Speaker 1: No, no, not come on on this episode they heat check.
Speaker 1: We've got a really special episode, super special. I sat
Speaker 1: down for almost two hours with the one and only
Speaker 1: Jerry West. Not often the Jerry West gives that much
Speaker 1: time to one person.
Speaker 2: On the record. I don't think I've seen an interview
Speaker 2: with him that long.
Speaker 1: The thing that I loved is he answered every single question,
Speaker 1: didn't duck one question, answered everything honestly, And I asked
Speaker 1: him a bunch of questions, questions that I was worried
Speaker 1: that might seem a little bit uncomfortable. He was open,
Speaker 1: and when I listened to it back, I think the
Speaker 1: thing that stuns me to a degree is when you
Speaker 1: listen to him, there's just so much insight and wisdom
Speaker 1: there about the game, about his personal lens on life,
Speaker 1: things that we can kind of take into our own lives.
Speaker 1: I know. I read that back when I was writing
Speaker 1: up the transcript and was like, oh my goodness, great
Speaker 1: quick caveat though. So the nature of Summer League is
Speaker 1: pretty frenetic. You get people where you can get them.
Speaker 1: I didn't have a studio, there were not a ton
Speaker 1: of quiet places to sit down, so we ended up
Speaker 1: finding a Starbucks inside of a hotel near the convention
Speaker 1: hall inside of the Aria, which, by the way, the
Speaker 1: Aria is a pop and ass hotel, so it's probably
Speaker 1: one of the least quiet hotels on the strip, and
Speaker 1: there happened to be a convention going on at that
Speaker 1: exact same time. So some of the times it gets
Speaker 1: very turned in our two hour interview, which was lunchtime
Speaker 1: for people who were finding their quote unquote purpose live
Speaker 1: your purpose out convention. So as a result, the audio
Speaker 1: has a lot of background noise, which we've worked really
Speaker 1: hard to minimize. If you have a pair of headphones,
Speaker 1: I suggest putting them on. It makes the interview a
Speaker 1: lot crisper. This interview, just as a heads up, has
Speaker 1: been edited for time and clarity.
Speaker 2: A lot of my UMBs and Ah's have been cut out.
Speaker 1: I am going to introduce each topic so that I
Speaker 1: can highlight and give additional context to what Jerry says,
Speaker 1: because I think it is so insightful. So let's get
Speaker 1: into it, all right, So let's kind of set up
Speaker 1: the scene for a quick second.
Speaker 2: So I had been trying to nail.
Speaker 1: Down Jerry for an interview for a few days. I
Speaker 1: knew he was going to be heading out of town
Speaker 1: back to LA to do something with the Clippers organization,
Speaker 1: something with the new arena or something. I know.
Speaker 2: Once he went to LA, it was a rap, He's
Speaker 2: not coming. He may come back, he may not, but.
Speaker 1: This interview's not gonna happen. So we needed to happen
Speaker 1: before that. So I'm trying to hunt him down. Didn't
Speaker 1: end up seeing him at the gym. Come back to
Speaker 1: the Aria to go back to my room, and I
Speaker 1: see him in the lobby talking to some season ticket holders.
Speaker 1: So I'm like, yo, tomorrow, let's link interviews. And he's like, yeah,
Speaker 1: let me know what's time. So we meet in the
Speaker 1: lobby ten thirty am and I'm like, okay, I know
Speaker 1: a quiet spot.
Speaker 2: So there is a quiet.
Speaker 1: Spot around the corner upstairs in the area where convention
Speaker 1: halls are not used, and there's a package room which
Speaker 1: was dead silent, and a Starbucks which is tucked in
Speaker 1: the back.
Speaker 2: Of the way, and I'm like, okay, we can go there.
Speaker 1: So we walk over there and there's a rope and
Speaker 1: there's a convention going on and they're like, oh, are.
Speaker 2: You guys with the lead your purpose? They're like no, no,
Speaker 2: well you can't go this way.
Speaker 1: Oh well, we're just getting a package from the package room.
Speaker 2: We're not getting a package from the package room. So
Speaker 2: I circumvent that.
Speaker 1: We go through and I'm like, there's a Starbucks right here,
Speaker 1: and he's like, perfect, I'm hungry.
Speaker 2: I'm starving. Awesome.
