Jerry West is an NBA icon, one of the first true superstars of the game. He is someone that a lot of old heads would select in their all-time NBA lists, but the man himself isn’t a big fan of the idea.
When asked about his all-time Top 5 by Dan Patrick, West picked three of the greatest to ever do it, but refused to provide a comprehensive list. Unsurprisingly, the three he chose were Michael Jordan, LeBron James, and Kobe Bryant.
“Well, there are three players who would be on there right away,” West said. “One of them presently playing in LeBron James. Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan. I would take those three players because of the uniqueness of the game today. It’s almost a positionless league.
“Those three players would fit in beautifully. All of them could probably play three positions, and they have. The greatness of them as players drives other people. They’re the people that get it done when it counts most. The rest of them? I could probably do 10, but I’m not going to go there.
“I’m not going there, Dan. There’s so many of them. You go back to when I played, and that’s a long time ago. You had three players, Chamberlain, Russell, and Abdul-Jabbar. Hakeem Olajuwon, Bill Walton when he wasn’t hurt. I’m gonna miss someone, and I do apologize to those others I forgot, but I didn’t suspect you were going to ask me that question.”
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Jerry West is always respectful of all the great players that have played in the NBA over all its eras like he was when he refused to choose another player to be the new logo. It checks out that he wouldn’t name an all-time starting five, but the three players he did pick are locks in everyone else’s.
Jerry West Once Called Michael Jordan His Favorite NBA Player Of All Time
Jerry West is one of the few people who can claim to have seen the evolution of the NBA over the last 70 years or so. He isn’t one to choose between all the legends he has played alongside and then subsequently watched dominate the game. But he did once call Michael Jordan his favorite player of all time.
“Probably my favorite player of all-time, Michael Jordan… To me, he epitomizes what I think is great in a basketball player. Someone who can play both ends of the court. His teams win. In the last quarter, he’s going to be there.”
Jerry West could be considered a Top 5 authority on the NBA of all time, he succeeded at the highest level as a player and an executive. The fact that he refrains from joining these debates is something the people that obsess over them need to think about.
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