Not NorCal related but a great read

Jonathan Abrams at Grantland serves up a feature on Jerry West, one of the most complicated and fascinating human beings around.

Here's a pair of excerpts:

"From that standpoint, I don't have everything," West says from the first floor of his lavish home, standing in a room adjacent to both a movie theater and wine cellar. "Self-esteem is something I still battle. People look at me and say you've got fame, you've got admiration, you've done this, you've done that. As far as I'm concerned, I haven't done anything. I've just fulfilled a dream of competing. I could be special in some ways. Even though I felt at times, 'My goodness, you're among the upper echelon,' there is still a huge void there. A huge void. It is about self-esteem. That's a thing that has always been a real complex part of my life.

and

"All your life when you're growing up in a household like I grew up in and having a different type of personality — I'm basically a soft person — you're always trying to figure out a way to try and please someone, and you can never please anyone, OK? The good things you did, sometimes you were getting punished for it. It was more than punishment. It was worse than punishment. I've never been a conventional thinker, even when I was little. I think that might have a lot to do with it. Was I trying to prove something to myself? Was I trying to prove something to others? Winning sometimes didn't do it because the place you most want to be accepted was in your own household, and when you weren't accepted there, it made you really wonder is it even worth it? At the end of it, I could immerse myself in something that made me feel good. Just the competition made me really feel good. I liked that, trying to get better at something."