Jerry West Reveals Lifelong Depression

Jerry West will reveal his dark, self-esteem issues this Tuesday on HBO’s Real Sports. Obviously, though, Jerry West has thrived beyond his haunted past. The Logo’s memoir, West by West: My Charmed, Tormented Life, is in stores Wednesday: “Jerry West says he has battled depression since childhood, when his father would beat the future Hall of Famer, causing low self-esteem that has plagued him despite a successful career as one of the NBA’s biggest influences. West says his West Virginia childhood was devoid of love and filled with anger as a result of his abusive father, who left him feeling tormented and worthless. ‘I would go to bed feeling like I didn’t even want to live,’ West says in a segment airing Tuesday on HBO’s ‘Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel.’ ‘I’ve been so low sometimes and when everyone else would be so high because I didn’t like myself.'”