Jerry west b*tch slaps JJ redick over Bob Cousy comment

I love Jerry West. Respect his career on the court and off it. Hope he lives many, many years more.

The argument that West didn't have a left is used a lot to discredit his skills, and yet John Stockton decades later made the impact he made without a strong left. West seemed a very simple and effective player. Fundamentally sound. West is listed at 6'3 and was incorrectly listed at 6'1 for a long time. He claims 6'4.5 and looked it next to Kobe. Above average athlete/prob elite for the day. High motor. Dog in him/competitive.

I could see West play and lead a lot like a bigger CP3 without the flashy handles. Money from mid range. He'd be a big scoring point guard and he'd be a superstar in any era-given the necessary advantages and tools of whichever era he would be transported in.

When you respect the game enough, you can look back and see-given the advantage of growing up in the time-most of past players would find their way into stardom-with the exception of the bruisers and tradition Centers and power forward who after the 90s many would find themselves struggling to get time due to the game changing-but the same argument could be made that if they grew up in this era, they would have the same influences as others which is to handle and shoot like a guard at their size and then they'd be completely different players, but there's still the Andre Drummonds of the world.
You can easily envision guys like Elvin Hayes, Bob McAdoo, even way back to Petit adapting as star forwards/centers who can stretch the floor.

The issue with fantasy "reborn in another era" scenarios is the fundamental part of their personality-does it change? Does Pete Maravich getting pushed hardcore by his dad growing up today make him just quit basketball altogether and his dad gets fired from coaching for being abusive? Racial issues or lack thereof certainly has to change the person. Big money too soon would certainly spoil and change personalities.
Likewise, the reverse is true. Put some chuck taylors on these guys, force them to dribble palm down and play 45+ a min every night at ridiculous pace and are they really jumping as high and running as fast and staying as healthy? Obviously not. Bring in the racial issues of the time and personalities are vastly different.

 

JJ Reddick needs to worry about paying women to have an abortion and not worry about how good the league was in the 50’s and 60’s. They played the best around the time.

Also Jerry West was an exceptional player, he had a vertical well over 40 inches, he has a massive wingspan and great court vision to go with a very good first step. He was a better basketball player than Kobe Bryant, Dwayne Wade and a lot of stars the last 25 years.

 

Spot on. Redick seems like sn *******

 

Like my avatar hints, my guy is Clyde. If only we could clone prime Clyde to run the point for the Rockets! What a defensive juggernaut our team would be!

 

I'd hardly call that a "b!tch slap". Was a pretty weak and incoherent rebuttal... Jerry West seems cool and all, but he's also insecurely on the defensive here for obvious reasons. No one reasonable would try to deny that players today are far better, more athletic, and more skilled than they were back then. Basketball and physical training regimens were still in their infancy in the NBA's first few decades.

That doesn't, however, necessarily take away from what guy's accomplished back then. Great competitors were still great competitors, so maybe that's where JJ missed the mark (I didn't actually hear what he said, to be clear, lol).

 

Yeah, Reddick is a little bit of a tool.