How do I love thee? Jerry West fans count the ways
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MORGANTOWN -- At the risk of being looked upon as being a bit too dramatic, the outpouring of love from West Virginians and basketball fans toward Jerry West upon his death at 86 on Wednesday reminds one of the words of the great poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning, who captured the feeling of the moment more than 100 years earlier when she wrote:
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
That was how she started what is known as "Sonnet 43", which in hindsight would have been mystically prophetic had it been instead titled "Sonnet 44".
But if she was one off in her title, she totally captured her feelings toward the WVU basketball great as evidenced on social media with comments from those who knew him up close and from afar as someone who rose to heights few ever attained but did so without discarding his modest West Virginia roots.
It seemed everyone who posted had a photo taken with him or a memorable story from meeting him, be it as a student at West Virginia or throughout the more than 60 years he was in the nation's limelight as a basketball star, Olympian, executive, three-time Hall of Famer and winner of the Presidential Medal of Honor.
He deserved poetry written about him, as he did deserve the song Morgantown songwriter Kevin Major wrote in 2022 entitled simply "Jerry Alan West."
He may have come from nothing
Now he's nothing but net
And that's why we'll always love him
And we'll never forget
Him and his NBA silhouette
He was better than the rest
Heck he was better than the best
So raise your voice and beat your chest
For Jerry Alan, Jerry Alan, Jerry Alan West
He's our Jerry Alan, Jerry Alan, Jerry "buzzer beating" West
He shoots, it soars, he scores!
Didn't matter rich or poor, young or old, male or female … If you had time for him, he had time for you.
You met him and he didn't forget you, as some of my media friends noted in their social media posts.
Lyle Spencer is a California sportswriter who covered the NBA and who I knew from his days covering the Los Angeles Dodgers:
Jerry West was one of my first heroes and I was blessed to know and learn from him for many years in his various roles as a player, coach and team architect. Nobody in history was as successful in all three roles.
I covered as a young reporter his last few years as a player and he was great to the end, as impactful as legends he loved and mentored, Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant. There's a direct line through those three men.
When he finally won an NBA title in 1972 with a Lakers team he led to a record 33 wins in a row, Jerry was more relieved than exultant. That night in the Forum dressing room he said he wasn't feeling complete satisfaction "because Elgin isn't celebrating with me."
Baylor had retired eight games into the season. They were the greatest duo in history in my opinion but Boston had Bill Russell and five or six future Hall of Famers every season. I'm heartbroken knowing I'll never see him again.
Jerry taught me more about his game than anyone and beyond that the true meaning of character in his calm, thoughtful way. R.I.P Mr. Clutch.
John Strege also was a young California writer on the Dodgers' beat who eventually switched to golf, became an award-winning golf writer for Golf Digest and wasn't intimidated or impressed by someone's name having done a biography of Tiger Woods.
Here was the way he spoke of West:
My first encounter with Jerry West came in 1963, I believe, a father/son dinner (?) at Trinity Lutheran Church in Whittier, which somehow got West to come speak and sign autographs.
I recall asking him to sign seven autographs, so I could send the other six to friends back in Michigan, from which we had recently moved. He signed all of them without protest. Still have the one I kept for myself. A lot of years later, I interviewed him on two occasions for Golf Digest, when he became executive director of the LA Open. A legend. RIP.
Then there was this tale from Tom Keegan, again a Dodgers writer at one time who wound up a columnist in a number of stops across the country and who covered Kansas football and basketball as sports editor in Lawrence:
I once played 18 holes with Calvin Murphy and asked him to name the best defender to ever guard him. He didn't have to think about it and immediately said, "Easy. Jerry West. He had the quickest hands of anybody who ever played." And was a great clutch shooter.
Took up golf later in life and became great. Best GM this side of Red Auerbach.
