The Los Angeles Lakers will honor Jerry West this season with a No. 44 patch on their jerseys to celebrate the life of the legendary player and executive that spent decades with the organization.
Unfortunately, West didn’t end his life on great terms with the organization. After leaving the franchise as an executive in 2000, West notably feuded with Lakers owner Jeanie Buss in recent years. Their differences have been well-documented with him being offended that the Lakers took away his family’s season tickets and Buss leaving him off his top-five all-time Lakers list, among other things.
West was hoping to return to the Lakers organization as the last stop in his professional career in 2017 but they didn’t even entertain the idea and he wound up with the L.A. Clippers as a consultant instead.
Meanwhile, while all of this was going on, Jerry’s son Ryan West was working in the Lakers organization as their director of player personnel. Shortly after Jerry took the job with the Clippers though, Ryan left the Lakers organization in what was reportedly a mutual decision due to there being no more room for growth. Ryan is now working in the Detroit Pistons organization.
Jerry West believes things went down differently, however, as he thinks the Lakers got rid of Ryan because of his feud with the organization, via Baxter Holmes of ESPN:
Later that month, on July 27, Adrian Wojnarowski (then with ESPN) reported that Jerry West’s son Ryan, who had spent 10 years with the Lakers and last worked as the director of player personnel, was leaving the organization.
Team sources made it clear that Ryan West wasn’t leaving of his own accord. Two sources close to the matter said Ryan’s departure was tied to the concept of there being no room for growth within the franchise, as ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne reported.
Jerry saw it differently.
“They let him go because of me,” he said one week after Ryan’s departure.
He considered his son, who now works as a pro personnel scout for the Detroit Pistons, to be collateral damage in his clash with members of Lakers’ leadership.
The Lakers declined to comment for this story.
Jerry said he apologized to Ryan, whom he described as “devastated.”
“It’s like a soap opera,” a former longtime Lakers executive said. “There is fallout, which is hurtful. Ryan, to me, it looks like he paid the price for all this pettiness.”
The Lakers did not comment on the story so at this point it is West’s word against theirs. It’s an unfortunate state of affairs for one of the all-time franchise greats and his family, especially now that West is gone.
Hopefully the Lakers will honor West and his legacy properly during the upcoming season and maybe one day mend fences with Ryan and the rest of his family.
Jerry West compares Steve Ballmer to Dr. Jerry Buss
Jerry West had a close relationship with Dr. Jerry Buss and he recently compared the former Lakers owner to current L.A. Clippers owner Steve Ballmer, who he also grew close to.
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