(ProsperNews.net) – NBA Hall of Famer Jerry West has died at age 86. Considered one of basketball’s greatest-ever players, he died peacefully at his California home with his wife by his side. Mr. West spent his playing career with the Los Angeles Lakers and later became one of the game’s most accomplished general managers.
Born in West Virginia in 1938, West had a difficult childhood and described enduring physical abuse from his father, a coal mine electrician. His brother died in the Korean War, which he said transformed him into an introvert who did not engage at school but spent much of his time shooting at a basketball hoop attached to a neighbor’s home. In his teens, he grew to 6 feet tall and found his feet as an accomplished high school player.
West went on to college in his home state and established a 17-point and 11-rebound average at the University of West Virginia. He was drafted by the NBA in 1960 and, by 1961, averaged 30 points and seven rebounds with the Los Angeles Lakers. A year later, he received a career-high 63 points during a Lakers victory over the New York Knicks—also the opposing team when he played perhaps the most famous shot of his career.
In the 1970s finals against the Knicks, West scored a 60-foot buzzer-beater, placing him alongside Wilt Chamberlain and Oscar Robertson as the NBA’s earliest 25,000-point scorers.
After playing, West enjoyed many years in coaching and management, becoming the Lakers’ general manager in the early 1980s. In 2002, he moved on to the Memphis Grizzlies and then the Golden State Warriors before finally joining the Los Angeles Clippers in 2017. NBA commissioner Adam Silver described Mr. West as a “basketball genius and a defining figure in our league.”
The sporting legend married Martha Jane Kane in April 1960, with whom he had three sons. They divorced in 1976, and he married Kristine Bua two years later – they had two sons.
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