Jerry West

“I know when I left the game, I could have played more. There is no question. I think I could have played at a very high level, too. But I could not play the way everyone wanted me to play. A...”

“You need to possess more than a little nastiness to play basketball at the highest level.”

“I'm surprised when the ball doesn't go into the hoop. I think I should make every shot.”

“There's always two or three players I like, and why I like them, I can't tell you. There's just something about them I think would be great on a team.”

“I don't know anything else but the Lakers. This has certainly been more than a job for me as a player. It has certainly meant more to me than just an occupation.”

“I remember, years ago, if I had had an opportunity to leave the Lakers, I would have left for one reason: because I did not like an owner that was not telling me the truth. And it would have...”

“I have often wondered why I was never captain of the Lakers.”

“The Lakers had been home to me, unlike the home I had grown up and felt apart from.”

“For some reason, I always wanted to work in an environment where things weren't so good. I'm no messiah, but I always wanted to try and make a difference where a team hadn't prospered.”

“In the playoffs, the best players are supposed to play better. I did. It made no difference.”

“The 3-point line has changed the game so much. The day of the big man, unless you're extraordinary good, is not numbered, but certainly you gotta be a lot more versatile to play the game tod...”

“I see people that have success, and I see how poised and polished they are and how they handle it. I wonder inside if they feel the same way that I feel.”

“When the Warriors are on, my wife keeps away from me. I'm a rabid fan, and my language sometimes is not too good.”

“Anything you can do to help someone, I just think it's so important because there's a lot of kids that look up athletes of all size and shapes in a lot of different fields, not necessarily i...”

“You have to win games by scoring points, of course, so that's important. But when you're having nights against a good defensive team, you have to win in a different manner. You have to win a...”

“If I'm not nervous, if I don't have at least a little bit of the same self-doubt and anxious feelings I had when I started playing, then it will be time for me to go on. I must have that ten...”

“I went a few times, but I felt there was no way that any therapist could understand my particular torment and also felt in some respects they were sicker than I was.”

“I'm still very much a West Virginia boy. I haven't forgotten my roots, because that's really who I am.”