Speaker 1: So we sit down probably fifteen minutes before the interview
Speaker 1: gets going as a I want to say, like a
Speaker 1: warm up. He wanted coffee, he wanted a muffin. I
Speaker 1: think he also kind of wanted his vocal.
Speaker 2: Cords to warm up. He needed more warmed.
Speaker 1: Up because he's a very soft spoken guy. We had
Speaker 1: to bump bodyo on this and post. Anyway, while we
Speaker 1: were talking and just kind of getting warmed up, he
Speaker 1: said something that really stuck out to me and I
Speaker 1: wanted immediately to ask him on the record, which he said,
Speaker 1: I think I'm really misunderstood. I think people get me
Speaker 1: completely wrong. And I know the side of him that's
Speaker 1: always cracking jokes, ball busting, but there is this this
Speaker 1: thing that is an appearance that he's apparently aloof. So
Speaker 1: I wasn't intending on asking it, but I did another
Speaker 1: quick aside so we can get to it. I did say, hey,
Speaker 1: I'll do an intro in post like we just did,
Speaker 1: and he said, I really don't need an intro.
Speaker 2: I'm Jerry West, so let's get into it all right.
Speaker 3: He says he needs no introduction, so we're not gonna
Speaker 3: give it one.
Speaker 2: He said, I don't need an intro. He doesn't mean.
Speaker 2: All you gotta say is logo.
Speaker 3: And you know what time it is, It's Jerry West
Speaker 3: time here on the heat Check podcast. You mentioned that
Speaker 3: you think people.
Speaker 2: Get you all wrong. What do you need?
Speaker 4: It's been a journal graz starting with I shoot colleague
Speaker 4: in the NBA when I was akod do crazy dreams
Speaker 4: that I could depend something different.
Speaker 5: Never in the dream I could be any world of sports.
Speaker 4: And so I picked up a basketball at nine years
Speaker 4: of age and a very solitary person and I'm still there.
Speaker 5: And that's a solitary person.
Speaker 2: And I could look, do you think people think they're serious?
Speaker 4: Well, I think people probably look at them and say, well,
Speaker 4: they haven't many me.
Speaker 5: He's probably not approach to who, he's probably aloof. I
Speaker 5: am none of those period.
Speaker 4: I love people, loved trying to help people, like to them,
Speaker 4: and along the way that's been a part of my life.
Speaker 4: Also but the only thing that again that connected me
Speaker 4: to so many people, meeting people I never thought I knew,
Speaker 4: traveling places. I never thought I would love to what's
Speaker 4: through the world of basketball.
Speaker 5: I was able to have a career for fourteen years.
Speaker 5: That was pretty good. It was all right, And to
Speaker 5: be involved in the management in was something that rank
Speaker 5: how we're concerned. Did I do it? But I thought
Speaker 5: it was pretty easy for the college.
Speaker 6: One really want as many complex lainers to us loss
Speaker 6: to that. You know, we have so long on what
Speaker 6: people working on a league. The league has changed greatly
Speaker 6: before the three point line. But this gender game of basketball,
Speaker 6: it's about people. It's about people, the skilled who can
Speaker 6: play together as a team and mold themselves.
Speaker 5: And he's something that fans are going the lots.
Speaker 1: There's probably no one in NBA history who is as
Speaker 1: much of a competitor as Jerry West.
Speaker 2: He cares about winning more than anything.
Speaker 1: But we also know it's been well documented that he
Speaker 1: doesn't like to lose. That's been well documented, and he
Speaker 1: brought up how much he hates losing kind of as
Speaker 1: an aside to another question in the context of managing
Speaker 1: and constructing a roster, as an executive, and that kind
Speaker 1: of took us down this fascinating side road about how
Speaker 1: much Jerry West actually hates losing.
Speaker 2: Take a listen, I.
Speaker 5: Hate losing how much.
Speaker 4: To this day the day it torments me that I
Speaker 4: lost NBA Finals eight times.
Speaker 2: And which one was the worst.
Speaker 7: In nineteen sixty nine, a great team and we lose
Speaker 7: to the Boston Celtics. But anyway, we pick the time
Speaker 7: to play a four game. They played well.
Speaker 5: If we would played the way we're capable, we would
Speaker 5: won that young And that was probably the most tormenting
Speaker 5: one I was. It's never happened before.
