MOSCOW, June 12 Basketball Hall of Famer and 1960 Olympic champion with the US national team Jerry West has died at the age of 86, ESPN reports.
The cause of death has not been reported.
The current NBA logo, which depicts a player dribbling the ball, has been officially used since the 1971/72 season. Most experts claim that West's silhouette was used to create the logo. The league calls this hypothesis an «urban legend.» In 2010, the creator of the logo, Alan Siegel, said in an interview with the Los Angeles Times that he used West's silhouette to create it. The player himself said that he did not think this fact would ever be confirmed.
West played for the Los Angeles Lakers throughout his career (1960-1974) and became the National Basketball Association (NBA) champion once. From 1976 to 1979, the American headed the Lakers, and from 1982 to 2000 he was the general manager of the club. During this time, the Los Angeles club became a six-time NBA champion (1980, 1982, 1985, 1987, 1988, 2000).
Later, the specialist worked as a general manager for the Memphis Grizzlies (2002-2007), the Golden State Warriors (2011-2017), who became the NBA champion in 2015 and 2017, and the Los Angeles Clippers (since 2021).