Jerry West, the former Lakers star and architect of six championship-winning teams, recently sat down at his home with Times reporter Broderick Turner to discuss Kobe Bryant as the Lakers legend’s posthumous induction into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame approached.
West engineered a draft-day trade with Charlotte in 1996 to acquire Bryant, who was just out of high school, a bold move that cost the Lakers popular center Vlade Divac. West knew that Bryant would not be available when the Lakers drafted at No. 24.
“You see thousands of players in your life,” West says, in the video above, of talent evaluators like himself.