West fond of what he C’s
Lakers legend tips cap to Ainge, team
You might expect Lakers legend and current Clippers consultant Jerry West to be rooting hard against the Celtics after battling them so much as a player and then as Lakers GM in the 1980s. But in a conversation with the Herald, the model for NBA logo admitted he’s actually pleased for the C’s and admires the way Danny Ainge has rebuilt the club so quickly.
He does, however, believe the Celts caught a huge break with the 2013 trade that essentially sent Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett to the Nets for three first-round picks and the right to swap positions in another draft.
“I’ll just say that every once in a while, there’s a chance that people get to take advantage of someone,” West said. “I don’t think that will ever happen again, but what Brooklyn did almost should be legislated against, to be honest with you.
“It’s very much like when Stepien was in Cleveland,” he added, referring to former Cavs owner Ted Stepien, who traded away so many first-round picks that the league no longer allows teams to trade first-rounders in consecutive years. “We got the No. 1 pick in the draft (James Worthy in 1982) out of it, who helped us win championships.
“But Danny’s done a nice job back there. Are they good enough? They had a terrible break with a very good player (Gordon Hayward), and are they good enough now? At the end of a couple of years, they’re going to be judged by that, by how they’re doing then — not by now. They’ve got some good young players. They’ve got a terrific coach. They’ve got a lot of positive things going, that’s for sure.”
Looking at the Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown, whom the Celts got with the No. 3 overall picks the last two years, West said, “Sometimes you get really lucky in the draft and you get a real player down the list, but there’s no guarantee these guys up high are going to be good. I mean, you look at how many of them haven’t done anything yet. But you can’t judge these young kids at all, because they’re so young. But at the end of the day, I think you’ve got to get people who work at this job and take what they do seriously, and Danny has done that forever.”
And that doesn’t anger the old Laker.
“I kind of root for teams that I know a little bit about because of playing against them,” West said. “I played a lot of important games against the Celtics in my career, so you develop a feeling for them and for the traditional teams. I kind of root for them. I like to see them good. I don’t wish anyone ill will in this league. It’s not fun; it’s hard. And you see a lot of people lose their job because other people don’t think they’re
doing the right things, and there’s so much good fortune that goes into building these teams, really good fortune. So I wish them well. I do.” Seriously.
When surprise was expressed to the Hall of Famer at such a statement from a longtime rival, West said, “No, no, no. It’s nice to see them doing well.”