Jerry West, Los Angeles Lakers legend who became NBA 'logo', dies at 86

Jerry West, the Los Angeles Lakers legend as both a player and executive who was later dubbed “The Logo” after being immortalized in the NBA symbol, has died at the age of 86.

The Los Angeles Clippers, for whom West served as a consultant in recent years, announced the NBA legend's death Wednesday in a statement, “Jerry West, O personification of basketball excellence and a friend to all who knew him, died peacefully this morning at the age of 86. His wife, Karen, was by his side.” No cause of death was reported.

One of the greatest players in NBA history, West spent his entire 14-season career with the Lakers, making his professional debut the same year the team moved from Minneapolis to Los Angeles. During his Hall of Fame career, West made the All-Star Game 14 times (or every season he played), made the All-NBA team 10 times, and unofficially won the 1969 NBA Finals MVP in a series the Lakers finally lost? to this day, West is the only player in NBA history to win Finals MVP while also losing in the championship round.

While West would only win one championship during his career in 1972, after his playing career ended in 1974, West took a coaching role with the Lakers and eventually the front office, where he served as one of the architects of the Showtime Lakers. dynasty fueled by Earvin “Magic” Johnson and Kareem Abdul Jabbar. West, as an executive, would win five more titles with the Lakers in the eighties and then one more in 2000, when the Lakers were led to the title by Kobe Bryant, whose draft rights to West are credited with acquiring years earlier.

West would later serve in a front office role with the Memphis Grizzlies, Golden State Warriors (who won him two championships in 2015 and 2017) and eventually the Los Angeles Clippers. West was also immortalized as the silhouette in the iconic NBA logo. The image was created in 1969 by designer Alan Siegel, who later admitted that the player the logo was based on—despite years of NBA denials—was West.

“I found this picture of Jerry West dribbling down the court,” Siegel said Los Angeles Times. “It tasted good,” he says, “so I took this picture and we tracked it down. It was perfect. It was vertical and had a sense of movement. It was just one of those things that clicked.”