DALLAS (AP) — Jerry West was remembered Wednesday night in the NBA Finals.
During Game 3 in Dallas, the NBA and fans paid tribute to the Hall of Famer's life with a pregame video tribute and moment of silence. West died early Wednesday morning at age 86.
After ABC announcer Mike Breen delivered a pre-game tribute, there was about 15 seconds of silence inside the raucous arena.
“The NBA family mourns the loss of Jerry West, a basketball giant who was a cornerstone of the NBA for more than 60 years,” Breen said as West's photo was projected on a giant scoreboard overhead. “West was an All-Star every year he played and led the Lakers to nine NBA Finals appearances. West's brilliance continued off the court, where he led eight championship teams. An NBA champion, West was inducted into the Hall of Fame as a player, contributor and member of the 1960 U.S. Men's Olympic Team.”
“Jerry West was also the first player to be named Finals MVP and was aptly nicknamed 'Mr. Clutch' for his ability to repeatedly produce in pressure situations,” Breen added.
Birthday Games
Celtics guard Jrue Holiday became the 12th player in NBA Finals history to play in a game on his birthday. Holiday turned 34 on Wednesday.
It will be the first time a player has played in the Finals on his birthday since Phoenix's Jae Crowder played against Holiday and the Milwaukee Bucks in 2021. Prior to that, the most recent players to play in the Finals on their birthdays were Miami's Udonis Haslem in 2011 (also with Dallas) and 2013.
Jack Nichols has had three birthdays fall on the same day as a final he played in (1949, 1957 and 1958). Earl Lloyd (1954 and 1955), Sam Perkins (1996 and 2000) and Bruce Bowen (2005 and 2007) have each had two finals fall on their birthdays.
Other players who played in the final on their birthdays: Med Park, Dave Gamby, Calvin Murphy, Kerry Kittles and Michael Doleac.
Title Anniversary
Wednesday marked the 13th anniversary of Dallas winning its first, and still only, NBA title. The Mavericks defeated Miami in Game 6 of the 2011 NBA Finals on June 12, 2011.
Mavs coach Jason Kidd was on that team and said he was reminded of the importance of Wednesday's date during a pregame meeting with ABC's Mike Breen and Doris Burke.
“Time flies,” Kidd said, “but it was surreal winning it. … When you're playing this well, you don't want to stop. There was no one else playing. We were playing well. As an older guy, you just want to keep playing because you don't know if you're going to win again.”
Mazura's latest football news
Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla is a huge football fan and makes no secret of it, and on Wednesday he revealed why he decided to focus on basketball instead of soccer during his playing days.
He may have been better at, well, basketball, but he played just about every position in football, and there was a reason for that.
“If you're not that good, they just throw you around in different places to see where you stay,” Mazzulla said.
Though the games are obviously very different, Mazzulla has taken some concepts from soccer and applied them to coaching basketball.
“In soccer, because it's about scoring, you really have to pay attention to the game to recognize what impact each player has,” Mazzulla said. “A player in the right position has a direct impact on the next player in the position.”
Umpire
The three umpires for Wednesday night's third game were Mark Davis, James Capers and Kevin Scott.
That means that barring any changes to the lineup, Scott Foster, James Williams and David Guthrie will officiate Game 4 on Friday night.
The NBA has selected 12 referees to officiate the series, with six already having worked games in the series: Courtney Kirkland, Josh Tiven, Zach Zarba, Tony Brothers, John Goble and Bill Kennedy.
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