Lakers Icons Shaquille O'Neal, Magic Johnson Among Jerry West's 2024 HOF Presenters
Timothy Rapp@@TRappaRT
Featured Columnist IVSeptember 12, 2024
NBA legend Jerry West, who died in June, will be inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame for the third time as part of the 2024 class, this time as an executive.
He will be presented by a legendary collection of talented former players and coaches, which includes Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson, Shaquille O'Neal, Pat Riley, Pau Gasol and Bob McAdoo, among others:
The Hall also announced the presenters for the rest of the class of 2024:
The class of 2024 includes Vince Carter, Michele Timms, Herb Simon, Harley Redin, Doug Collins, Dick Barnett, Michael Cooper, Charles Smith, Seimone Augustus, Bo Ryan, Chauncey Billups and Walter Davis as well as West.
West, who died in June at the age of 86 and first went in to the Hall as a player back in 1980, will be enshrined as a part of the Contributors Committee. He's perhaps most famous for building several legendary Los Angeles Lakers teams as the team's general manager (1982-00), drafting players like Johnson and Worthy and later acquiring Kobe Bryant, O'Neal and Phil Jackson.
His executive tenure also included a run as the general manager of the Memphis Grizzlies (2002-07), earning a pair of championships as an executive board member with the Golden State Warriors (2011-17)—one of his defining moments with the Dubs was convincing ownership not to trade one half of the Splash Brothers, Klay Thompson, for Kevin Love in 2014—and his final position of executive board member and consultant for the Los Angeles Clippers (2017-24).
In total, West has won 10 NBA titles as an executive and was named the NBA's Executive of the Year in both 1995 and 2004. He is the first person in the history of the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame to be inducted as both a player and contributor.
"Jerry West was a basketball genius and a defining figure in our league for more than 60 years," NBA commissioner Adam Silver said in a statement after West died. "He distinguished himself not only as an NBA champion and an All-Star in all 14 of his playing seasons, but also as a consummate competitor who embraced the biggest moments. I valued my friendship with Jerry and the knowledge he shared with me over many years about basketball and life."