For Kurt Rambis, it all started in the most unthinkable way.
The first time he spoke to Jerry Westthe NBA legend tried to recruit Rambis to join the Lakers on the training ground. But the squad was full, his future was uncertain and the option didn’t seem so promising.
So he listened, refused and hung up the phone. Why experiment and waste time, thought Rambis, when he could simply return to his team in Greece and build a career in Europe.
As soon as Rambis hung up, he realized that what he had done was complete madness.
“I just told Jerry West I wasn’t interested,” Rambis recalled Wednesday.
See more information: Jerry West, Lakers legend and architect of the ‘Showtime’ era, dies at 86
Rambis, of course, would relent, he would join the Lakers and change his entire life by becoming a beloved member of Showtime and a lifelong 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 it,” Rambis told The Times. “You felt that kind of good competitive pressure that he put on himself and the osmosis, in a lot of ways, of how he behaved and the things he said. And, you know, the anxiety he felt watching the games and how relieved he was when you won, all of that culminated in helping the Lakers develop this competitive culture of winning.”
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 to replace Norm Nixon, it wasn’t a very popular decision.
Nixon had won two NBA championships with the Lakers and was well-liked by his teammates and the press who covered the team.
Jerry West was the Lakers general manager who made the change, thinking that a backcourt with Magic Johnson at point guard and Scott at point 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 “got it wrong and is kind of spiraling out of control.”
Scott watched the anchor’s reaction and thought, “Man.”
West called Scott into his office about a week later to discuss the negative comment.
West acknowledged the difficulty faced in making the deal, but was confident that everyone would be “eating their words in a few years.”
“He said, ‘…Let me tell you something. We’re going to win more championships with you than we ever would have won with Norm,’” Scott recalled.
Scott won three championships with the Lakers during the ’80s, and his sweet jump shot was a big part of Showtime.
See more information: Plaschke: Laker legend Jerry West’s final legacy unfortunately includes retirement from Lakers
“When I left his office that day, all I could think was, ‘I will never let this man down,’” Scott said. “This man believed in me when no one else did. And it’s true.
“So, like I’ve told people for years. I have two parents – my dad and my basketball dad. Jerry is my basketball dad. So it was a tough day this morning.”
Michael Cooper attended Pasadena High and Pasadena City College before coming to 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 Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame class, Cooper was overjoyed because he was going with West, the man who drafted him as the 60th third-round pick overall in the 1978 draft and the icon who was entering the Hall of Fame for the third time — as a player, a member of the 1960 U.S. Olympic basketball team and as a contributor.
See more information: Lakers great Michael Cooper elected to Basketball Hall of Fame
“And that’s what hurts,” Cooper said. “When I discovered [Wednesday,] man, I started crying, because I would love it so much. Like I said, our stuff goes back to 1973. This man has been in my life all these years. … Jerry was always there, man, always there. He would say, ‘Michael, you have to stop this madness.’ He was always there helping me along the way. He never gave up on 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 surprised that West pulled him aside once a week to criticize his play.
They sat in seats not far from the famous Forum Club, just the two of them talking about Johnson’s previous three or four games.
See more information: Eye for ‘Unparalleled’ Talent: Magic Johnson Shares Memories of Jerry West
“He just gave notes,” Johnson said. “He’d say, ‘OK, you’ve got to do this, or you’re going to have very few shots.’ Whatever it was. ‘If you had probably made that decision, it probably wouldn’t have been a change. You had a lot of twists and turns.
“So he was just helping me. He loved it, because it was his idea. ‘Let’s meet. I just want to help you. I loved it because I’m getting this knowledge from the great Jerry West. So I needed that.”
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This story originally appeared on Los Angeles Times.