Speaker 4: I was the most valuable player in the NBA Finals
Speaker 4: and losing teams that made.
Speaker 5: It even worse.
Speaker 4: To be honest with you, I thought, it is a
Speaker 4: team game, and some players excel and have enough level
Speaker 4: in the whole period, it wasn't good enough.
Speaker 5: Yes, I really wanted to flip again the thought and
Speaker 5: then know if there was anything nothing in me, it
Speaker 5: should be spiritually.
Speaker 4: And then and I'll challenge you'll fighting depression that I
Speaker 4: had caught all in my life.
Speaker 5: That was probably one of the lowest spirits in my life.
Speaker 4: As you know, you you thought of thought of the
Speaker 4: loose side.
Speaker 5: I couldn't decide. Even to this day, I can, so.
Speaker 2: You still think about it now?
Speaker 5: Oh yeah, absolutely. I thought there were two Tian teacher
Speaker 5: to be the most healthies, but uh we didn't. But
Speaker 5: you know, tribute to the end they played, they.
Speaker 8: Were Uh we were the the asterisk.
Speaker 4: Besides the championships, championship self like, winning is always given me.
Speaker 4: Excellence was always given and you can't do it.
Speaker 5: You can't achieve the games channel time unless she Hio habits.
Speaker 1: I met Jerry Beck in twenty eighteen on a basketball court,
Speaker 1: and the first question I ever asked him was about
Speaker 1: him as a talent evaluator.
Speaker 2: I wanted to know you're one of the best.
Speaker 1: Why can you seemingly see things that almost no one
Speaker 1: else can see? Or why do you see them more
Speaker 1: consistently than anyone else? And how do you know that
Speaker 1: a player is going to be special and which ones
Speaker 1: are going to be busts.
Speaker 2: It's one of the most.
Speaker 1: Fascinating questions to me, because I think it's so nuanced
Speaker 1: and so.
Speaker 2: Hard to figure out. And for people who don't know,
Speaker 2: there's people I guess that don't.
Speaker 1: Jerry West has been part of front offices for the
Speaker 1: Showtime Lakers.
Speaker 2: That's five rings.
Speaker 1: Was responsible for bringing in Kobe and Shack and hiring
Speaker 1: Phil Jackson to the Lakers.
Speaker 2: That's three championships while he was there.
Speaker 1: Went to Memphis in the Grit and Grind era, which
Speaker 1: was a whole thing in itself with Gasol, both Gasol brothers,
Speaker 1: with Mike Conley Junior, a bunch of guys insane tenure
Speaker 1: there as well, and then goes to work for the
Speaker 1: Warriors as a special assistant and was a part of
Speaker 1: drafting Draymond Green and finding him in the draft, recruiting
Speaker 1: Kevin Durant, nixing a trade that would have traded Klay
Speaker 1: Thompson to the Minnesota Timberwolves for Kevin Love. He then
Speaker 1: goes to the Clippers, where he helps draft Shay Gilgess
Speaker 1: Alexander who wasn't on anyone's radar, recruits Kawhi Leonard, does
Speaker 1: the trade or helps do the trade for Paul George,
Speaker 1: building a Clippers team that is widely regarded to be
Speaker 1: the favorite to win or one of the favorites to
Speaker 1: win in this year's NBA Championship. He has eight championships
Speaker 1: as an executive and two Awards for Executive of the Year.
Speaker 1: He is point blank the best GM we've ever seen,
Speaker 1: and it's not close.
Speaker 2: Do not forget that.
Speaker 1: And the thing I really appreciate about this clip is
Speaker 1: how he simplifies the game.
Speaker 2: What does he see?
Speaker 1: He makes it so easy for us to see what
Speaker 1: he looks at in deciding who's good and who's not.
Speaker 3: The if not the one of the best talent evaluators
Speaker 3: in the game of basketball that we've ever seen.
Speaker 2: How do you do that?
Speaker 5: Well? To me, your eyes don't lie to you. Okay,
Speaker 5: they never know, you know. He gets the players of
Speaker 5: today obviously so much younger when they've been pushed in
Speaker 5: the time fifteen years old, their rank of union, the
Speaker 5: top tim high school player in their country. I've kind
Speaker 5: not to playing fans in that I really do, because
Speaker 5: the kids are just much mormature where body was body was.
Speaker 4: And also you could have a kid that's going in
Speaker 4: January of the same year as someone going in December.
