Jerry West died six weeks ago, and we’ve been meaning to get around to writing this since then. He played 14 seasons in the NBA and made the All-Star team in every single one of those years. It’s next to impossible for anyone today to match that feat, really—being an All Star in every season one plays in the league. But he also made the All-Defensive Team five times in his career, won a scoring title, and was the assists king once.

He had an impressive career, winning the 1969 NBA Finals MVP vote despite playing for the losing team and finally winning an NBA title to call his own in 1972. He was the No. 2 pick out of West Virginia in the 1960 Draft, and he certainly lived up to the pressure of such a distinction. He is 14th all time on the Win Shares per 48 Minutes Played list, and West also is 28th all time on the Player Efficiency Rating list, too.

But numbers aside, why was he chosen as the model for the NBA’s logo? CBS Sports ran a good piece on this upon West’s death in June, and we won’t restate it here. However, it’s an interesting piece of sports history to digest. West was a transcendent player, of course, even though there were many players that fans and former stars would put up on the same level, from the same era. “Individualizing” the logo devalues them.

But we digress. Here are some of the more interesting tidbits, to us, about West and his life in the NBA:

  • He was the first draft pick ever for the Los Angeles Lakers, as the franchise had just relocated from Minneapolis to the West Coast after the 1959-1960 season.
  • The Lakers made the playoffs in every season of his career, although West missed the 1971 postseason with a knee injury. In 13 active postseasons, he helped the Lakers reach the Finals a whopping nine times.
  • Four times, he led all postseason participants in scoring average (1965, 1966, 1968, 1969). Three times, he led all postseason participants in assists per game, too (1970, 1972, 1973).
  • We named him our regular-season MVP in 1970, and overall, he was a Top 5 MVP vote getting in eight of his 14 seasons (1962-1966, 1970-1972). He finished second in the MVP vote four times (1966, 1970-1972). He also finished sixth in the MVP vote at age 34 in 1973.
  • Even though the Lakers lost the 1970 NBA Finals, West hit the most memorable shot of the series in Game 3 at home—a contest his team lost in overtime after he forced the extra session with a 60 footer at the regulation buzzer.
  • He averaged 41.3 mpg in 153 playoff games over his legendary career, not to mention 29.1 ppg, 6.3 apg, and 5.6 rpg.