Michael Cooper: “My relationship with him goes very deep. You know, after I retired, I had alcohol and substance abuse issues. And Jerry—he was the first one to pull me to the side. He was like, ‘Coop, what’s going on?’ And he understood it. So I went and spent 45 days at John Lucas’s rehab facility down in Houston—probably one of the best things I ever did to turn my life around. Sometimes we get led astray by different things, and Jerry West was able to see that in me. He caught it early before my issues became even bigger—before I couldn’t handle them.” “So I went down there, took care of it, came back, and I still had a job. He was still rooting for me. And until the day he died, I spoke to him. A week before he passed away, we talked. Jerry and I were very, very close. Rest in peace—he’s going to be missed. But again, we try to live our lives to imitate who he was, and I think a lot of us do that.” -via YouTube / February 7, 2025