Speaker 4: It is the whole year that actually there's something I
Speaker 4: do pay attention to. So the first one later has
Speaker 4: to be physically not as equipp is a guy who's
Speaker 4: a whole year older.
Speaker 5: And then the other one and yet they were going
Speaker 5: the same others.
Speaker 4: But to me just watching games, uh, some kids have
Speaker 4: unique talent to make others better. They seem like they're
Speaker 4: a step ahead, a play ahead where they never get
Speaker 4: themselves in trouble, running over people, making turnovers and.
Speaker 5: In today's game turnovers or it's a it's a year
Speaker 5: of two or three point flock.
Speaker 4: And so I've tried to understand that taking consideration the youth.
Speaker 5: But at the end of the day, I like a
Speaker 5: certain kind of player.
Speaker 4: I like the long armed athletic players, and particularly people
Speaker 4: who can thank the game at a higher levels.
Speaker 5: If you can't keep your body under control, and some
Speaker 5: of these kids.
Speaker 4: Are incredible, often because someone that's so out of control.
Speaker 5: If you can't keep your body under control.
Speaker 4: The thing that I would think everyone could see would
Speaker 4: be playing too fast, where some people whatever, some skilled,
Speaker 4: the faster you can play.
Speaker 9: But probably the thing except them par the ones who
Speaker 9: are not I roll up make things kind of plays,
Speaker 9: and the only they go too fast, they have to
Speaker 9: see the game in slow motion, and particularly at this
Speaker 9: higher level.
Speaker 1: So in the era of super teams, we have some
Speaker 1: gms and executives who want to just put like three
Speaker 1: of the best players on planet Earth together, and they
Speaker 1: somehow think that's gonna work, right, And they believe you
Speaker 1: put a few talented, hyper talented players together in your win.
Speaker 1: A talented assortment of players on a team wins every time.
Speaker 2: To them.
Speaker 1: What makes Jerry West different is best explained in an
Speaker 1: analogy he gives in this next clip where he describes
Speaker 1: a roster like a car, like an automobile, and he
Speaker 1: also mentions how he uses the draft to build a roster,
Speaker 1: how he convinces players to buy into playing this role.
Speaker 1: And to me, it's really detailed and really nuanced. And
Speaker 1: he was particularly soft spoken in this clip, so listen
Speaker 1: carefully with your headphones on full blast.
Speaker 4: But you're certain players I like, I have a different
Speaker 4: analogy of what I think is the league. I do
Speaker 4: not play and get a chancel, which don't fids to
Speaker 4: get into the league, and protecting the young means because
Speaker 4: I don't see a body of works here to compare
Speaker 4: them to here, and particularly playing against people with all
Speaker 4: you know, much greater age and mufic, you know, playing
Speaker 4: against professional play sequel all life. But there's little things
Speaker 4: that I see that I'm I guess fall in love
Speaker 4: with and they don't always work out, But to me,
Speaker 4: life is the funds of them.
Speaker 5: Anyway, basketball, you need five players to start.
Speaker 4: Okay, and then if you have a really good team,
Speaker 4: people coming off the nuns have.
Speaker 5: To be able to comp the moment then and it's
Speaker 5: a working unit.
Speaker 4: If you have a missing piece, I'm assuming its life
Speaker 4: of car in some respects. We have one real fighting
Speaker 4: fall in the car and at the end of the
Speaker 4: day that car is gonna break down.
Speaker 3: How do you use that philosophy to find red players
Speaker 3: that are those little tiny parts for the car?
Speaker 4: Well, and unfortunately, I definitely wanting my I was in Memphis.
Speaker 4: Memphis completely different than.
Speaker 5: The whole tanga.
Speaker 4: We really have the ability that the draft some really
Speaker 4: unique players who trade and allowed us to get very
Speaker 4: high in the draft, and then they turned off. Fantastic
Speaker 4: came from big stars, and so we leave the players
Speaker 4: to compliment things.
Speaker 5: And so you're all went a long way. When you
Speaker 5: I think you have to look, you know, how odd
Speaker 5: reap this position?
Speaker 10: And I like to see some kind of a draft
Speaker 10: or there's not just thirty year old players who go
Speaker 10: straight down. I like kind of a slanting line that
Speaker 10: will allow the older players, players that are in their twenties,
Speaker 10: and then the younger kids who hopefully to jump in
Speaker 10: and there with your talents and be able to fit
Speaker 10: in at.
