Jerry West says that, as a boy, he threatened to kill his father with a shotgun
Oct 18, 2011, 1:10 PM EDT
AP An engrossing interview segment on The Dan Patrick Show this morning with former NBA great and former Lakers GM Jerry West, who talked about his new autobiography, West By West: My Charmed, Tormented Life, and his battle with depression. A particularly riveting portion of both the book and the interview was West describing an abusive childhood at the hands of his father.
At one point, West told Patrick, after an “ugly” incident between his father and his sister, the 11-year-old West said he gave his father an ultimatum.
WEST: “So I just felt, that was the day I told him, if you ever touch me again, and this is hard to talk about, if you ever touch me again, I am going to kill you. I was about 11 at that point in time.”
PATRICK: “And you had a shotgun.”
WEST: “And I had a shotgun, and it was loaded, and it was under my bed. … I just could not take it anymore.”
West discusses in the book the reasons he left the Lakers, his inability to feel joy even after all of his great accomplishments, and how it all ties in with a childhood in which he was regularly beaten, and “didn’t really know what love is.”
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11-Year-Old Jerry West Threatened To Kill His Abusive Father With A Shotgun [Sports Grid]
Jerry West’s autobiography focuses on depression [Los Angeles Times]
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- goforthanddie - Oct 18, 2011 at 8:04 PM
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In Jerry’s defense, that’s a standard rite of manhood in WV.
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- ezwriter69 - Oct 18, 2011 at 8:13 PM
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He doesn’t need a defense, his Dad just got done banging his sister… he needs a medal, if anything.
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- ezwriter69 - Oct 18, 2011 at 8:15 PM
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The far bigger story was that he left the Lakers because Phil Jackson told he and Mitch Kupchak to get the bleep out of his locker room… Jerry, who’d never missed a practice and never missed shaking every man’s hand after a game, never went to another practice and never again set foot in the locker room. That Phil’s all class…
