Broadcaster Dan Patrick became visibly emotional during his popular radio show when speaking about the death of NBA legend and logo Jerry West. Patrick called West, who died Wednesday at age 86, a "friend and integral part of the show."
West brought up West's death, then needed to pause about 10 seconds while live on the air.
"This is tough," Patrick said before producer Paul Pabst joined the conversation. "Yeah, Paulie, help me out."
"None of us in this room wanted to walk over and tell you this. We were waiting for the break. I know how important this guy was to you," Pabst said. "I'm sure he was your hero, your dad's. We saw it a couple times, maybe about 10 years ago, he started coming on the show and he was sitting there with you and talking basketball. And I could tell that you were kind of giddy."
"Well, I saw my dad," Patrick said. "They were similar ages."
Patrick remembered the time sports columnist Rick Reilly joined the show and accused the Memphis Grizzlies odf tanking. West was the top executive with the Grizzlies at the time. He was not too happy.
"I get a phone call and it's from Jerry West," Patrick said. "And Jerry West rips me for five minutes. He is cursing me out, I am shaken... Finally he stopped, and I said, 'Jerry, I didn't say that. Rick Reilly did.' He goes, 'OK, I'm sorry.' And then he hung up... I was devastated."
Patrick added that he and West eventually cleared the air.
"We didn't have a good start, but we had a good finish," he said. "We were very lucky. We were very lucky that he opened himself up to us and developed a relationship there."
DP pays tribute to his idol Jerry West pic.twitter.com/grRFY6E2OY
— Dan Patrick Show (@dpshow) June 12, 2024