Speaker 5: A great team.
Speaker 4: But also, I will tell you if you had a
Speaker 4: chance to be involved with really great players, they welcomed
Speaker 4: these young and they want.
Speaker 8: Them to get negg and to me, the more you
Speaker 8: put your arm around the kid who I'm struggling to
Speaker 8: be rugg and might lose confidence, maybe he's quiet and shy,
Speaker 8: try to make them part of it.
Speaker 5: Everyone should year even if you office funt office gets so.
Speaker 4: Big to them expanded so much, they're not intimate as
Speaker 4: they once were. Which there's a reason of that, because
Speaker 4: I tremendous grows in the league expansion. Everyone is trying
Speaker 4: to get some kind of head and they hire the
Speaker 4: best people of the.
Speaker 11: Best supposed to be the best coaching is, the best trainer,
Speaker 11: the best health experts. So there's a lot more at
Speaker 11: stake today. So consequently, you're going.
Speaker 4: To have more people with him in the league, and
Speaker 4: there's all kind of people out there they're thinking of
Speaker 4: gotten you no doubt, and it's yeah, because you have
Speaker 4: to find a way to convince them.
Speaker 1: That keeping computed to your Here, Jerry discusses how he
Speaker 1: can identify if a player has the competitive spirit or
Speaker 1: if they love the game.
Speaker 2: This is one of those things we're all wondering about.
Speaker 2: How do you know?
Speaker 1: How can you tell if a player actually loves basketball?
Speaker 1: He breaks this down very simply, but he moves on
Speaker 1: and dissects something else, which I.
Speaker 2: Think is even more interesting.
Speaker 1: At Summer League, I heard Isaiah Thomas on a broadcast
Speaker 1: saying how every young player in the league owes a
Speaker 1: debt of gratitude to Jerry West. And if you listen
Speaker 1: to this clip, I think you'll find out very quickly why.
Speaker 1: This is a guy who played right before salary started skyrocketing,
Speaker 1: and for whatever reason, he has zero bitterness over the
Speaker 1: fact his era was not treated the same as this era.
Speaker 1: He recognizes how much work these young men have put
Speaker 1: on and put in, how they don't come from wealthy backgrounds,
Speaker 1: and sees this as an opportunity for them to get
Speaker 1: life change money so that when they leave the game
Speaker 1: they can take time not have to get a job
Speaker 1: and find out what it is they truly love. If
Speaker 1: they don't truly love basketball, and he's totally cool with that.
Speaker 1: Not only is he totally cool, I think he kinda
Speaker 1: finds it to be a rare gift for these kids.
Speaker 1: Very few executives believe this, nor will say it out loud,
Speaker 1: But I think Jerry West always believes that a player,
Speaker 1: and he has said this in this interview as well,
Speaker 1: always believes players should get paid every single penny that
Speaker 1: they are worth and even more. Sometimes that's what we
Speaker 1: call for the culture Jerry West.
Speaker 12: There's like this X factor, the love of the game.
Speaker 12: He just loves basketball, or he's just this relentless competitor
Speaker 12: he hates to lose.
Speaker 2: Kind of like you, how do you quantify that?
Speaker 1: Because everyone's says they love the game.
Speaker 2: Is it just a gut feeling where you meet him
Speaker 2: and you're like, oh, yeah, I think he's gonna take
Speaker 2: games for Yeah.
Speaker 4: Some of these kids have a gleaming wye okay, and
Speaker 4: they're wide eyed and and particularly when they're taking around
Speaker 4: from the bedroom players.
Speaker 5: But I've always said, find something you love to do.
Speaker 5: Get what you love to do. Anyone ever working dare
Speaker 5: in my life.
Speaker 4: And today these kids would come in, they have high
Speaker 4: ass the rays and they've been pushed.
Speaker 5: They've been training at a.
Speaker 4: Higher level than players with yesteryear. And you get around them,
Speaker 4: and you get around them and you've talked to him
Speaker 4: and some of them talk a good game. Some of
Speaker 4: them tell you how good they are, but to me,
Speaker 4: what the work they put in. After you've had your conversation,
Speaker 4: they're a gym rats. There's guys that just love to
Speaker 4: be in the gym. And it's just amazing today that's
Speaker 4: you know, you have the season doesn't start to you know,
Speaker 4: lates early October.
