Jerry West wishes nobody knew he was the inspiration for NBA logo

Basketball legend Jerry West would prefer that nobody knew the player silhouette on the NBA's iconic logo was that of himself.

"I wish that had never gotten out that I'm the logo," West said on ESPN's "The Jump" Friday. "I really do."

West remains one of the league's greatest all-time players, an All-Star every season he played in with the Los Angeles Lakers from 1960-74. At the peak of his career in 1969, the NBA hired a designer named Alan Siegel to come up with a new logo. Siegel based it on a Wen Roberts action photo of West.

"I found this picture of Jerry West dribbling down the court," Siegel told the Los Angeles Times in 2010. "Growing up in New York and my father having season tickets for college and pro games at Madison Square Garden, I'd seen West play a lot."

While the NBA has never officially confirmed that West is in fact the logo, even West himself concedes it is. And he's a little embarrassed by it.

"It was flattering that's me," he said Friday. "I played in a time when they first started to try to market the league. There were five people that they were gonna consider ... I don't like to do anything to call attention to myself."

While he only won one title as a player in 1972, West's executive career later with the Lakers netted him six championships as GM, and another in his current role as Golden State Warriors consultant.