Lakers News: LA Legend Elected To Hall Of Fame For Third Time
Los Angeles Lakers legend Jerry West has been inducted to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame for the third time. West was inducted into the Hall of Fame as a contributor this time around, after previously being inducted as a player in 1979 and as a member of the 1960 gold-medal winning U.S. Olympic Team in 2010, via ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski.
West has had a phenomenal basketball career as a player, coach and executive. During his playing career, he won Olympic Gold and was a 14-time All-Star across 14 seasons with the Lakers. Additionally, West went on to win an NBA title, was the NBA scoring champion in 1970, and was a 10-time All-NBA First Team player.
After his playing career ended, West went on to coach the Lakers for three seasons from 1976-1979, before he became a Lakers scout and then the club's general manager in 1982. During his time as general manager, West helped build the Showtime Lakers, who won five NBA championships. He also set the foundation for the Lakers' championship teams in the early 2000s, by bringing in head coach Phil Jackson, Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal.
West left the Lakers after that group won its first title in 2000, and became the general manager of the Memphis Grizzlies in 2002, a role in which he served until 2007. West won two Executive of the Year awards in 1995 and 2004. He then served as an executive board member with the Golden State Warriors from 2011-17, and was a personnel advisor to ownership while the team won titles in 2015 and 2017.
Now 85, West has been an executive board member and consultant with the LA Clippers since 2017, and though that injury-prone club has made the Western Conference Finals for the first time ever with West in tow, the Clips have yet to play in the NBA Finals.
It's rare enough for a person to have one career worthy of making the Hall of Fame, but West has served in three capacities that warranted Hall of Fame honors in a special career. The Class of 2024 will be inducted into the Hall of Fame on August 16-17.