Speaker 5: And they have kids in other gym all the times.
Speaker 5: I mean, they're not just young kid, they're better.
Speaker 13: And that's a whole agree the uniqueness of this league today,
Speaker 13: kids from all level. If they can't come in and
Speaker 13: play them, they surely can make enough money because there's
Speaker 13: biggest storgument that they're going to make so much.
Speaker 5: Answer the money and advertise them and stuff like that.
Speaker 5: Many of them make a lot more than they do
Speaker 5: in solid. So they do have their own father. But
Speaker 5: pint out I was trying to make at a very
Speaker 5: young age.
Speaker 4: You get out of course thing you get out of college,
Speaker 4: you got a degree. Everyone else has a degree. It's
Speaker 4: difficult to get a job, and how long does it
Speaker 4: take you to get to a point within an organization
Speaker 4: that people appreciate you and you made a lot of
Speaker 4: money to make your life easier, and the can you
Speaker 4: want to retire? But if you want to do that,
Speaker 4: these kids can we out today are wealth and so
Speaker 4: they can take to three years old and sidifying what
Speaker 4: path they want to take, continue to continue their life.
Speaker 5: And I think to me, that is an unbelievable gifts
Speaker 5: not to have to go out and get a regular job,
Speaker 5: and so they can pick and choose. Also the white
Speaker 5: players and they.
Speaker 4: Play the game, they played it with great intensive that
Speaker 4: they have contributed a.
Speaker 5: Lot of other ways. Those people truly can make.
Speaker 4: A difference in those world by getting by maybe being
Speaker 4: involved in the game itself again the game they loved, okay,
Speaker 4: in a game that.
Speaker 14: Allowed them this enormous opportunity in life to make their
Speaker 14: life comfortable, their family's comfortable, their children comfortable and living
Speaker 14: for pretty on the way most of the players that
Speaker 14: come in this league, they don't come from multi family adjustment.
Speaker 5: And it's it's a reward for I always work they've done,
Speaker 5: and more importantly.
Speaker 4: How proud their parents are at the but your son
Speaker 4: it fell at higher level and walk away with great name.
Speaker 5: More importantly, financial security.
Speaker 3: What percentage of players in the league, no matter how
Speaker 3: rich they get, still have the work ethic like a
Speaker 3: player like Kawhii.
Speaker 5: Well, there's a lot of players in the league really
Speaker 5: work hard. I mean you can sing a while cling players,
Speaker 5: but there's a lot unemployed.
Speaker 4: Part Well, I think it's I mean, you got to
Speaker 4: be proud of what you do. And I always use
Speaker 4: this story that remind me so much.
Speaker 5: Out was when I was a kid. He used to
Speaker 5: love to go on to the mountain and flying and westward,
Speaker 5: being as.
Speaker 4: Hill league, and you get the top of the mountain
Speaker 4: and you say, oh my god, what a great view
Speaker 4: over there. Well, in the NBA, if you get the
Speaker 4: top of the mountain, if you just look back, nobody
Speaker 4: chasing up the hill.
Speaker 5: So you better go try to climb a higher amount.
Speaker 4: I think it's something that these great players, even the
Speaker 4: ones who have had a long distinguished career, they might
Speaker 4: not be great, but they have had to work their
Speaker 4: fannies all to maintain the position in the league. And
Speaker 4: if they can today, if these players they start so young,
Speaker 4: they can play the way to take care of themselves.
Speaker 5: They can play the thirty six thirty eight years old. Yeah,
Speaker 5: it's amazing, really is.
Speaker 1: So if you're wondering why certain teams always seem to
Speaker 1: be good and other teams always seem to be bad,
Speaker 1: there is a reason for it. And in this clip
Speaker 1: he describes the danger of being a good team, which
Speaker 1: means that you always end up drafting late, and how
Speaker 1: good teams and what they do to continue to succeed
Speaker 1: despite their draft position. If you're a good team, according
Speaker 1: to him, the future is right now, which explains kind
Speaker 1: of perfectly why the Timberwolves made the moves that they
Speaker 1: did this offseason.
Speaker 2: They want to win right now. So interesting stuff here
Speaker 2: from Jerry.
