Legend was more than a logo

Champion player and executive enshrined by Hall of Fame three times

- TIM REYNOLDS

Jerry West drives past the Bucks' Oscar Robertson during the 1972 Western finals. The Lakers went on to beat the Knicks in the Finals for West's lone title as a player.

The NBA has never confirmed the worst-kept secret in basketball, that Jerry West is the player whose silhouette is depicted in the league’s logo.

There’s probably a reason for that: West never wanted to be the logo.

“I’m just part of the game,” West said in a 2021 interview. “I never wanted to be any more than that. I’m extremely fortunate to have had the life that I’ve had, and that’s enough for me.”

His was a life like few others: an NBA and Olympic champion as a player, a champion as an executive and someone selected to be enshrined by the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame not once, not twice, but three times.

West died on Wednesday at age 86, the Los Angeles Clippers announced.