Citing Pressures, He Signs Off as Head of Laker Opeeration He Helped Build to Greatness

And so the rolling, pitching, increasingly drifting sports scene that is Los Angeles has lost another anchor.

One of the old kind. One of the last kind.

For 40 years, Jerry West was the quiet, steely strength who held the Lakers steady from somewhere down deep.

Then this summer he emerged as something altogether different.

Something rusted, barnacle-covered and tired.

We winced, but we didn’t quite believe it because didn’t he always look like that? Right before trading for some high school guard? Right after signing some rapping center?

Doesn’t he emerge every summer like this, then disappear again to stabilize a franchise which he has led to seven championships?

Hasn’t Jerry West always been his best when he has looked his worst?

Only this time, it was different. This time, his weariness was palpable, his rust was real.

Jerry West was in a movie theater during a Laker playoff comeback win that reminded us of Jerry West.

The man turning the Laker wheels was on a freeway when the team he built clinched the championship.

Then Monday, the anchor was officially pulled, and he was gone.

West quit, he retired, he’s taking a sabbatical, he getting as far away from Jerry Buss as possible. Believe what you want, he’s gone.

Gone, just as the O’Malley family was gone. Just as John Wooden was gone. Just as John McKay was gone.

We may have had crazy people playing for our teams, from fan-fighting Dodgers to philandering Lakers to college kids with yellow headbands and misspelled tattoos.

But time was, we always had solid people running those teams.

Jerry West’s departure leaves one less.

Mr. Clutch’s walk to the bench leaves this glittering court containing . . . who exactly?

Young guys whose big ideas sink fast into sacred soil. Business guys who want to sell us instead of embrace us.

Kevin Malone is running the Dodgers, amazingly ingratiating himself with his bosses with every strange move.

Steve Lavin is running UCLA basketball, uncannily winning the one big game each year that allows him another season to learn on the job.

Paul Hackett is running USC football, just one step ahead of the critics who worry he is an NFL coach biding his time.

The owner of the Kings doesn’t even live in Los Angeles.

The owner of the Ducks and Angels lives in Fantasyland.

And now the last family-owned outfit in town, run by everyone’s favorite grouchy uncle, has lost that uncle.

We don’t know Mitch Kupchak. We don’t know if he’ll behave like one of those young guys, or one of those business guys, or both.

We only know that the man he is replacing, Jerry West, was an L.A. guy.

There are not many L.A. guys left.

“He’s been a fixture for so long . . . then all of a sudden, that fixture is like any other lamp,” said Chick Hearn. “It gets unplugged and taken away.”

And even in the wake of a brilliant world championship, the darkness is unsettling.

The loss of West leaves only two old-time sports leaders still working the city. In perfect Hollywood fashion, they both work it with microphones.

There is Hearn.

And there is Vin Scully.

I confess, I am not prepared to write the column on the day Scully retires. I may never be.

I phoned him Monday to ask about Jerry West, one icon talking about another.

Scully laughed that self-deprecating laugh.

“We both belong to the same country club, but I’ve never golfed with him,” he said. “You see, Jerry’s good.”

Scully said he only knew West casually.

“But Jerry was, and is, a giant,” he said.

Yet, the change of seasons is something Scully understands.

“It’s just what happens in life,” he said. “It’s a natural progression. Sometimes, it’s just time.”

But not for . . .

“No, no, not me, I’m happy and fine,” he said.

Whew.

The Lakers, too, could be happy and fine.

Kupchak could find a power forward, and they could win another title in 10 months, and West could quietly spend the rest of his days playing golf and wondering if anybody remembers.

Same with the Dodgers. They could use the advantage of their bullpen and their schedule to outlast the rest of the division, make the playoffs in the last week of the season, and Malone could become a hero.

Heck, Paul Hackett could coach Carson Palmer into leading USC to national prominence, Steve Lavin and Jason Kapono could go back to the Sweet 16, and the Mighty Ducks and Kings could make the playoffs in the same season.

But what if they don’t?

In the days of O’Malley and Wooden and McKay--and now, West--we always knew what was next. Teams would rebuild. Pride would remain.

Anymore, we have no idea. As Laker fans will learn, the problem with losing your anchor is that you may just be one strong wind from disappearing.

Kupchak might struggle, and the Lakers might not win another title for 11 more years. Malone might be further decimating the system with these trades and signings, and the Dodgers might never win again.

When you don’t really know who is in charge of your local teams, you don’t quite trust them. You can’t see where they are going. You wonder how they will get there.

You drift. You wait for the next Jerry West. You hope it won’t take 40 more years.

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Bill Plaschke can be reached at his e-mail address: bill.plaschke@latimes.com.