The clock was ticking, a crowd full of eyes on him, witnessing a split second moment of triumph or defeat. “Success or failure was in his hands,” West said of his childhood imagined-self while speaking to the 2008 graduating class at West Virginia University.
“He couldn't float; he couldn't depend on someone else. He couldn't flee; there was no one else to turn to,” he added, recognizing that it must have been a “strange sight” to see a young kid cheer themselves. But that’s what it took to get to the status of a sport’s legend both on and off the courts.
