Jerry West will always be the Logo, Mr. Clutch and a Los Angeles Lakers legend.
But West, one of the greatest players and minds in basketball history, who died Wednesday morning at age 86, will always be The Basis in the Bay to me.
His infinite roundball wisdom and never-compromise attitude proved to be the foundation on which the Warriors dynasty was built.
And while his role with the Warriors was never fully defined — he was an adviser to team owners Joe Lacob and Peter Gruber from 2011 to 2017 — his impact on the team was unimpeachable.
Would the Warriors have ever won a title without West?
I doubt it.
Would they have become arguably the greatest basketball team of all time soon thereafter?
Not a chance.
West’s influence turned the Warriors from a laughingstock to the league’s lodestar. His unwavering competitiveness — impossible to miss as a player — crept into every part of the organization as an executive.
“I was not afraid. Everyone talks about being a ‘dog.’ Well, I was a wolf. I used to eat dogs,” West said of his playing career on an NBA panel last year.
Two moves best highlighted basketball brilliance and that wolf mentality during his tenure with Golden State.
The first was his insistence — and few could force an issue like West — that the Warriors not trade Klay Thompson for then-Timberwolves forward Kevin Love in June 2014.
At the time, Love was a three-time All-Star coming off a season in which he averaged 26 points and 12 rebounds a game. The consensus thought was that adding him — even at the cost of Thompson — would take the Dubs, who were knocking on the door of contention in the Western Conference, over the top.
New Warriors coach Steve Kerr disagreed, but he was outnumbered among the team’s brain trust. Until West came in and put his foot down.
West threatened to quit if the Warriors traded Thompson. He saw the future of the league and knew Golden State would deeply regret trading a shooter of his caliber, the perfect backcourt partner to Steph Curry.
(To say nothing of the implications to Draymond Green’s career if Love — a power forward, like Green — had come to the Bay.)
The Warriors won the team’s first title in 40 years the next June.
US President Barack Obama shakes hands with retired Los Angeles Lakers player Jerry West (3rd R) as Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr (R) looks on during an event honoring the 2015 NBA Champion Golden State Warriors in the East Room of the White House on February 4, 2015 in Washington, DC. (Photo by MANDEL NGAN / AFP) (Photo by MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images)
Golden State Warriors gaurd Stephen Curry shares a laugh with Jerry West, center, and Harrison Barnes, right, during media day on Monday, Oct. 1, 2012 in Oakland, Calif. (Aric Crabb/Staff)
Co-owners Joe Lacob, left, and Peter Gruber, right, announce Jerry West as the newest member to the Warrior's Executive Board, during a press conference at the St. Regis Hotel in San Francisco, Calif. on Tuesday, May 24, 2011. (Laura A. Oda/Staff)
FILE - Los Angeles Lakers' Kobe Bryant gives basketball great Jerry West a shoulder rub after the Lakers beat the San Antonio Spurs in Game 5 of the NBA Western Conference basketball finals in Los Angeles, May 29, 2008. Jerry West, who was selected to the Basketball Hall of Fame three times in a legendary career as a player and executive and whose silhouette is considered to be the basis of the NBA logo, died Wednesday morning, June 12, 2024, the Los Angeles Clippers announced. He was 86. (AP Photo/Kevork Djansezian, File)
Aric Crabb/Bay Area News Group
Golden State Warriors general manager Bob Myers, left, talks with board member Jerry West, right, during media day on Monday, Oct. 1, 2012 in Oakland, Calif. (Aric Crabb/Staff)
The Golden State Warriors' Jerry West, left, and the legendary Bill Russell, right, laugh with official Kevin Scott during a time out in the Warriors' game against the Sacramento Kings played at the Oracle Arena in Oakland, Calif., on Wednesday, March 27, 2013. (Dan Honda/Staff)
New York Knick's Walt Frazier is stopped by Los Angeles Lakers' Wilt Chamberlain (13) as Lakers' Jerry West (44) drives around them for a basket in first quarter of their NBA championship playoff game at the Forum in Los Angeles, Ca., on April 26, 1972. (AP Photo)
FILE - Los Angeles Lakers' Jerry West (44) drives around Milwaukee Bucks' Oscar Robertson and Curtis Perry during the NBA playoffs in Milwaukee, April 14, 1972. West used a pick set by Happy Hairston, background, before moving toward the basket. Lakers won 108-105. Jerry West, who was selected to the Basketball Hall of Fame three times in a storied career as a player and executive and whose silhouette is considered to be the basis of the NBA logo, died Wednesday morning, June 12, 2024, the Los Angeles Clippers announced. He was 86.(AP Photo/File)
Oscar Robertson, bottom, of the East team kills the ball as Bob Pettit (9) and Jerry West, center, of the West team close in on him in the fourth period of their NBA All-Star game at Boston Garden, Jan. 15, 1964, Boston, Mass. The East won 111 to 107.
FILE - Jerry West (44) of West Virgina University shoots a jump shot against George Washington University during a Southern Conference game in Washington, March 1, 1958. Others pictured include West Virginia's Lloyd Sharrar (31) and George Washington University's Gene Guarilia (54) and Howard McDonald (50). Jerry West, who was selected to the Basketball Hall of Fame three times in a storied career as a player and executive and whose silhouette is considered to be the basis of the NBA logo, died Wednesday morning, June 12, 2024, the Los Angeles Clippers announced. He was 86.(AP Photo/Harvey Georges, File)
OAKLAND, CA - OCTOBER 27: Executive Board Member Jerry West waves to the crowd during the ring ceremony for the 2015 Golden State Warriors championship season prior to the NBA season opener against the New Orleans Pelicans at ORACLE Arena on October 27, 2015 in Oakland, California. (Photo by Robert Reiners/Getty Images)
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And perhaps that would have been the Warriors’ only title had West not helped convince Kevin Durant to join the team after Golden State’s 2016 NBA Finals loss.
Recruiting Durant was a full-court press by the Dubs, but it was West relaying his heartbreak as a player to the star forward — he lost in the NBA Finals seven times before finally winning in 1972 — that put the Warriors over the top.
The message resonated with Durant, whose arrival in Oakland pushed the team to new heights, winning back-to-back titles in 2017 and 2018.
By the time that portion of the Warriors dynasty ended, West had exited the scene, taking a similar role with the Clippers in 2017.
“His presence, his personality, his competitiveness, his passion for those that know him or have been around him, it’s unique,” then-Warriors general manager Bob Myers said in 2017.
A gold medalist, a 14-time All-Star, a three-time enshrinee in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame (as a player, as a member of the 1960 U.S. Olympic team, and this fall as an executive), it was that constant pursuit of the best that drove West.
As he used to say: There is winning, and then there is misery.
While that misery is unquestionably part of his incredible legacy, he will be remembered as a winner.
And the Warriors, by proxy, became winners, too.
“To me, he was basketball,” Lacob said in a statement Wednesday. “He was the most competitive individual I have ever met, settling for nothing short of greatness. He had to win. It consumed him. He was bigger than life. He was an icon. We are devastated with today’s news.”
