{"id":607411,"date":"2026-04-16T06:24:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T06:24:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/607411\/"},"modified":"2026-04-16T06:24:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T06:24:10","slug":"jerry-west-the-logo-tells-tale-of-man-whose-legacy-is-his-most-enduring-image","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/607411\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Jerry West: The Logo’ tells tale of man whose legacy is his most enduring image"},"content":{"rendered":"

He is forever linked to the NBA\u2019s official symbol<\/a>, the sleek white silhouette outlined by red and blue that is marvelous for its simplicity, which is quite curious because the man who modeled The Logo was anything but simple.<\/p>\n

Jerry West was complicated, overwhelmingly in a very good way, partly in a painful way. He was a brilliant player<\/a>, and an even better team executive<\/a> because in that office chair no one else compared \u2014 back then or even now.<\/p>\n

Yet his road to those riches came at a personal cost.\u00a0And it was a price worth paying.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s because his work brought unbridled joy to basketball fans and built one of the world\u2019s most valuable and successful sports franchises. Even he would admit it gave him satisfaction as well.<\/p>\n

The downside was that this successful quest for greatness was rooted in despair, from an unhappy family life as a boy, to a fear of failure once he set the bar steeply high as an adult. West always seemed to compete with that, and thankfully, in this game of forces, he won a hell of a lot more than he lost.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

A defining figure in the NBA, Jerry West left a monumental legacy as a player, executive and stalwart in the game.<\/p>\n

He detailed this and more years ago in \u201cWest By West: My Charmed, Tormented Life,\u201d<\/a> his critically-acclaimed and best-selling autobiography hailed for its brutal honesty. And now, the story of West is captured just as poignantly in Jerry West: The Logo<\/a>, which debuts Thursday on Prime Video and which was still in production when West died last June<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The documentary was directed by Kenya Barris, whose most famous work is the TV series \u201cblack-ish.\u201d Barris steers the West story with the touch of a chef, giving multiple tastes of West\u2019s life to provide a complete picture, leaving the viewer hungry for another helping.<\/p>\n

\u201cI like telling stories about culture,\u201d Barris said. \u201cAnd Jerry West was culture. He came from this homogenized white poor place and went into the Olympics with Muhammad Ali there, came to the NBA in a really racially pivotal time. He transitioned into the front office at a time when that role was being redefined.<\/p>\n

\u201cI got a kinship with him. I spent more personal time on this than I did on most TV shows. He had so much to talk about. It was a story that, in the world we live in, really needs to be told.\u201d<\/p>\n

West\u2019s lasting legacy in life & the game<\/p>\n

The segment where West returns home to small-town West Virginia is very vivid. West stands outside his former home and later describes the events in that small, often turbulent and poor household that shaped his life for better and worse.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a version of me that never would\u2019ve wanted to go back,\u201d said Barris. \u201cBut the fact he did go back so often it says a lot of who he was. He never wanted to run from what made him. Even though it had a lot of darkness and tragedy, it was also a lot of peace and calm. There\u2019s a purity to it.\u201d<\/p>\n

West\u2019s father, Howard, was abusive to him and his siblings. West recounts how he attacked his father after the father threatened his sister with a hammer; West also slept with a shotgun under his bed in the event his father\u2019s abuse took a more wicked turn.<\/p>\n

His older brother, David, was killed in the Korean War, which devastated West. While discussing David\u2019s loss in the documentary, West tears up, and it\u2019s not the only time in the documentary West gets emotional. He reacts similarly to Magic Johnson announcing the results of his HIV test and subsequent retirement, and when Kobe Bryant perished in a helicopter crash.<\/p>\n

Because of those issues back home, West gravitated to escapes as a young boy, one of which was basketball, where he shot hoops by himself at a neighbor\u2019s house. West was so determined to stay away from his father that he practiced constantly, even in snow, working on the basic skills that would eventually make him a schoolboy legend, Olympian, 14-time All-Star and send him to the Hall of Fame \u2014 three times, in his case.<\/p>\n

The most interesting event during his return to West Virginia with the documentary filmmakers actually happened off-camera. The filming crew noticed a body being carried from a nearby house \u2014 one of the residents had died \u2014 and when West approached and asked the family members whether something was wrong, they instantly recognized him and asked for autographs and pictures.<\/p>\n

That was such a telling moment, how West \u2014 85 at the time \u2014 still cut an imposing figure, not only with the people back home, but around the country with folks who weren\u2019t even born when he played or when he formed the Los Angeles Lakers during the \u201cShowtime\u201d era.<\/p>\n

His son, Ryan, said in a recent interview: \u201cI think it\u2019s more than a basketball documentary. It\u2019s a movie about a great human being who impacted a lot of lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

