get his sixth foul, but when we did that, we sacrificed some of our movement on offense,” Guerin told the Post-Dispatch. Boxscore
West was a guest instructor at the summer basketball camp run by former St. Louis University and NBA standout Ed Macauley at Hillsboro, Mo., in 1962.
One of the tips West gave the campers was: “If you’re trying to steal the ball, slap up, not down, and you’re less likely to be caught off balance.”
West also told the newspaper, “Quickness is more important than speed. The Hawks’ Bob Pettit has it, and so does Lenny Wilkens. The first move is the key one. It gets you past your man, or at least in the clear long enough to shoot.”
West was 36 when he opted to end his playing career in October 1974. Though he had a guaranteed $300,000 contract and had just scored 19 points in an exhibition game against the Portland Trail Blazers, West told the New York Times, “The major reason for my retirement is because I have set high standards for myself that I’m not willing to compromise. I have seen other players play longer than I thought they should have. I did not want to do that.”
An excellent write up Mark about a player I know by name only. What an honor to have the NBA emblem in his image. I think there was talk of changing it to that of Kobe Bryant after his tragic death, but it never came to be, not yet anyway. I had no idea how much of a rebounder was West, very much a complete player.
How rare to hire one’s college coach in a player’s first year. The Lakers must have trusted that West would be a great one and hired Fred Schaus to work with him as he transitioned into the NBA.
I had never heard of NBA double headers. Players must have been absolutely exhausted and/or teams made more use of their bench.
I totally agree with Mr. West about their being way too many playoff teams. It’s the same in baseball. It bothers me that mediocre teams can just get hot at the end of the season and ride the momentum to the championship, kind of like the Diamondbacks did last year.
Thanks, Steve. I, too, was surprised by how strong a rebounder Jerry West was and how he was willing to mix it up under the boards. While playing in NBA games, he broke his nose nine times and also broke his gifted hands twice, according to the New York Times.
Fred Schaus was quite a talented basketball coach and executive. As head coach at West Virginia, his record was 127-26. He later was head coach at Purdue and posted a 104-60 mark. After six seasons as head coach of the Lakers, Schaus became the team’s general manager in 1967 and put together the club that won the NBA title in 1972.
I remember those NBA doubleheaders being played at Madison Square Garden in New York as a kid in the 1960s. According to Boston basketball writer Bob Ryan, NBA doubleheaders were common in the 1950s, 1960s and early 1970s. What a bargain. For as little as two bucks you got two games at the Boston Garden, for example.
In the 1966 NBA semifinals against Baltimore, West averaged over 46 points per game. That was the series when Elgin Baylor sustained a career-altering knee injury. Edwardsville High grad Don Ohl led the Bullets with a little over 28 ppg.
What an incredible series that was for Jerry West, who carried the Lakers. (Just fyi: That was the 1965 NBA semifinals, according to basketball-reference.com: https://www.basketball-reference.com/playoffs/1965-nba-western-division-finals-bullets-vs-lakers.html)
The Lakers won four of six against Baltimore, even though, as you noted, Elgin Baylor was hurt and played just five minutes of one game in that series. Besides West, the Lakers’ other top players in that series were Dick Barnett (21 points per game), Rudy LaRusso (15.3) and Leroy Ellis (11.5 points and 13 rebounds per game).
That was a tough Baltimore team coached by Buddy Jeannette. Besides, as you noted, the strong scoring of 6-foot-3 guard Don Ohl, Baltimore got good performances in that series from Walt Bellamy (22.5 points, 15.2 rebounds per game), Bailey Howell (21.8 points, 13.4 rebounds) and Gus Johnson (15.8 points, 11.3 rebounds).
I think many folks would be surprised to know Jerry was as tough as he was talented, Mark. One of the first pro players I remember “following” to see what he did each game.
Yes, indeed, Bruce. Many considered Jerry West to be basically a pure jump shooter, but he clearly was a lot more. Add intelligence to the list, too.
Even though his 1970 autobiography was called “Mr. Clutch,” West said in the book the nickname “has a silly sound to it, like Superman or Captain Marvel. I’m just a guy, flesh and blood, scared to death sometimes, who has found he can put a basketball into a basket pretty easily and who has found he can do it best when it is important. You only spend a couple of hours a day on the basketball court and your life extends far beyond that. I get hungry sometimes just to be considered a person with ideas and feelings about life that have nothing to do with sports. I would like to feel I’d be welcome some places even if I weren’t a good outside shooter.”
We’ve just been losing one legendary sports figure after another, West, Walton, Mays. Thanks for giving us some of the detail of what made Jerry West such a great player.
Gosh, yes, Ken, that’s quite an amazing trio of talent that many of us grew up watching and admiring.
In comments to the Los Angeles Times in February 1972, Jerry West said of UCLA’s sophomore center, “Bill Walton is without a doubt one of the finest players I’ve ever seen in college basketball. He’s already incredible, and he’s got to get better.”
On Sunday (June 23), I plan to post a piece on Willie Mays that might surprise both fans of the Giants and Cardinals.
Always a class act. Jerry West was one of the best from an era, that in my humble opinion, was a golden age for college and professional basketball. I began to lose interest in basketball when everything began to revolve around the 3point shot. Just like MLB, good fundamentals were very much a part of basketball. If I’m not mistaken, Jerry West is still the only NBA finals MVP coming from the losing team. And he’s also one of the few great and successful players to find greatness and success at a management level.
Good stuff, Phillip. Yes, Jerry West was the MVP of the 1969 NBA Finals, even though the Boston Celtics won the championship with four victories in seven games. West averaged 37.9 points and 7.4 assists per game in that series.
Regarding that golden age you referenced, check out the starting lineups for the 1965 NBA All-Star Game at St. Louis Arena: The East starters were Oscar Robertson, Jerry Lucas, Bill Russell, Sam Jones and Luke Jackson. The West starters were Jerry West, Bob Pettit, Wilt Chamberlain, Elgin Baylor and Lenny Wilkens. The East won, 124-123. Robertson had 28 points and eight assists. West had 20 points and six assists.
Very good stuff. In the Kentucky Invitational finals, West was hit in the nose (he broke it 9 times) and bled profusely on the court. They had to use towels to clean it up and he came back in the second half and led WV to a win at vaunted UK with something like 38 points. Even Adolph Rupp gushed to West that he was the best player he had ever seen. Fifty years later West got a package in the mail. Felt spongy. Opened it up and it was one of the bloody, dried towels a ballboy had kept for years from the UK Invite.
Thank you for sharing that terrific story, Cort.
Jerry West had 33 points and 18 rebounds against Kentucky in that championship final, a 79-70 West Virginia victory, of the 1959 Kentucky Invitation Tournament _ even though, as you noted, he broke his nose when he took an elbow to the face late in the first half. West bled intermittently throughout the second half.
In his lede to his game story, Larry Boeck of the Louisville Courier-Journal wrote, “Magnificent Jerry West bled from the nose, but it wasn’t anything compared to the way he made Kentuckians bleed from the heart. Suffering a broken nose late in the first half, the dazzling West bled blood and field goals.”
Great piece. The Lakers are unfortunately a Sh*t show these days, sort of aimless like the Nick Van Exel years.
Yep, you’re right about that. Kudos to Dan Hurley for being one of the few coaches who, in turning down the Lakers’ head coaching offer, didn’t let money be his guide.