Perhaps it’s bad karma for a Phoenix Suns fan like myself reading a book about the Lakers right now, but at least the book I read was about a Laker known for always losing the big game. Which would probably come as a surprise to most younger readers, considering the name “Jerry West” doesn’t bring the term “loser” to mind. However, as Roland Lazenby’s excellent tome – “Jerry West: The Life and Legend of a Basketball Icon” – shows, Logo had some of the worst luck ever seen in the NBA.
While the book goes into great detail of West’s playing days, I found his backstory just as interesting, if not more. Lazenby doesn’t just go into the fascinating story of West’s forebearers but also the history of his home state, West Virginia. From all of this you get a true sense of where West gained his drive, his grit and his eccentricities. But the one theme that runs throughout the book, other than the fact that the man called ‘Mr Clutch’ actually lost the big game more often than he won it, is the mental anguish West put himself through to play the game that he loved. Nothing was ever good enough for him, losses ate at him for months, years – sometimes for his whole life, and he doesn’t seem to be a real happy guy. Not exactly what you would expect from one of the best players – and executives – in NBA history.
A word of warning for light readers – this book checks in at over 400 pages (but what do you expect – West has been around forever). But while it is long, there won’t be a page in it that you won’t find riveting.
Grab the book here:
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