Jerry west autobiography book

The honest and powerful autobiography from basketball legend Jerry West is a must-read for fans of the game. Unsparing in its self-assessment and honesty, West by West is far more than a sports memoir: it is a profound confession and a magnificent inspiration. What I did not know until reading this powerful book was just how complex he is. West by West is a rounded, honest and moving exploration not just of West's life under the arena spotlights, but his passages through his darkest hours.

With remarkable clarity and courage, West explores his flaws and ghosts, his glory on the court and his struggles off. Paralyzed and haunted by his childhood, this was a superstar who, at the top of his game, could not escape the feeling that he belonged at the bottom. Few would have the courage to look so deeply into the mirror, but in this exceptional book, West has done so.

Jerry west autobiography book

But in this book, with unflinching candor and in remarkable detail, Jerry West emerges proudly and boldly from the shadows of his own life. Fascinating-it's like West taking Tony Soprano's chair in Dr. Melfi's office, and explaining every detail of the most famous career in NBA player-exec history but with a moral barometer Drive your Ferrari out to the country club and tell you golfing pals what a rough deal life dealt you, Mr.

West, 'cause your whining fell on deaf ears here. James Swenson. It was interesting to learn more about West's remarkable career, which was before my time. As a memoir, though, this seemed disorganized and disjointed. West and his ghostwriter was allowed to describe himself rather than revealing his personality in the course of telling his story.

Unfortunately, it became hard for me to trust this flawed character's judgment of himself. Neill Caldwell. I enjoyed the "Sports Illustrated" excerpt a lot, enough to buy the book. The book was slightly disappointing, more of a traditional biography than I'd hoped. West does share about his depression and other illnesses, but doesn't dig as deep into his own psyche as I would have liked.

In fact after reading this book… I now know… that the fact that I declared what I just did… would make Jerry very uncomfortable in ways that I and the rest of the public would never have known… until reading this deeply introspective autobiography. I would also daresay… that if any author had ever even accidentally asked these questions… West would have stormed out.

West and co-author Jonathan Coleman literally use this book like a psychiatrist uses a couch. This love… and loss… is examined so deeply… and from so many different directions… and still with no real answer as to the cumulative effect this has had… and continues to have… on literally every mental and emotional molecule that has made Jerry West… Jerry West.

Despite the World Championship Jerry won as a player on the Los Angeles Lakers Who with 33 straight wins… still hold the longest continuous winning streak of any professional team in any professional sport. West is absolutely dumbfounded and clearly hurt that Kobe Bryant refused to be interviewed for his views on West for this book.

It was refreshing when Jerry openly… without pulling punches… states why the game used to be better. Jerry picks his all-time greatest players and divides them into an East and West team that has nothing to do with geography. He stages the game in his favorite basketball arena of all-time… Madison Square Garden… he even picks the refs… and tells you who would be in the crowd.

See note 1 below. Sofia Costa Lima. Author 4 books followers. So I cried my eyes out when I found out about his brother and when he talked about depression. Great book. For those unfamiliar with West, the silhouette that makes up the NBA logo is based on him. He played for the Los Angeles Lakers his entire NBA career, scored over 25, points, and won a title inbut also lost in the finals seven different times and is the only player in league history to win a finals MVP while playing on the losing team.

WBW is a memoir written with writer and journalist Jonathan Coleman who I was previously unfamiliar with. To call West a complicated person would be underselling complicated. His father abused him as a kid and his older brother, a golden child of sorts in the family, was killed in the Korean War. These two experiences fundamentally altered West as I imagine they would anyone and he spends chunks of the book exploring how.

He writes about being shy and quiet, but makes friends everywhere he goes and was even described by former teammate Elgin Baylor as a gossip. To be sure, you can both be shy and be a gossip, but West presents more as a surly social butterfly who has the power to get his own in social situations. That West, or his writer, failed to acknowledge this calls into question just how honest or introspective he was here.

He acknowledges having an ego and being thin-skinned, but fails to take any accountability for being a borderline diva. And one section in particular left me with a bad taste: his comments on therapy. For a person who claims to have and displays a strong amount of empathy, this felt like another area where West has either transitioned into a curmudgeon or just fails to see the callousness of his comments.

Incongruences aside, I enjoyed this book. That he did write this book, this attempt at sorting through his own demons, and yet still walked away with an at times brutally inconsistent view of himself makes him more compelling to me. Tom Kielty. Jerry West was undeniably one of the greatest basketball players in history. His NBA resume is untouchable.

West holds the NBA record for the highest points per game average in a playoff series with He was also a member of the first five NBA All-Defensive Teams one second, followed by four firstswhich were introduced when he was 32 years old. Following his playing days he was a successful basketball executive, adding fortune to fame. What he also was, based on his own words assisted by Jonathan Coleman was one miserable bastard.

In a sense it's admitted and addressed in the "Tormented" inclusion in the title and he most definitely got off to a rough start in hardscrabble rural West Virginia. His father was jerry west autobiography book emotionally and physically abusive, his mother a distant presence and the death of a beloved brother in combat while serving in Korea did little to diminish the depression that was a constant component of his world view.

Basketball was truly his savior, which he regularly reminds the reader. Depression was the other constant in his life What he does do is hold onto petty grudges that would be beneath most men of his acclaim and stature in order to nurse career disappointments for a lifetime, particularly his eight NBA Finals losses to the Boston Celtics. It simply eats at him, there is no other way to put it.

