Jerry West is an absolute NBA legend, from his accomplishments as a player (he’s one of the all-time greatest point guards) to what he did as the member of a bunch of front offices — he helped build the Showtime Lakers, put together a solid Memphis Grizzlies team, helped the Golden State Warriors start a dynasty and was part of the Los Angeles Clippers front office.
Oh, and he’s the NBA logo. Literally! That’s his silhouette that graces the logo.
So how did that happen? Hear from West himself in an appearance on Paul George’s podcast. But below that is more from a Los Angeles Times story in 2010:
Here’s something from that LA Times story:
[Alan] Siegel, 71, designed the familiar logo in 1969, taking a Wen Roberts photograph of the Lakers star and turning it into an iconic image. …
West, in fact, was one of Siegel’s favorite players — along with John Havlicek and Oscar Robertson — but that’s not why he chose to feature the former West Virginia star in his design.
The photo, Siegel says, just grabbed him.
“It had a nice flavor to it,” he says, “so I took that picture and we traced it. It was perfect. It was vertical and it had a sense of movement. It was just one of those things that clicked.”