There are those who would struggle to describe Jerry West, but the great sports columnist Jim Murray out of LA was not one of them. These were among his observations in a column:
He could be the best backcourt player in basketball history, but he looks as if he had just shinnied down a rope from the Mayo Clinic. He's so thin you could mail him. If he didn't enter with the rest of the basketball team, they'd make him sit in the children's section.
He's had so many head colds he should play in a scarf and mustard plaster. His nose has been broken so many times he gets air by a detour. You can follow him home every night by a trail of Kleenexes. He sneezes more often than a TV cold tablet commercial.
In a league largely populated by pachyderms, Jerry West frequently seems to disappear in mid floor like a small boy swallowed up in a forest. But when he comes out again, he usually has the ball -- and often the basket.
The jump shot itself is a relatively new technique in the still-infant sport of basketball but, as practiced by West, it may be generations before it can be made any more perfect. West doesn't simply soar with the ball -- he seems to hang there like a kid who has leaped to a fence, chinned himself and hung over for a long look. It is the nearest thing to a defiance of the law of gravity in sports.
His professional athletic peers were just as taken with him, the most meaningful at this moment in time being this:
"One year in college I wasn't living to anyone's standards and I got a call from Jerry West. There were a lot of expletives but essentially he told me I was a (blank) and was ruining an opportunity to be great at something and just let me have it for 10 or 15 minutes. I thought it was one of the most impactful phone calls I have had really in my life." -- Former WVU player and Boston Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla.
There were others:
I had the honor of spending a day with Mr. West at Coach Huggins Fantasy Camp in 2008. His confidence was overwhelming. I don't get starstruck, but I was in his presence. The most impressive thing was his humility. From one Mountaineer to another, Thank You for the example you set for so many. My sincere condolences to his family. -- Marc Bulger, Mountaineer quarterback
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May my all-time first team shooting guard rest in peace knowing he paved the way for defining greatness on the hardwood, excellence in the front office and living life his way. Jerry is one of one and claims the right to be the logo forever. My condolences to his family. -- Dr. J, Julius Erving.
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"When I was with the Nets and Rod Thorn and we're going to Memphis to play (the Grizzlies) and I never seen a grown man drool before. I asked Rod why he was drooling and he was like, 'That's my idol.' And I was like looking for Michael Jordan… That's when I learned a little about West Virginia and it was an incredible moment." -- Dallas Mavericks coach Jason Kidd.
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RIP to the Greatest. A life well lived. Truly remarkable how many lives he touched. -- WVU football coach Neal Brown.
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Kids everywhere loved West. Here's some examples:
To most of the world, Jerry West was a basketball legend, "The Logo." But for generations of WV kids, he epitomized our dreams. From a dirt road in Chelyan to WVU to the Lakers, he gave us all hope of what we could be. Anything was possible because of him.
Rest in Peace! -- Chris Richardson, Wheeling University basketball coach
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Not everyone is fortunate enough to meet their childhood hero/idol, but I was. I can remember the day I met him for the first time at Madison Square Garden during the Big East Tournament. It was surreal. I can remember reading Mr. Clutch, the book about him. I did a Social Studies project in middle school about the history of WVU Basketball. What my childhood idol did for the state, university and the game that I love is unmeasurable. RIP Jerry West, you weren't A legend, you are THE Legend! -- Kevin Johnson, former assistant equipment manager, WVU basketball
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Definitely wrote at least 3 book reports/research papers on Jerry West in elementary school. Had his poster on my wall and tried to imitate his shooting form. Rest In Peace, Mr. Clutch. -- New York sportswriter Jeff Bradley
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As a kid at Middle Island grade school in Doddridge County, 1970's, there was a book in our library about Jerry West. It spoke of his learning to shoot in a bushel basket with the bottom cut out in rural WV. Intrigued by him from that point on. -- Don Barnes
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We saved the last words for Elizabeth Barrett Browning, the words she used to close out here "How do I love thee" sonnet.
"I shall but love thee better after death."