West Gave the Lakers Direction

Jerry West was arguably the greatest Laker ever. He also may have been the best basketball executive ever. Add this to nearly 40 years with the Lakers and it is easy to say that he was the most important person in the history of Southern California sports.

Chick Hearn said it best when saying why no other team would ever match the Lakers’ 33-game winning streak, “There will never be another Jerry West.”

Thank you, Jerry, for all you have given us.

MIKE LORRAINE

Simi Valley

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As I understand it, a significant reason behind the retirement of Jerry West was the frighteningly increasing involvement in personnel decisions by Jerry Buss’ dysfunctional kids.

Jerry Buss has been a terrific owner and Laker fans owe him much gratitude. That said, how can he allow his silver-spoon-fed, talent-deprived children to run Jerry West out of the Staples Center?

Jerry West has been arguably the best GM in all of professional sports, not to mention one of the greatest Lakers ever. If someone of his stature has been unable to fend off the mindless intervention of Buss’ family, how will Mitch Kupchak get anything done?

As a longtime Laker fan, at this moment, I find myself trembling.

JOHN FRASER

Camarillo

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Jerry West was Magic before Magic and Kobe before Kobe. He has seen it all from Elgin and Wilt, to Kareem and Magic and now, Shaq and Kobe.

With West running the show, the Lakers were able to avoid the declines of the 76ers, Celtics, Pistons and Bulls due to his commitment to providing L.A. with a winner.

He has definitely left the cabinet full and we should all reserve late May and June for playoff games for years to come.

I wish Jerry West health and happiness for all he has done for L.A. and I hope he gets a chance to hack the ball at his beloved Bel-Air Country Club soon.

CRAIG MINAMI

Los Angeles

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Thank you, Jerry West, for the memories, from your playing days with Elgin Baylor and Wilt Chamberlain to the present NBA championship. It was a great run for Los Angeles.

WAYNE MURAMATSU

Cerritos

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As a player and as an executive, Jerry West has been an integral part of the Lakers for 40 years. He was literally the heart and soul of the team. I’m sorry to see him go--he will indeed be missed.

KENNETH L. ZIMMERMAN

Huntington Beach

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Jerry West, thank you for your sacrifice. It did not go unnoticed by the true Laker fans of this world. You will always be my hero.

MIKE DIETERICH

Rancho Cucamonga

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Thanks, Mr. Clutch, for “The Shot.” Thanks for all the moves that put Showtime together. Thanks for not falling down like nearly all the rest of my boyhood heroes.

Now, a word of advice: RELAX! You’ve earned it.

ERIC MONSON

Temecula

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Poor Jerry West. He has to quit because of job pressure. Giving 12 young men over $40 million to play a game, making over $3 million himself and being a celebrity is not what I would call stressful.

MICHAEL SUKOFF

Tustin

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I take great offense to Bill Plaschke saying that the Laker organization is now “adrift” with the retirement of Jerry West.

I am as big a Jerry West fan as anyone else in the city, and his abilities on and off the court have been truly remarkable and without peer. But I am not naive enough to believe that he did everything by himself. He also would never leave without knowing he had successfully prepared his successor, Mitch Kupchak.

In your attempt to portray the Lakers as adrift, you’ve offended Kupchak, who deserves a lot more respect than you’ve shown him.

GARY BART

Los Angeles

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That loud “thud” everyone heard on Monday was Clipper General Manager Elgin Baylor dropping to his knees and thanking God he didn’t have to make personnel moves in the same town as Jerry West anymore.

SABASTIAN DAHBOUR

Newport Beach

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I usually hold the Los Angeles Times up to a high standard, but I was appalled after reading Mike Penner’s article (Aug. 8). My beef is that he used direct quotes from an exclusive interview that I conducted with Jerry West and he didn’t cite the source.

“I need to get off this merry-go-round for awhile,” West, 62, said in an Internet interview on Monday. “The average person wouldn’t understand the pressure and stress that I’ve felt in my life.” Those are direct quotes from my exclusive interview with Jerry West, which by the way was conducted on Wednesday, Aug. 2, not on Monday. But what bothers me the most is that he attributes the quote to an Internet company. Mr. Penner was well aware of where the quote came from. He had to be, because you could only find that quote on the www.dunk.net Web site.

So my question is why did he not attribute the quote to us? He is the only writer and the L.A. Times is the only paper to not attribute the quotes to dunk.net. Whatever happened to journalistic integrity and citing sources correctly? Maybe the next time I use a quote from the L.A. Times I should just cite a local newspaper. Sounds silly, doesn’t it? Imagine how silly you look to our company.

SCOTT VERONA

Via e-mail