Jerry West on coping with death, long-term depression | Forward Prog

0:01This episode is brought to you by Fox one. Watch all 104 matches of the FIFA world cup live in 4k for just$19.99 a month with three days free. Build your own multi-view, choose up to three streams and follow player spotlights. Stay on top of every moment with live stats, highlights and instant replays. The FIFA world cup streaming live on Fox one offers a subject to change. See Fox.com for complete terms and conditions. Whatever your thing, it could be anything. Canva helps you make that thing a thing. Canva is a simple online tool thing. It's a way to design with our magic AI tool things. You can social media your thing, generate images or videos of your thing, make decks for presentations to show your thing.

0:50Whatever needs to be done for your thing, Canva can make it an even better and bigger thing. Canva, the thing that makes anything a thing. As we wrap up the week, we're bringing you one of the many positive messages from our past interviews. Each Thursday, we're sharing stories of our most watched athletes, celebrities and leaders. We hope these problem solving narratives inspire you to tackle obstacles in your own life. This week, Jerry West. I had the chance to read your book, your autobiography last week and was pleasantly surprised and really, quite frankly, shocked at. just how open you were willing to be in the book and I'm sure it's helped a lot of people who have been through similar situations or who are going through similar situations but you open up in your autobiography about depression, the death of your brother, physical abuse from your father and I've been told by a couple people close to you that they thought it was really therapeutic for you in a way actually writing the book.

1:58To what extent do you agree with that? Well, you know, I think there's so many things hidden by people today that probably maybe they talked about a little bit more, and particularly if you have a platform, as I do sometimes. I think it can, I think it is therapeutic. I can't tell you how many letters I receive from people thanking me for writing this book and talking about the same things they experienced going up and talking about how they got through it and how I got through it. I got through it because when my brother got killed, who was the closest to me in my family, he always encouraged me when I was little and tiny.

2:45I mean, it was tiny, skinny kid.

2:50When he got killed it was like a shock because no one is good he was deeply religious should ever get killed and 21 years old yeah and more and I was 13 and you know I look back on that day and I changed forever I changed from being a really aggressive kid and I was a tough kid I changed forever I came to be deathly quiet, hardly communicated with anyone. And so my best friend was me. And at that age, you know, if I'd had a friend to be able to, that maybe had similar experiences in your life, I might have had the ability to maybe lessen this burden on myself that really became a burden. And, you know, I just felt useless.

3:43I didn't feel wanted. I almost felt like a person who was surviving. And I think when he died, there was probably a higher calling from me and said, I'm going to do something that's going to make him proud. You wrote in your book, and again, very open in the book, that suicide takes courage. What made you feel that way?

4:15Well, you know, that's a hard one to talk about because, you know, you, when you get so deep in a hole and you don't really feel you have the strength to dig out of that hole or get out of the hole. You asked me earlier about winning a first world championship, and Peggy Lee had a song, Is That All There Is? And that song really applied particularly to, because I told you I didn't really feel any elation until three days later. And I said, oh my gosh, we've accomplished that. And I wasn't around any of my teammates, but just in my private thoughts. And I felt there's been times in my life where I've been so low that, you know, is it worth it to feel this bad all the time?

5:10But I've, you know, I've had some success in dealing with that. How would you deal with it? Well, you know, I think that I read a lot. And I try to read a lot on people who've had extraordinary lives, been extraordinary leaders. And some of the battles they've gone through is the same thing. And what can go to them on? More hard work, more competition, and also maybe trying to find a little silver lining in some of the things that you've done pretty well in your life. And again, I've never equated success. A lot of people in our country, which I think is terrible, equate success with people who have enormous wealth.

6:02You know, I wasn't one of those players who we didn't make very much money. I guess my many ways, I think the best successes in terms of winning became as an executive. And also, I think that's when I really changed in terms of how I wanted to try to do things for younger people. I wanted to try to make a difference in people's lives. I wanted to do something to honor my brother. And I did a lot of those things. And I think that really helped relieve that horrible, horrible feeling that some people unfortunately acted upon. That's it for now. But if you're hungry for more in-depth interviews, head over to YouTube.com slash Graham Bensinger.

6:53You can dive into our deep library, which includes more than 2 ,000 clips spanning 12-plus years. Thanks again for listening.

7:11The End

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