For Kurt Rambis, it all started in the most unthinkable way.
The first time he spoke with jerry westThe NBA legend tried to recruit Rambis to join the Lakers in the training field. But the squad was full, his future was insecure and the option did not seem very promising.
Then he listened, declined and hung up the phone. Why try and waste time, Rambis thought, when he could simply return to his team in Greece and carve out a career in Europe.
As soon as Rambis hung up, he knew what he had done was totally crazy.
“I just told Jerry West I wasn’t interested,” Rambis recalled Wednesday.
Read more: Jerry West, Lakers legend and architect of the ‘Showtime’ era, dies at 86
Rambis, of course, would relent, join the Lakers, and change his entire life by becoming a beloved member of Showtime and an NBA player. Following West’s death on Tuesday at age 86, Rambis remembered the iconic former Lakers star and executive.
“His drive, his competitiveness, his obsession with winning, I mean, you felt that,” Rambis told The Times. “You felt that kind of good competitive pressure that he put on himself and the osmosis, in many ways, of how he carried himself and the things he said. And, you know, the anxiety that he felt watching the games and the relief that he felt when you won, all of that culminated in helping the Lakers develop this competitive winning culture.”
That culture still exists, West’s mark on Los Angeles basketball permanently tattooed on the players and people who worked with him.
When the Lakers acquired Byron Scott from the San Diego Clippers in 1983 for Norm Nixon, it was not a very popular decision.
Nixon had won two NBA championships with the Lakers and was well liked by his teammates and the press that covered the team.
Jerry West was the Lakers general manager who made the move, thinking that a backcourt with Magic Johnson at point guard and Scott at shooting guard was the right pairing rather than Johnson and Nixon sharing point guard duties.
Scott recalled how a local television sports anchor criticized the deal, saying West “made a mistake and is losing control.”
Scott watched the host’s reaction and thought, “Man.”
West called Scott into his office about a week later to discuss the negative comment.
West acknowledged the pressure he faced in making the trade, but was confident that everyone would “eat their words in a few years.”
“He said, ‘…Let me tell you something. We’re going to win more championships with you than we would have won with Norm,'” Scott recalled.
Scott won three championships with the Lakers during the ’80s, and his sweet shooting stroke was a big part of Showtime.
“When I left his office that day, all I could think was, ‘I’m never going to let this man down,’” Scott said. “This man believed in me when no one else did. And it’s true.
“So, like I told people for years. I have two dads: my dad and my basketball dad. Jerry is my basketball dad. So this morning was a difficult day.”
Michael Cooper went to Pasadena High and Pasadena City College before going to New New Mexico, so he knew Jerry West’s greatness as a player.
Cooper was part of the Showtime Lakers that won those five NBA championships in the 1980s. When he was selected to be part of the 2024 class of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, Cooper was delighted because he was going to be inducted with West, the man who selected him with the 60th pick in the third round of the 1978 draft and the icon. who was going to the Hall of Fame for the third time: as a player, a member of the 1960 United States Olympic basketball team and as a contributor.
Read more: Lakers great Michael Cooper elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame
“And that’s what hurts,” Cooper said. “When I found out (on Wednesday), I started crying, because I was really going to enjoy that. Like I said, our stuff goes back to 1973. That man has been in my life all these years. …Jerry was always there, man, always there. He was saying, ‘Michael, you have to stop this madness.’ He was always there helping me along the way. “He never abandoned me.”
Magic Johnson, one of the biggest stars of the Showtime era, enjoyed a lifelong bond with Jerry West.
As a 20-year-old rookie, Johnson said, he was amazed that West took him aside once a week to critique his game.
They would sit in seats not far from the famous Forum Club and just the two of them would talk about Johnson’s previous three or four games.
Read more: Eye for ‘unmatched’ talent: Magic Johnson shares memories of Jerry West
“He just gave notes,” Johnson said. “He was like, ‘Okay, you’ve got to do this or you’re going to miss shots.’ Whatever it was. ‘If you had probably made this decision, it probably wouldn’t have been a turnover. You had too many turnovers.
“So, he was just helping me. She loved it, because it was her idea. ‘Let’s meet. I just want to help you.’ I loved him because I’m getting this knowledge from the great Jerry West. “So I needed that.”
Sign up for our weekly newsletter on all things Lakers.
This story originally appeared on Los Angeles Times.
