Through his torture and brutal honesty, Jerry West remains W.Va.’s favorite son

I remember when I was a bright-eyed 9-year-old boy, sitting on the floor of my room.

It was a much quieter time back then. There were no cell phones effectively glued to our hands. There were no laptops or PCs. Instead, I sprawled out in my room and read a copy of Mr. Clutch: The Jerry West Story by West and Bill Libby.

West was my hero. A West Virginian who not only succeeded but soared.

I was a kid. I didn’t know about stereotypes or politics. I always naturally saw the good, which was wonderful.

And when it came to West, well, there was no better.

Of course, we grow. Life bats you around like a cat with a toy. Unseen callouses grow.

Yet Jerry West has remained my beacon and I was thrilled back in 2011, I believe, when the phone rang and I was asked to introduce West and Sen. Joe Manchin at a book signing at Charleston’s Civic Center. Joni and I hanging with West and his wife Karen before the event was amazing, surreal.

Of course, West’s NBA career as a player and executive is unmatched. His WVU career was magical. You know that aura Duke basketball has? The Mountaineers were that during West’s days as a player.

What hurt me to the core, however, was some of the content of the book West was signing that 2011 day.

It’s called West By West: My Charmed, Tormented Life. And it revealed the complexities of West and passages of dark, dark hours.

It was shocking at times. And even on the jacket cover West warns readers of his days as a youth in Chelyan, West Virginia. “I am the fifth of six children,” he wrote, “raised in a home, a series of them actually, that was spotless but where I never learned what love was and am still not entirely sure I know today. What I do know is that I harbored murderous thoughts, and they, along with anger, sadness and a weird sort of emptiness, are in part what drove and fueled and carried me a long way, traveling a path to the future that, even with the depth of my crazy imagination, I never had the self-confidence to allow myself to fully envision, not really.”

In the book, he said he felt incarcerated at his family’s home. He wrote of severe conflict and abuse from his father. He wrote of depression.

If you don’t know the whole story, I’d advise you read West By West. It’s the only book he’s really blessed.

Or too you could get a feel for West’s dark clouds by interviewing him, as Sam Amick did for The Athleticrecently. The Athletic put together stories on the NBA’s 75 best players and placed West at No. 14.

Once again, West was brutally honest. And there’s more pain.

“One disappointing thing (about my career) is that my relationship with the (Los Angeles) Lakers is horrible,” West, a Clippers consultant since June 2017, told The Athletic. “I still don’t know why. And at the end of the day, when I look back, I say, ‘Well, maybe I should have played somewhere else instead of with the Lakers, where someone would have at least appreciated how much you give, how much you cared.”

Again, shocking. I’ve seen front-page headlines declaring him Mr. L.A. He was once the Los Angeles Lakers’ first round pick. He was named one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History. And then he starred as a front office executive. As a player, executive or special consultant, West’s accomplishments include nine NBA Championships, two NBA Executive of the Year awards, 14 NBA All-Star appearances, 10 First Team All-NBA selections and election into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

As Amick says in his article, one could argue there has never been a more impactful Laker.

And I know I speak for many West Virginians my age, older and younger in saying there hasn’t been a more impactful son of the Mountain State than West.

He brought joy both as a player and as an executive. He’s always been a point of pride – for 66 years.

Of late, he’s also brought some stark realities. He’s baring his soul in a way that would have shocked that 9-year-old boy on Peacock Lane way back when.

Yet he’s shined light on domestic abuse. He’s shined light on deeply personal feelings.

And through doing so, he’s strengthened his status as a Mountain State beacon.

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Mitch Vingle covered sports in West Virginia for 38 years. Follow Mitch on Twitter at @MitchVingle and be sure to check out the rest of Wheelhouse Creative’s website for your marketing and advertising needs. If interested, call us at 304-905-6005.