The late Jerry West was finest recognized for his ties with the Lakers, however the legendary player-turned-executive impacted the fortunes of a number of different franchises, too.
After serving to the Warriors construct a dynasty, West tried to do the identical with the Clippers by recruiting the likes of Kawhi Leonard and Paul George. Whereas West’s efforts did not pay dividends for the Lakers’ crosstown rivals (not but, at the least), he left a long-lasting affect on the franchise.
In response to their front-office head, Lawrence Frank, in the course of the just-concluded NBA draft, the Clippers left one of their seats in the war room empty to honor West.
“He liked the draft,” Frank stated of West. “It was like Christmas [to him]. He liked understanding each single participant, he liked assembly the gamers. He took nice satisfaction in the place guys would go. After the draft choices have been made, he was simply so glad. It is a bitter-sweet day. We’re pleased with how our draft turned out, but in addition very unhappy that Jerry wasn’t right here for it. We had a seat for him, with a few of his favorites on there. We simply wish to honor and respect Jerry each single day with how we go about our enterprise.”
West was in the Warriors’ war room once they drafted Klay Thompson, Harrison Barnes and Draymond Inexperienced, which led to the franchise successful a title in 2015. He was additionally instrumental within the Clippers drafting Shai Gilgeous-Alexander in 2018, just for the franchise to commerce him to OKC a number of years later. Earlier in his profession as an government, West was within the Lakers battle room that drafted Kobe Bryant and James Worthy.
The Clippers drafted Cameron Christie, the brother of Lakers ahead Max Christie, with the forty sixth choose on Thursday. They didn’t have a first-round choose.