Hello and welcome to the Athletic NBA show. We have a special edition today, a different

vibe, a different feel to be sure. I wanted to spend some time with friend, colleague,

David Aldridge. I'm Sam Amick, joining you here on the show to remember the great Jerry West

passed away this week at the age of 86.

DA wrote an incredible column about the man who was larger than life,

who arguably made a bigger impact on the association than perhaps anyone.

When you talk about as a player, as an executive, as a man, as somebody who was a

titan in every sense of the word, DA, we just wanted to reflect a little bit today. You know the

resume, you know the personality, you know the eccentricities. It's been a tough couple of weeks

when you talk about losing Bill Walton, then Jerry West, you know, when he heard the news with Jerry, Jack Walker, no question. How did it, how did it hit you? Well, it was hard. It was hard. You know, Jerry's one of those guys, you know, there's guys in the league that you just never think are going to die. You know what I mean? Like you just, they're so larger than life, they have so much vitality.

And every time you see them, they've got energy and they're, they're excited about

whatever's coming next.

And Jerry never was one to look back.

He was always looking forward.

I just think he was always a guy that just was, you know, really into and really representative of the game, you know.

And a lot of guys, when they're done playing, they want to do something else and they want to forget about their time in the NBA or they want to move on from it and jerry

always seemed to feel seemed to be okay with his status he didn't trade on it like he didn't make

he didn't do a bunch of commercials or

videos about how great he was. But he understood like there was always some steel and Jerry.

Like there was never, he never aw shucksed it. I mean, if you asked him, he would say,

oh, no, I was good. You know, I was really good.

And, you know, so he never, never backed up on that.

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