So as we all know, Jerry West won the 1969 Finals MVP despite his team losing the series in 7. This was the first time the award was given, and it is the first and only time the award was given to a player on the losing team. It is often repeated that this is because the voting (for some reason) took place prior to the deciding game. This has been asked several times before on this sub, and everyone says the same thing. But I've never been able to find a source that corroborates this: no contemporaneous news articles, and the links used as sources on Wikipedia appear to be dead. It's possible this was just a weird oddity that came with the introduction of the award, never to be repeated again.
Has anyone been able to unearth any sources on this?
Next 25 of the NBA's 75th Anniversary Team (In Order of Tweeting):
- Magic Johnson
- James Worthy
- Wilt Chamberlain
- Jerry West
- Larry Bird
- Michael Jordan
- Scottie Pippen
- Isiah Thomas
- Clyde Drexler
- Karl Malone
- Patrick Ewing
- Chris Paul
- Allen Iversion
- Tim Duncan
- Kevin Garnett
- Robert Parish
- John Havlicek
- Sam Jones
- Bill Walton
- Bill Sharman
- Walt Frazier
- Paul Arizin
- Rick Barry
- Nate Thurmond
- Wes Unseld
Obviously The Place is the default Tom & Jerry spot, just wondering if there's anywhere else nearby that makes them?
*and Rick Barry too
Insane company. All of them are tied with one game each, just completely dominating right now on both ends and doing everything he can to win this.
Source: https://www.statmuse.com/nba/ask/player-most-50-points-games-in-finals
I think it's interesting how a lot of people see the dominant 60s guys (Wilt, Oscar, West, Russell etc) as having played in a weak era while the Magic/Bird era is seen as having been a very competitive era, despite Kareem having bridged the gap between them and played at the same level in both eras.
West in particular is an example of this. A 34 year old West was still averaging 26ppg and 10apg during Kareems 3rd season in the league, just 7 years before Magic and Bird were drafted.
I truly believe the competition was really not that different in the 60s than it was in the 80s.
When speaking after today's event, Jerry West was asked about Steve Ballmer's passion for the Clippers and the community:
"His enthusiasm is real. There's not one fake thing in him. There's not. I admire him a lot." https://twitter.com/youngnba/status/1438950227088715790?s=21 Jerry West on Steve Ballmer: "He's just a unique man. It's been fun to be involved with him. It's been fun to see the progress this franchise has made. More importantly, this is the ultimate gift to his team and the city of Inglewood." https://twitter.com/youngnba/status/1438950546879225857?s=21
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVBqqOZSgbs
This tape comes from a recent source transferred from the 1970 NBA Finals, game 4 where the Lakers bounced back to tie up the series against New York (eventually, New York wins game 7).
But perhaps more interesting in 2021 than the context of the Finals game is that this is about the highest quality film that I've come across of these 3 former NBA legends and it reveals what most of the poor quality tape can't. How they moved with subtle jabs, head fakes, etc. It really reveals how quick and slippery someone like Jerry West was for example (he even pulls up so quick it makes Dick Barnett hit the floor). Wilt was out from a bad leg injury all season and was not in top form here but Baylor doesn't look too bad for 35 years old after surgeries on both knees. Nice hang-time on the baseline drive and surprisingly still dunking on those well worn knees.
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Firstly, Jerry West is a true fucking legend. Hall of Fame player. Amazing executive. The GD logo of the league. Mr. Clutch.
That said, I don’t know how he would not have been crucified for going ONE AND EIGHT in the NBA Finals if he played in today’s game. Regardless if he had an inferior roster or not. ESPN, Twitter, Reddit would have endless content. We would be probably be making “Mr. Choke” memes tbh.
I originally posted this to r/nba a year ago before I knew this sub, so I thought this might be a better location.
Here’s my reasoning: We know wilt for his insane scoring performances and records, ie. 100 point game, 50 ppg in a season, along with 7 consecutive scoring titles. However, where we determine the legacy of a player is usually in their postseason success, and while Wilt dominated the regular season in scoring, Jerry West dominated the postseason in scoring.
