FILE - Jerry West (44) of West Virgina University shoots a jump shot against George Washington University during a Southern Conference game in Washington March 1, 1958. Others pictured include West Virginia's Lloyd Sharrar (31) and George Washington University's Gene Guarilia (54) and Howard McDonald (50). (AP Photo/Harvey Georges, File)

MORGANTOWN – It is sometimes strange, almost eerie, how entwined relationships become in sports. We were reminded of it this past week when West Virginia legend Jerry West was elected – for the third time in three different categories – to the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame.

As amazing as that is, having been enshrined as a player, as a member of the 1960 United States Olympic team and now as a lifetime contributor to the game, it is just as amazing that West is still active and relevant 64 years after he played his final game as a Mountaineer.

And that is where we will begin the story that is behind this latest induction.

It was March 12, 1960 when West played his final game as a Mountaineer in Charlotte, beating St. Joseph’s, 106-100. He scored 37 points, had 16 rebounds and three assists to finish off a season in which he had 15 games of 30 or more points, three of them at 40 or more, and missed by a basket of having six more games of 30 points in the season.

On the St. Joseph’s team that final game was a player named Paul Westhead, who suffered through a dismal game against West, making just two of 13 shots.

We fast-forward through his playing career with the Lakers, a career that even today has him listed on most Top 10 NBA players of all-time lists. There was only one championship during that playing career, but you must remember the Boston Celtics dynasty with Bill Russell was at its peak then and West’s Lakers were the Celtics’ Washington Generals come playoff time.

West wound up coaching the Lakers from 1977 to 1979, to be replaced by Jack McKinney. McKinney, however, was injured in a serious accident on his bike and the Lakers opted to name an interim coach.

That interim coach picked by team owner Dr. Jerry Buss was Paul Westhead.

Well, the inevitable happened and when McKinney felt he was ready to return, Buss felt he wasn’t and kept Westhead on, with McKinney exiting. Westhead finished that year and coached the next year, but then 24 hours after Magic Johnson — unhappy with the new offense Westhead installed — asked to be traded, Buss fired Westhead.

His solution was to make Pat Riley coach but took his top advisor, by this time Jerry West, and made him in charge of the offense while Riley was supposed to coach the defense.

This placated Magic and West took to it as a Hall of Fame contributor who would become the league’s logo would do, without question.

This is how The New York Times reported the situation:

“I think Pat and Jerry have to sit down and decide what their responsibilities are,” Buss said.

West, who has been a consultant for the Lakers, saw his role as an assistant to Riley.

“I’m going to work for Pat,” he said. “This will not be a permanent situation for me. I feel much more confident with Pat taking over. He has ideas and I have ideas.”

In 1982, as Riley took over as coach, West became general manager and scored almost as often as he did as a player. He was the architect of the 1980s dynasty and then built another champion as in 1996 he signed Shaquille O’Neal as a free agent and traded for Kobe Bryant out of high school, around whom that dynasty was constructed.

They won three consecutive championships, beginning with the 2000 NBA Finals.

It wasn’t “Showtime” of the Magic Era but it was every bit as feared in the NBA.

And when he left the Lakers, he didn’t leave basketball. What is a logo without a league to represent?

He got the Memphis Grizzlies straightened out as the team president for five years, helping them to three playoffs before becoming an advisor to the Warriors and then the Clippers.

The funny thing is, at 85, you don’t feel like Jerry West is running out of time, only out of Hall of Fame categories he hasn’t been inducted for.