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Hot off the press (well, almost) enshrined Laker-legend Jerry West has penned somewhat of a tell-all autobiography, West by West, set to release sometime in the next couple of months. Mercury News columnist Tim Kawakami got his hands on an advanced copy and dropped some quite revealing information about what we’ll find inside.
While the book is said to offer a brutally honest and enlightening account of The Logo, that could be lost in the undertow of insight surrounding the Lakers organization, Jerry Buss, Shaquille O’Neal, Kobe Bryant and more. Here are just a few excerpts that were noted:
On Phil Jackson:
”So one of the problems I had with Phil was this. His office was right near mine and when he would arrive in the morning, he would walk right past and never even bother to wave or duck his head in to say hello. He would later say that he felt the need to stake out his territory, that on top of that he was ’a wack job,’ but I am sure it was more than that.”
“Phil and I had no relationship. None. He didn’t want me around and had absolutely no respect for me–of that, I have no doubt.”
On his relationship with Jerry Buss:
“The close nature of our relationship began to change [after they moved from the Forum in ‘99], and not only did I feel more and more unappreciated, or under-appreciated, but my own personal demons, rooted in my childhood, were threatening me. The Lakers had been home to me, unlike the home I had grown up and felt apart from. But now the home was feeling less and less hospitable, and I was sensing that I didn’t belong, or wasn’t wanted, there any more, that I had stayed too long at the fair and it was time for me to go.”
On the Kobe, Shaq Fued:
“It pained me to see how much of a struggle it was for them
me, how unwilling Kobe was to defer to Shaq in any way.”
As of right now, there is no exact release date set for this book. Based on Tim’s write up, we can only expect this to be nothing short of a must-read for Laker fans.
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