Speaker 1: Outside of the Clippers, who do you think has been
Speaker 1: the most successful.
Speaker 3: At finding and developing unique talent for what they are
Speaker 3: doing for you know, the identity.
Speaker 2: Of their team?
Speaker 5: Well, you know, there's a number of teams that's done
Speaker 5: really well.
Speaker 4: But the problem is is that you know, once you
Speaker 4: do well for a long time, you say your team
Speaker 4: is really a good team.
Speaker 5: You're drafting at the end of the draft. There's teams
Speaker 5: down there if.
Speaker 4: They can identify a players, they're the ones that I
Speaker 4: would pay most extensions to, particularly when you're not very good,
Speaker 4: and by not being very good is having one of
Speaker 4: the worst five records in them. We okay, well, a
Speaker 4: lot of times people get very very excited, Oh, we
Speaker 4: want to draft this other guy. We want to draft
Speaker 4: that guy, and in this the number one taking the
Speaker 4: draft of failed three times. Now, once you're thinking about
Speaker 4: all the people out there watching these kids, how can
Speaker 4: that happen?
Speaker 2: I was wondering the same thing.
Speaker 4: Happens happens people humor. You know, they're trying to project
Speaker 4: the guy for the future. Where the future is now.
Speaker 4: To be honest with you, it might take a little
Speaker 4: longer with these kids, but really good teams, they seem
Speaker 4: to be able to bring in a veteran player and
Speaker 4: say a mid level which is part of our reflective
Speaker 4: boardin agreement, that might be better than some young kid
Speaker 4: particularly have a good team. I think the danger of
Speaker 4: being drafting late all the time and not trying to
Speaker 4: be mean, mean or critical somewhere along the way front
Speaker 4: office is not going to in front and that.
Speaker 5: Includes everything ownership. People in the front.
Speaker 4: Office scouts, and that's that's not a criticism that some
Speaker 4: people don't have very much love. You see players that
Speaker 4: come into the league and they're really great young players,
Speaker 4: they'll have a devastating injury which you can't recover from.
Speaker 2: Final piece here.
Speaker 1: So with Kevin Durant's request for a trade looming over
Speaker 1: the summer league, I was hoping that we can find
Speaker 1: a way to touch on this. I was only going
Speaker 1: to ask it if it came up organically, but I
Speaker 1: am curious about older players and how they think about
Speaker 1: just movement as a whole, Guys asking out from their
Speaker 1: teams with lengthy durations left on their contract. So he
Speaker 1: brings up trade requests happening in the newspapers, and I thought, okay,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna jump immediately on this.
Speaker 2: What came next, though, was a lot.
Speaker 1: More than I anticipated, and a shocking admission about Jerry's
Speaker 1: time with the Lakers.
Speaker 5: There's a free agency, the said, reading the paper, demand
Speaker 5: to be traded.
Speaker 2: What do you think about that?
Speaker 5: It's a the fellows, but today players have so much
Speaker 5: they have so much power.
Speaker 4: You know, they're partnering with the NBA and there was
Speaker 4: a great relationship with her. But unless I had I'll
Speaker 4: use myself in career. It was one time in my career.
Speaker 4: I played fourteen years old with the Lakers. There was
Speaker 4: one time in my career because somebody told me something
Speaker 4: that wasn't the truth, and this person, who happened to
Speaker 4: be the owned team I ever forgave me.
Speaker 5: And this was when I was a player, and I
Speaker 5: really felt, I really felt, why lie to me? I
Speaker 5: don't lie to you again. I came from Watch Your
Speaker 5: Junior and I sort of rely on real They bought
Speaker 5: it very awkwardly were but he trusted them.
Speaker 4: And this was one of the things that I would
Speaker 4: have been a free agent. I would have left for
Speaker 4: sure that I'm pretty loyal in terms of if you
Speaker 4: work someplace where it's fun, ownership is great. It really
Speaker 4: it's fun to get to know the people there, trying
Speaker 4: to make it a family, like the atmosphere and go
Speaker 4: around and say loa to everyone. And I've learned some
Speaker 4: incredible lessons in my life, by the way, about people
Speaker 4: something from being around particularly Lakers when they move from
Speaker 4: one the old sports Arena which is no longer here,
Speaker 4: but to Staples saying pacechol visit everyone in the morning
Speaker 4: after an incident, having a retirement card, and I just
Speaker 4: tell you that you know these people who.
