October is filling its role as the year’s most spine-chilling month in unexpected — and unwelcome — ways, as waves of beloved sports staples join a growing number of October deaths.
Just a few days into the month, announcements started pouring in, informing the world of the latest treasured athletic icon to pass. Basketball legend Jerry West died long before football favorite Dwayne Haskins, soccer star Johan Neeskin, former Sheffield United defender George Baldock, and beloved Red Sox pitcher Luis Tiant, but a monumental move is once again inserting the Los Angeles Lakers legend into conversations, several months after his death.
West is broadly considered one of the greatest basketball players of all time, something that earned him his spot in the sport’s history books. In October, West became the first person to ever be thrice inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. His incredible career was celebrated through a throng of Lakers titans, many of whom struggled to speak through tears as they recalled a longtime friend and mentor.
Jonnie West, son of the longtime Laker point guard, accurately noted that his father was “beloved by pretty much everyone in basketball” during his life. That same adoration extends into the basketball legend’s death, as fans everywhere continue to celebrate the life and career of a basketball phenomenon.
How did Jerry West die?
West was 86 when he passed away on June 12, 2024. He’d left the vibrancy of youth behind, but he may have lived several years more, were it not for a lifelong medical issue that plagued the athlete across much of his illustrious career.
West suffered from an irregular heartbeat for much of his life, something that heavily impacted him during taxing matches. He recalled, in 2009, that he often had to breathe into paper bags to prevent himself from hyperventilating, struggled with sleep, and detected an irregular rhythm to his heartbeat. It wasn’t until years later that he learned the official term for his medical issues: atrial fibrillation. By his mid-40s, when he was finally diagnosed, West had known there was a problem for decades, he simply didn’t have a fix.
Citing adrenaline as the thing that got him through years playing against the best of the best, West dug into the worsening symptoms he faced as he got older. He certainly suffered from his condition while he known as the Logo, but it wasn’t until he retired from playing that West’s symptoms really set in. He developed anxiety, had panic attacks, and lost full nights of sleep, and the right injection of stress only worsened his situation.
Once he was diagnosed, West gained far more tools to deal with his condition, but it still plagued him throughout his life. Issues with his health worsened as he got older, and a few years before his death, he developed congestive heart failure. His heart, overtaxed from years suffering under atrial fibrillation, struggled to pump blood through his body, and it’s assumed this is what ultimately took his life.
West endured several lengthy hospital stays in the lead-up to his death, but he was released to his family before the end. He was able to pass on peacefully, surrounded by family, after a long, celebrated life as one of the greatest players of all time.
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