To the editor: Jerry West, who died Wednesday, was an all-time great basketball player and general manager. We all know that.
In my opinion, he was also a hall of fame person.
I will always remember that time, as a kid in the 1960s, riding my bike with friends to the Sears in Pomona to see West. We arrived a little late and the store employees told us he was gone.
As we walked toward the exit, heads down, a man walked up behind us and said, “Were you looking to see me?” We turned around and there was West.
He signed our basketball and walked us to his gold Laker Porsche. He was very kind and humble. He told us that he just got the car and was trying to figure it out.
We were three poor kids from Pomona, but West treated us like equals. Decades later, I still try to live up to the example West set for us that morning.
Thank you, Jerry West, for all the basketball memories, but also mostly for showing us how to treat people.
Stephen Blum, Ventura
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To the editor: In 1965, a friend and I were visiting friends to see that year's Oscars on April 5. Shortly after the broadcast, one of the girls at the party informed us that she often babysat the children of Jerry West, who lived next door.
As die-hard Laker fans, my friend and I begged to be introduced to West.
It was just after 11 p.m. when West returned home from the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena after a close victory in the NBA playoffs. After we were introduced to him and his wife, the two of us kids proceeded to pepper West with questions about the team, including the condition of Elgin Baylor's sore knee.
West answered our questions thoroughly and honestly, and showed us the utmost respect. We will never forget that episode in our young lives: a couple of 16-year-old boys hanging out with “Mr. Clutch.”
Fred Gober, Playa Vista
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To the editor: I don't usually shed a tear and smile at the same time when I read the newspaper, but Mike Kupper's excellent obituary on Mr. Laker Jerry West reminded me not only of the greatness and anguish of West's life and career, but also of that era Los Angeles Sports gold.
The NBA, NFL and Major League Baseball were still new to Los Angeles, with the Rams being the first in 1946.
We kids of that golden era were perhaps lucky to see Lakers highlights on the big screens in downtown Los Angeles movie theaters; or maybe he was lucky to have seen a game of the Dodgers' World Series victory over the Chicago White Sox in 1959; or maybe lucky to have been able to sit for free at one of the Times' charity games watching the Rams from bloody seats at the LA Memorial Coliseum.
Jerry West, Elgin Baylor, Duke Snider, Dick “Night Train” Lane and many more were part of that special moment. And if we weren't lucky enough to see a game, we had Jim Murray to read in The Times.
Life was good.
Robert Ferguson, Atascadero, California.
