the rest, only noise

Chapter 1450 Meet West

"Why do you always look so happy?"

West asked a question that left Louie speechless.

He is always so happy?

is this real?In all fairness, the Lakers' six years have been far more enjoyable than the Knicks' nine years.However, if you compare the first six years of the Knicks with the six years of the Lakers, Louis will choose the first six years of the Knicks.

Since Duncan and Bodi Loga decided to leave the team early, the Lakers' power transition was not as tragic as the Knicks, and Louie didn't need to be distracted by it.

But West would be wrong to say that he is always happy.

Louis did not refute, but just smiled; "Because I am a baby boomer, John Lennon made my generation understand early on that the true meaning of life is to make yourself happy."

West stared at Louis closely, as if trying to find something in his eyes.

He can't find anything because he can't read minds.

"Speaking of happiness, Jerry, you said winning as a player and as a manager doesn't make you happy, so I wonder, is there anything in your life that actually makes you happy?"

West thinks back on those big moments he has experienced, mostly related to failure.

Frustration overwhelmed those triumphant moments, and when he did succeed, the people around him laughed, and he just barely smiled.

The end of this road of memory is before he really became Jerry West - at the age of 13, the man who gave him life, Howard West, was drunk as always, so he wanted to violence against him.West decided to end this kind of life. He took out the gun hidden under the bed and pointed at the alcoholic. He let the other party know that if this kind of life did not end, he would end the other's life.

Howard West never abused his son again, but the trauma was formed and Jerry West would never be a cheerful kid again.

The unbearable memory made West's hands tremble. He shook his head and said: "No, if I have to find one special thing from my memory, it should be the night I retired. Russell came to the scene and said It was important to me that in those days, as a professional player, the highest honor you could get was respect from your opponent."

Louie knew what West was talking about.

Now he can be regarded as an expert on the history of professional basketball.

On Jerry West's night that year, Bill Russell became the second Celtics player to confess his love to West.

He faced West in front of tens of thousands of Lakers fans and said: "Jerry, I love you and hope you will always be happy."

"The times are really different." Louie lamented hypocritically, "I don't see this kind of pure love among players now. Patrick Ewing just wants to kill his opponent. Benj doesn't care about anything but the championship. I It's hard to imagine them saying they love you to their opponents."

West couldn't help giving Louis a white look.

Anyone can say this, but Louis is not qualified to say it.

After the 1993 Finals, Louie made a curse of "you will never win a championship" to the crying Jordan, which has become a classic story in the NBA.

Ewing may be mean, Wilson may be a victorious maniac, but Louie is the bastard who has no respect or love for his opponent.

West really had a hard time imagining what kind of jerk would say that kind of hurtful thing to a man on the verge of a breakdown.

Even the most basic decency is gone!
Afterwards, Louis and West chatted about regrets.

This is another topic that can easily lead West to PTSD.

Louie's biggest regret is not playing more Temple tactics with the Lakers.

In fact, he almost failed. If the Knicks hadn't risen in the last game, they would have never had a chance to complete the temple.

This regret sounds more like Versailles.

West's regret is that he lost many key games, and Louie's regret is that he is not satisfied with the winning process.

Today, West said one more thing.

His regret is not only the failure on the court, but also many unsaid words hidden in his heart.

"Elgin left early in 1972 to my chagrin, and I could never accept that I didn't have his mark on my championship run. But I never told him how I felt. That's something Louie knew early on," said Kerr. Mitt Washington was a promising player, he would have been a lot better if he hadn't thrown that punch, in that day and age his behavior made life hard for him, I know that but I don't spoke to him before he left"

West said a lot of things he could have done but didn't do.

"That's one of my big flaws, I can't always say what I feel before it's too late."

Louis teased; "For a legendary person like you, your perception of yourself is really strange. I have never seen a superstar look down on yourself like you do."

West smiled slightly, and he could hear that Louis was complimenting himself.

It didn't make him happy.

In fact, even today, he doesn't know if he deserves the life he has now, he's richer than he ever imagined, but he can't find a reason to convince himself that he deserves it.

This makes him unable to respond to compliments from others.

He feels uncomfortable when someone compliments him because he has never been able to get any approval from the person he most wants to be recognized.

West remembered many things. After his father died, he once watched a movie for a month. The movie was called "I Never Sang for My Father" (I Never Sang for My Father 1970), in which There's a line: Death ends a life, but it doesn't end a relationship that struggles in the minds of the living toward some kind of exit that may never be found.

His father's abuse and a series of failures against the Celtics are destined to become a shadow that haunts him all his life.

West remembered Louie's previous advice, but he always felt that he could do more. However, when things could not be changed, he still chose to punish himself and asked himself again and again "what else can I do?" ?”.He didn't even dare to face the really cruel and painful problem.

That question is, what else can he do to win his father's love?His favorite son, David, had died with the wind, and the worthless Jerry could never satisfy him.Whenever he thinks of this, he will have the urge to kill himself, but when he wakes up, his innate imagination and endless curiosity will push him to persevere, maintain vitality and positive attitude, and devote time and a lot Go to work with the energy you need, and let yourself live long enough to see how things play out.

This means that Jerry West has given up on reconciling with himself. He can't find the exit of the shadow, but he will still live strong. The exploration of life and the tendency to self-destruct form a weird and fragile balance.

Leaving the Lakers is the beginning of a new life for West.

At the end of the private meeting, West asked Louie, "What are your plans for the future?"

Louis said: "After finishing the work of the national team, I will rest for a while, how about you?"

"I'm going to Korea with Karen," West said.

"South Korea?" Louis asked unexpectedly, "Going on a trip?"

"No, I just want to see the land where my brother fought."

Seeing Louis looked puzzled, West explained: "My brother, David West, served in South Korea. No, it should be called North Korea at that time. David is the most talented of our brothers. The whole family is so proud of him, whatever he does, he does his best."

Louis asked softly, "How is David now?"

"He died." West calmly remembered the morning that changed the West family forever. "He died in North Korea."

Now Louie finally knew what to do with the vague animosity he'd felt toward West for the past six years.

Louie believed there was a lot more going on with West that he didn't know about, but knowing about it was enough.

⑴ The first Celtics player to confess to West was Havlicek. After defeating the Lakers in the 1969 Finals, Hondo said to West: "Jerry, I love you, you are a A true champion."

PS: I read a lot of basketball articles before I wrote basketball articles. All the previous basketball articles were basically the same, and they portrayed the LOGO man as an approachable celebrity who has a good impression of the Chinese/Chinese/Asian protagonist. And I did the opposite with the Lakers.

During the serialization of Noise, I read a lot of materials. The articles about West, especially the articles written for him by the media people when he was a player, often said that he was "always unhappy". The sky is not happy, could it be Yuyu?I ended up reading West's autobiography.He was really depressed, and he was depressed for a long time.Flawed, extremely emotional, and a perfectionist (how perfect? ​​He forgot all his achievements on the court, but remembered a stupid mistake he made decades ago) However, his player career was accompanied by a lot of imperfections, which exacerbated his internal friction.

I am personally not satisfied with the shaping of West in the Lakers chapter, and I hope to have the opportunity to do it again in the future.

(End of this chapter)