Speaker 5: Are behind the scenes and don't give any credit and
Speaker 5: they never get any credit. They're hidden faces, but they're
Speaker 5: so proud of their job.
Speaker 4: But often I said, no matter how manial a job,
Speaker 4: to someone, that's the most important thing in the world.
Speaker 5: And salty very much.
Speaker 4: So I love people, probably do anything people and particularly
Speaker 4: people don't working.
Speaker 5: That means there's a limit. There's a moment you can
Speaker 5: go for sure.
Speaker 4: But once I feel like no one appreciates anyone, I'm
Speaker 4: not gonna be there.
Speaker 5: I'll walk away.
Speaker 2: What did they lie to you about?
Speaker 5: Well, this was over a salary. We had no agency,
Speaker 5: and this was over a contractual thing. And just I
Speaker 5: said to myself, well, out of any one, I knew
Speaker 5: that people paid the seed deploy. I knew they paid
Speaker 5: to see the Laker eploy. We had some great players
Speaker 5: with them just out.
Speaker 2: Of our life, all about what you were worth as.
Speaker 5: But again there was no way to determine that. Then
Speaker 5: today there was a way to determine that. No one
Speaker 5: knew the salary. The agents knew all the salary today.
Speaker 4: And that's been the free agency that I was thought
Speaker 4: about first starting, And I wish I would have had someone.
Speaker 5: To represent me, but owners. Owners wouldn't even pay attention
Speaker 5: to the games.
Speaker 4: And today they're very powerful, Yeah they are, and they
Speaker 4: know they negotiate contracts with players.
Speaker 5: I looked at and I say, I wouldn't paint that
Speaker 5: trainer of that much money. And it's not disrespectful.
Speaker 4: Yeah, but once you're wanted to pay something a lot,
Speaker 4: invariably as somebody with a team a lot better than
Speaker 4: that person, but you have to pay that player more.
Speaker 5: And it's one of the problems I had.
Speaker 4: No players should be under played, none, not one player
Speaker 4: should be underplayed, and and negotiating to me, the players
Speaker 4: should feel like they end up winning you finding nothing
Speaker 4: exposed to it.
Speaker 5: Pay the guy. The loyal team means everything in them.
Speaker 4: And I learned it because an incident in my life
Speaker 4: that nobody started, and particularly you know, I was at
Speaker 4: player every year. I was kind of a at purpose
Speaker 4: player and that really bothered him and it made me
Speaker 4: probably help me asn't exactive more than anything.
Speaker 5: I was not ever under fake game and not even
Speaker 5: if there.
Speaker 4: Was fifty thousand dollars in there's a lot of money.
Speaker 4: And for fifty thousand dollars, lew working with Jerry Lay Jerry,
Speaker 4: does we gave it to the players, Yes, and so
Speaker 4: it created a better environment. The players were always gray there.
Speaker 4: We hadn't then we Every once in a while you
Speaker 4: get a player that really didn't fit in, but still
Speaker 4: you had at grace him. Hopefully he could change by
Speaker 4: being around great people. And I still believe that the
Speaker 4: people we worked with have that same ability to come
Speaker 4: there and then it's a quiet, soft foken reserve, roll
Speaker 4: them into conversations, make it fun for it because there's
Speaker 4: a lot of pressure.
Speaker 5: On me to win.
Speaker 1: That's good, all right, That's all the time that we
Speaker 1: have for part one. In part two, we're gonna it's
Speaker 1: so good. We're gonna discuss more about his time with
Speaker 1: the clip. He mentions what team he thinks is the
Speaker 1: best team of all time, and that's not the Bulls,
Speaker 1: None of the.
Speaker 2: Bulls rosters he believes is the best team of all time.
Speaker 1: He discusses how he would build a roster around Lebron James,
Speaker 1: his unvarnished opinion on winning time. If you liked part one,
Speaker 1: part two might be even better.
Speaker 2: It's a doozy. That's all the time that we have
Speaker 2: for this episode of the Heat Check.
Speaker 1: We'll be back later this week with a regular episode
Speaker 1: and late late this week Part two from Jerry West.
Speaker 1: Do not forget to download them, subscribe and follow us
Speaker 1: on TikTok at this heat Check and Trista Crik
Speaker 2: Tell all your friends about this fucking interview.