Wilt Chamberlain has 4 postseason averages of 30 ppg or more, with one of those being only 3 games. Jerry West on the other hand has 7, along with a 40ppg postseason the 2nd most in history behind Michael Jordan’s 43 ppg postseason (which only lasted 3 games). Jerry West wasn’t an inefficient chucker either. He had multiple postseasons landing top 5 in ts%, the most impressive of which being the 1966 postseason, in which he scored 34.2 ppg and had a ts% over 3% higher than anyone else that postseason. Jerry West had 2 postseasons in which he only played in one game one minute in one of them and 14 in the other. Outside of those 2 he never had a postseason average below Wilts career postseason average.
I thought of this when watching the 1969 g7 4th quarter, which popped up in my yt recommended. Idk if I believe it or not, but it’s just food for thought. Let me know if I’m crazy, or if I have a point.
I don't know if this is the right place to post, but I've been obsessing over this possibility for the last few days;
Jerry Driver was a juvenile probation officer for Crittenden County, and is essentially the lynchpin for the entire WM3 case in of itself. It was Driver who suggested the three suspects right out the gate. Why? Driver was a religious obsessive, believing that there was a satanic cult of some sort operating in West Memphis on a hunch, and was the very first person to suggest that Damien Echols, Jessie Misskelley Jr., and Jason Baldwin were to blame. He would spend his time driving around in a police cruiser looking for supposed signs of cult activities (which amounted to graffiti most of the time) and kept tabs on every teenage outcast in town, specifically goths, who he insisted were likely to be involved due to 'havin spiked hair and such'.
When it came to Damien Echols, tho, Driver was obsessed to the point of stalking him across state lines. He would follow him around and harass him at every occasion, even going so far as to wait at a greyhound bus stop for Echols to return from out of state so he could arrest him with breaking his parole -- even tho the Police Dept. had granted Echols permission to return home without issue. The man was obsessed, perhaps to the point of becoming mentally unsound. Little more than a year after the arrests, in addition to his already troubling behaviour, Driver was himself arrested for grand theft, which he served time for.
Most importantly, Driver was an authority figure, a person people would trust or follow orders from -- say, three kids on the edge of a wooded area. Kids are supposed to trust cops, after all.
What if Driver, obsessed with Damien, manufactured the crime so he could finally put away this weird kid he was stalking for the past ten years?
Most Points in an NBA Finals Game
- Elgin Baylor (61 Points) FG% 47.8
- Michael Jordan (55 Points) FG% 56.8
- Rick Barry (55 Points) FG% 45.8
- Jerry West (53 Points) FG% 51.2
- LeBron James (51 Points) FG% 59.4
- Bob Pettit (50 Points) FG% 55.9
- Allen Iverson (48 Points) FG% 43.9
- Stephen Curry (47 Points) FG% 45.2
- Michael Jordan (46 Points) FG% 60.9
- Michael Jordan (45 Points) FG% 42.9
- Wilt Chamberlain (45 Points) FG% 74.1
- Jerry West (45 Points) FG% 61.3
- Jerry West (45 Points) FG% 44.7
- LeBron James (44 Points) FG% 47.4
- Shaquille O'Neal (44 Points) FG% 60.7
- Michael Jordan (44 Points) FG% 44.2
- Rick Barry (44 Points) FG% 42.1
- Kevin Durant (43 Points) FG% 65.2
- Russell Westbrook (43 Points) FG% 62.5
- Dwyane Wade (43 Points) FG% 39.3
Source
https://www.statmuse.com/nba/ask/who-scored-the-most-points-in-an-nba-finals-game
TMZ Sports has obtained the voicemail -- in which a man who sounds like West says, "Hey there, this is Jerry calling. I really want to thank you a lot for trying to help. I heard this morning that everyone over in the Lakers camp thinks they're gonna get him."
"I just find it hard to believe that he would want to go to that sh*t show where he would not even be ... wouldn't even get his name in the paper and he wouldn't be the face of the franchise that's for sure."
