His silhouette is the NBA logo.
West later coached the Lakers but his real achievements after he finished playing was as an executive.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerry_West
As executive:
- 8× NBA champion (1980, 1982, 1985, 1987, 1988, 2000, 2015, 2017)
- 2× NBA Executive of the Year (1995, 2004)
After his coaching stint, he worked as a scout for three years before becoming general manager of the Lakers prior to the 1982–83 season. NBA.com credits West in creating the great 1980s Lakers dynasty, which brought five championship rings (1980, 1982, 1985, 1987 and 1988) to Los Angeles.[1] After a slump in the early 1990s, West rebuilt the team of coach Del Harris around center Vlade Divac, forward Cedric Ceballos, and guard Nick Van Exel, which won 48 games, and went to the Western Conference Semifinals; for turning the team around, West received his first Executive of the Year Award.[49] By trading Vlade Divac for Kobe Bryant, signing free agent center Shaquille O'Neal, and signing six-time NBA champion Phil Jackson as a coach, West laid down the fundaments of the Lakers three-peat which saw L.A. win three NBA titles from 2000 to 2002.[1]
In 2002, West became general manager of the Memphis Grizzlies...
West himself won his second NBA Executive of the Year Award in the same year.[49] At age 69, West retired as a Grizzlies general manager in 2007 and turned over managing duties to Chris Wallace, from Buckhannon, West Virginia.[51]
On May 19, 2011, West joined the Golden State Warriors as an executive board member, reporting directly to new owners Joe Lacob and Peter Guber.[52][53] This role also came with an undisclosed minority ownership stake in the team.[54] In 2015, the Warriors won their first championship in 40 years; the championship was the seventh earned by West while serving as a team executive. He earned his eighth in the 2016-2017 season. On June 14, 2017 West announced that he would go to the Los Angeles Clippers.
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Derek Jeter was not as great of a baseball player as Jerry West was a basketball player. Like West, Jeter played his entire career (1995-2014) with one team, the New York Yankees. West was on only one NBA championship team. Jeter was on five with the Yankees. But West was the greatest Laker on most of those Laker teams. Jeter was the best Yankee in 1999 and that's pretty much it.
I come to bury Jeter, not to praise him. Derek Jeter was not good enough to be the best player on a championship team. Sunday, September 28, 2014
After writing yesterday's post on Jeter's WAR it occurred to me that my analysis of the New York Knicks in the 1990s was applicable to Jeter. Patrick Ewing wasn't good enough to be the best player on an NBA championship team. That was the Knicks problem. That plus the Knicks needed a second star, which is the NBA formula.
Baseball is different and even great players can be marginalized. That's the nature of the game. In basketball in a big situation the star player is involved. In baseball it's random at best.
However, the big four Yankees were as much the reason for the success of their teams as an individual baseball player can be. As Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio and Mickey Mantle goes, so go the Yankees. As Derek Jeter goes, so go the Yankees? Who the heck in his right mind ever thought that?
Derek Jeter was not even like Patrick Ewing. Ewing was clearly the best player on the Knicks. Jeter was the best Yankee in 1999. That's it. And even then Derek Jeter was not good enough to be the best player on a championship team. Those Yankee teams won precisely because Jeter was not their best player. The Yankees won because there were multiple players who were comparable or better than Jeter: Bernie Williams, Paul O'Neill, Tino Martinez, Jorge Posada. No one thought that Jeter could carry the team.
Most of the orgasmic awe of Jeter is because only five players had more hits. Only nine had more plate appearances. Only six had more at bats. Only eleven made more outs and Jeter would pass Craig Biggio in outs if he played three full games in Boston; Jeter trails by four outs.
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Jeter is 43 years old.
(Jeter) is the chief executive officer (CEO) and part owner of the Miami Marlins of Major League Baseball (MLB)
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Can Jeter even approach the executive achievements of West? It would take decades. Like players of his day, West was not paid exorbitant sums of money. The Yankees paid Jeter $265,000,000. That's more than a quarter of a billion dollars. Plus, Jeter earned more in the post season. Jeter may not be as driven as West. This without going into personality analysis.
As different as they and their eras are, West and Jeter make for an interesting comparison.
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