West\u2019s ability to shatter generation gaps and connect with much younger people explained one of his greatest gifts. In the documentary, therefore, are appearances by Stephen Curry, Draymond Green, Andre Iguodala and Klay Thompson, all members of the Golden State Warriors when West worked for the organization as a consultant<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Ryan notes that part of his father\u2019s connection with present-day players is rooted in mutual respect: \u201cMy dad always wanted to carry the game forward. He never complained about what players were making. He was always a great ambassador for the NBA.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beyond that, the doc has the expected storytellers (with Lakers ties) in Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Michael Cooper, Pat Riley and Shaquille O\u2019Neal. West impacted their lives and basketball legacies while brilliantly running the Lakers for two decades.<\/p>\n

A mentor, friend and perfectionist<\/p>\n

Jerry West was a 12-time All-NBA performer who knew how to elevate his game when the lights shined the brightest.<\/p>\n

There are two others whose presence in the film raises curiosity. One is Michael Jordan. He never worked with West in any basketball capacity, but they were friends. Barris thought Jordan\u2019s cameo was crucial, and besides, he\u2019s Michael Jordan.<\/p>\n

\u201cI saw a lot of Jordan in Jerry,\u201d said Barris, who became a big basketball fan in the Jordan era and who adds that Jordan\u2019s response to a request to be in the film was a quick yes.\u201d<\/p>\n

The other interesting cameo is supplied by Jeanie Buss, the longtime Lakers\u2019 chairman after her father\u2019s death. West did not always see eye-to-eye with the Buss family following Jerry Buss\u2019 passing and a rift developed.<\/p>\n

However, not only did Jeanie Buss agree to appear, but her reflections on her father regarding his impact on the Lakers were positive.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know where things went awry with the Lakers,\u201d said Ryan West. \u201cI don\u2019t think my dad really understood it, either. We were very happy Jeanie agreed to participate and I\u2019m glad she had a chance to say some kind words about my father. The relationship was damaged a little bit. I wish before he passed it could\u2019ve been repaired. I think it\u2019s something that haunted him until the day he died.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jerry West was tortured by coming up short as a player with the Lakers, which was understandable. He played during the 1960s<\/a>, an era that the Boston Celtics dominated. West is still the only losing player<\/a> to be named NBA Finals MVP, which happened in 1969 against Boston. Bill Russell was so impressed that he consoled West before celebrating with his own Celtics teammates after Game 7.<\/p>\n

West eventually won as a player in 1972 and eight more times as an executive with the Lakers and Warriors.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a perfectionist,\u201d said Ryan West. \u201cEven winning a championship wasn\u2019t good enough. If he didn\u2019t win in six games he\u2019d wonder, \u2018Why didn\u2019t we sweep them?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Jerry West raised three boys with his first wife, then added Ryan and Jonnie with his second wife, Karen, who was with him until his death. Both work in NBA front offices: Ryan with the Detroit Pistons and Jonnie with the Warriors.<\/p>\n

Asked what Jerry West was like as a father, Ryan said:<\/p>\n

\u201cHe explained in the documentary that he can\u2019t say `I love you.\u2019 He was a great father, but he loved by example. You knew he cared about you. He had a hard time vocalizing that he cared about you. But he showed his love in different kind of ways. When he likes somebody and cared about somebody, he would\u2019ve done anything for them. He did the best job he could do given the circumstances he had growing up. He was always there as a provider a mentor and somebody who would always shoot you straight. I would hear things he would say about me through other people.<\/p>\n

\u201cI miss him every single second, every single day. He was my mentor.\u201d<\/p>\n

The documentary finishes with some news. The NBA and West always had an uneasiness about the logo, which was designed from a photograph<\/a> of West in Sport Magazine.<\/p>\n

Ryan West said: \u201cIt\u2019s not something he talked about. It was something he wasn\u2019t comfortable with because he never wanted to draw attention to himself, but deep down he was very prideful.\u201d<\/p>\n

The league never recognized the logo as West because of potential legal issues, according to legend. Anyway, it\u2019s now official: Commissioner Adam Silver admits in the documentary that West is indeed the logo.<\/p>\n

The sadness is that West isn\u2019t alive to hear that, or to see his life captured in this documentary.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted Jerry to feel really good about it,\u201d Barris said. \u201cThis was for his family. I wanted them to feel really good about it. I wanted to make sure it was shaped in a fair way \u2026 told in a way that I felt was inspiring.\u201d<\/p>\n

* * *<\/p>\n

Shaun Powell has covered the NBA since 1985. You can e-mail him at\u00a0spowell@nba.com<\/a>, find\u00a0his archive here<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0follow him on\u00a0X<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"He is forever linked to the NBA\u2019s official symbol, the sleek white silhouette outlined by red and blue…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":607412,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[49,48,229214,459,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-607411","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-jerry-west-the-logo","11":"tag-nba","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607411","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=607411"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607411\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/607412"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=607411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=607411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=607411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}