Jeanie Buss revealed her Lakers’ top-5 all-time list, which surprisingly did not include the legendary Jerry West despite his impact on the ‘purple and gold’ franchise.
Buss included Kobe Bryant, Magic Johnson, Phil Jackson, Kareem-Abdul Jabbar and LeBron James in her most important Lakers of all-time on her appearance on All The Smoke podcast with Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson.
West was asked to react to Buss’ list as he joined the Hoop Du Jour Podcast with Peter Vecsey this week. West felt offended.
(via CBS Los Angeles):
“I saw the other day Jeanie Buss made a statement, the five most important Lakers, one of the most offensive things I’ve ever heard in my life. I was there a lot of times, had a lot of success,” West told Vescey. “Be curious to know if they would have had that success if I hadn’t been there.”
“And I don’t ever take credit for stuff, I don’t. When I was around, maybe I was just a good luck charm,” West went on. “But I do know, that when this thing fell apart, there was a lot of years where they weren’t very good.”
West was the mastermind behind the Lakers’ resurgence in mid-90s as he brought Shaquille O’Neal to LA and drafted Kobe Bryant, while he had a great career as a player with the ‘purple and gold’. He won the NBA title with the franchise on 1972.
