page_title: Jerry West
section_title: Personal life
hierarchical_section_title: Jerry West / Personal life
caption_attribution_description: IMG_8146
context_page_description: Jerome Alan West is an American basketball executive and former player. During his active career West played professionally for the Los Angeles Lakers of the National Basketball Association. His nicknames included Mr. Clutch, for his ability to make a big play in a clutch situation, such as his famous buzzer-beating 60-foot shot that tied Game 3 of the 1970 NBA Finals against the New York Knicks; The Logo, in reference to his silhouette being incorporated into the NBA logo; Mr. Outside, in reference to his perimeter play with the Los Angeles Lakers; and Zeke from Cabin Creek, for the creek near his birthplace of Chelyan, West Virginia. West played the small forward position early in his career, and he was a standout at East Bank High School and at West Virginia University, where he led the Mountaineers to the 1959 NCAA championship game. He earned the NCAA Final Four Most Outstanding Player honor despite the loss. He then embarked on a 14-year career with the Los Angeles Lakers, and was the co-captain of the 1960 U.S. Olympic gold medal team, a squad that was inducted as a unit into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2010.
  West's NBA career was highly successful.
context_section_description: West married his college sweetheart Martha Jane Kane in April 1960 in Morgantown; they divorced in 1976. They have three sons, David, Mark and Michael. Jerry married his current wife Karen in 1978. They have two sons, Ryan and Jonnie. Jonnie played guard for West's college team, the West Virginia Mountaineers and married professional golfer Michelle Wie in 2019.
  As a person, West was often described as an introverted and nervous character, but who also drew the highest praise for his uncompromising work ethic. Regarding his shyness, WVU roommate Jody Gardner testified that West never dated in his entire freshman year, and Lakers coach Fred Schaus once recalled two weeks when his guard never said a word. Apart from being shy, West was always restless: Schaus described him as a "bundle of nerves", Celtics contemporary Bob Cousy as "always on the move", and fellow Laker and Mountaineer Rod Hundley testified that during bar visits, West would quickly squirm and demand to go elsewhere before everybody else had settled. His first wife Martha Kane recalled that her husband often had difficulties opening up to her. After a big loss, the Wests would drive home and she would try to console him, but West would say "get out" at the home porch and drive away—an experience that "killed" her as a wife.
  Early in his career, West's West Virginian roots made him target for some mild jeering. He spoke with a high pitched voice that became even shriller when he became excited so that Lakers captain Elgin Baylor dubbed West "Tweety Bird". His Appalachian accent was so thick that one coach interrupted him and asked him to speak English. Baylor once commented: "Rumors are safe with you, Tweety Bird. You pass them on, but nobody can understand you."
  West was also regarded for his extreme mental toughness and his exemplary work ethic. The NBA described West as "obsessive perfectionism, unabashed confidence, and an uncompromising will to win... a level of intensity so high it could melt lead". Lakers broadcaster Chick Hearn once said: "He took a loss harder than any player I've ever known. He would sit by himself and stare into space. A loss just ripped his guts out." Even before his sole championship in 1972, the Lakers held a "Jerry West Night", and eleven-time NBA champion and perennial rival Bill Russell appeared and said: "Jerry, you are, in every sense of the word, truly a champion... If I could have one wish granted, it would be that you would always be happy."
  In 2011, West and bestselling author Jonathan Coleman wrote a memoir entitled West by West: My Charmed, Tormented Life. The book has had tremendous critical acclaim and became an instant  New York Times bestseller. During an interview on HBO's Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel, West revealed that as a child he was the victim of physical abuse from his father and has suffered from depression ever since.
caption: West interviewed on ESPN Los Angeles
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