Basketball icon Jerry West talks about his desire to win and self esteem – NBA Update
Jerry West is a legend who is the face of NBA – literally.
He is the man on the NBA logo, eternally captured in his exquisite jumping style. West is one of the all-time great players basketball has ever seen, and perhaps the greatest figure, in terms of contribution, the game will ever
witness.
Behind the man though, lies a desire - a desire to win, to achieve more and to avoid failure at all costs. That desire is probably what sets him apart from the rest of the pack, and West, who has an autobiography coming out soon,
spoke about the thing that still drives him on.
In comments reported by Garland, West describes how winning became a matter of self esteem for him, and how he could never have enough.
“Self-esteem is something I still battle. People look at me and say you’ve got fame, you’ve got admiration, you’ve done this, you’ve done that. As far as I’m concerned, I haven’t done anything. I’ve just fulfilled a dream of competing.
I could be special in some ways. Even though I felt at times, ‘My goodness, you’re among the upper echelon,’ there is still a huge void there. A huge void. It is about self-esteem. That’s a thing that has always been a real complex part of my life.”
It is that void within him, which drove West to becoming what he is today; the icon, the logo of the NBA. It’s his unquenchable thirst that led him to come back again and again during his playing days, when his Los Angeles Lakers
lost 6 straight NBA Finals to the Boston Celtics and Bill Russell.
Jerry persevered, making a total of 9 NBA Finals appearances, finally winning the one NBA World Championship.
He didn’t end there though.
West has been a primary reason for the Lakers success ever since. He was the man who put together the show time Lakers, a team, driven to great success by Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.
West was also responsible for the Shaq n Kobe era. He spotted Kobe Bryant as a 17 year old and got hold of him on draft day, putting him alongside Shaquille O’Neal in a roster that would go on to dominate the NBA landscape for
years.
When Kobe and the Lakers were struggling after Shaq’s departure, West again came to the rescue. He brought in Pau Gasol, whose arrival preceded 3 NBA Finals appearances and two NBA World Championships.
Yet, Jerry is never really satisfied and he wonders if there are others like him.
“I see people that have success and I see how poised and polished they are and how they handle it. I wonder inside if they feel the same way that I feel”.
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