He admits it's the reason he dislikes the city of Boston and only goes there - and always under duress - when he has absolutely no choice and he repeatedly offers Rick Barry as an equal to Larry Bird a laughable and self-serving premise. Even after the legendary UCLA coach, John Wooden, ministers the sage advice that unless you take all the credit for a victory you can't reasonably take all the blame for a loss he continues to compare the pain of each and every life downturn in comparison to his post-season history against Boston.

It is so exhaustive that in the second to last paragraph of the epilogue he shares the anecdote that when a statue of him was unveiled at the Staples Center in his son addressed honorary guest, Bill Russell, the centerpiece of those Celtics teams by saying, "I would like to thank Bill Russell for ruining my and my brother's childhood.

Which is not an option to West who admits he doesn't trust the process of therapy. He trusts only himself. He is a decided know-it-all on a wide breadth of subjects from clothes he seems to take pride in making unsolicited suggestions to other shoppers in his preferred Los Angeles haberdashery to food and wine. Even in the moments when he struggles to articulate contentment or any emotion approaching joy, he always finds one nagging hair out of my place.

Even a photo of his marriage to his second wife, who he regularly refers to as the most beautiful woman he has ever seen, is captioned, "The first and last time I ever wore a tuxedo," a gripe he had articulated along with a remarkably ill-timed pre-nuptial agreement request. There's an adage known by everyone, "Money can't buy happiness. West ends the body of the book with this, "I, Jerry West, have found, at long last, what everyone I know has been convinced, and worried for years, would always elude me - some weird and tenuous semblance of peace.

Peter Corrigan. I found it in a Little Free library and thought why not? Jerry West was a iconic name from my childhood but as an east coaster, the LA Lakers were never my favorite. That was the NY Knicks in those days, especially the short glory years. He is a legend in our neighboring state or former state if you prefer. The book is different than what I expected and the subtitle seems apt.

He was tormented and charmed too, beyond what I for one imagined. Having recently completed a massive history of the Korean War, I was absorbed by the tragic story of his older brother David who was killed in combat in which nearly destroyed Jerry and and his family, especially his mother. It conveyed the impact of one life lost more than that jerry west autobiography book history book.

Interestingly, Jerry expresses a visceral hatred for Douglas MacArthur as somehow culpable for his brother's death. Jerry was apparently a big reader and and mentions reading a fair number of books, but if he had taken the time to read 'The Forgotten War' by Clay Blair or T. Fehrenbach's 'This Kind of War', he would have jerry west autobiography book that Harry Truman not MacArthur was profoundly responsible for the reduced state of readiness in the U.

This is not a standard sports autobiography, I expected more on the big games usually losses vs. There is some of that but as hard as he took losing he does not dwell on it on his playing career, nor on the only championship he won as player There is more about his life as an executive mainly with the Lakers and the icons of that era, both front office Jack Kent Cooke, Jerry Bussbroadcast booth Chick Hearn, a legend and of course the many great Laker players--Kareem, Magic, Shaq, Kobe, James Worthy, and many others.

The list of his injuries in the appendices is as impressive as his amazing statistics, the NBA was much rougher back then! The books does bounce around a bit and there are a lot of names and anecdotes from a really busy life. But much of it is also an unflinching and introspective account of his own tortured soul, stemming I suppose from his rough childhood and perhaps his own genetic makeup.

At the end of the day we all walk alone. RIP, Jerry! Author 2 books 15 followers. I bought this back when I didn't have shelves, and it sat on my floor in a stack until I moved, then returned to the floor until my bookcase was delivered. I picked it off the shelf this week while in a dark mood -- or a depressive fugue state, depending on how dramatic I want to sound -- looking for some guidance or solace, knowing that West has long battled depression.

Did it help? I found some commonalities between West's experiences and mine, particularly his obsessive nature, hatred of conflict, and desire to be loved by all. The root causes of his feelings are different from mine; my father, for instance, loves me very much. It is the roaming I've done throughout my life, moving from one place to another, always struggling to fit in, that causes most of my issues By Friday, a rejuvenated focus on my work saved me, as work often saved West there's a reason he's been unable to ever fully retire from basketball.

As for the book itself, I don't know that it is a great book And yet West restates the same core problems with himself over and over within a narrative that lacks structure I suspect a podcast interview or a long piece in The Athletic could have accomplished much of the same. Without a doubt, the book is at its best when West isn't dissecting the game, and thankfully, for the reader, he spends very little time on that.

Tell people how you feel about them when you can. West hasn't. He knows he should; he still doesn't. Take this advice with you, if nothing else. Reza Amiri Praramadhan. Hailing from Chelyan, West Virginia, Jerry had to endure an unhappy childhood with parents who were distant from him and abusive to some extent, while his favorite elder brother, David, lost his life in Korean War.

Throughout the book, Jerry described himself as a restless, and tormented soul who are unable to settle down, troubled by his failure to beat Boston Celtics in NBA Finals 6 times, managing to win his first and only NBA Champions Title with Los Angeles Lakers inshortly before retiring as player. This books also deals with How Jerry sees his friends around him, and how they see him, making this book not a mere self-glorification project, putting importance of Jerry West the human, not Jerry West the NBA legend.

Dan Shonka. This is an interesting read. Jerry West, certainly one of the best basketball players ever, shares what drove him to excellence. In today's world where we talk about how we should talk about mental health more, well, Jerry West shares his flaws. Publisher Little, Brown and Company. ISBN You May Also Like. Jonathan Coleman About the Author Jerry West is widely regarded as one of the greatest basketball players of all time.

After retiring from the Los Angeles Lakers inWest went on to lead the team — first as a coach, and then as the general manager. He lives in California and West Virginia.