Jerry West On Players Calling Themselves Dogs: ‘I Was A Wolf. I Ate Dogs.’

Jerry West was, rather famously, an insanely competitive person (as most great athletes are). West’s intensity was caricatured on HBO’s Winning Time series about the Lakers, which was to West’s dismay and led to him threatening to sue the show over his portrayal as an absolute lunatic.

While West doesn’t appreciate how he was portrayed on the small screen, he will readily admit he was an intense competitor on the court. On Sunday, West joined Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on stage in Las Vegas at NBA Con to talk about their careers, providing a younger generation an opportunity to hear from a pair of all-time greats. In that conversation, West talked about his competitive fire and noted that these days he hears a lot of players call themselves dogs before delivering a rather incredible line saying “Well I was a wolf. I ate dogs.”

It’s a great line and one that caught the eye of a current Laker great in LeBron James.

West may have just unknowingly authored the new favorite Instagram caption for LeBron and others this coming year. As players increasingly use the term dog to describe their play, guys like James will undoubtedly look to separate themselves and I think West just laid out way to do that.