Creativity Quote by Jerry West

There is a special kind of hurt in watching excellence land with a thud. Jerry West’s line isn’t really about ticket sales; it’s about recognition, loyalty, and the moral economy between a team and the city that claims it. “Discouraging” does double duty: it reads as personal disappointment, but it also quietly indicts the audience. If the team is “good,” then absence isn’t neutral. It’s a verdict.

The phrasing sets up a blunt contrast: “come out there and watch” implies he’s showing up, investing time and identity, doing the civic ritual. The “lack of fan support” is framed not as a market choice but as a failure of communal responsibility. West isn’t asking fans to be happy; he’s asking them to be present. In sports culture, showing up is the baseline proof that you belong to the story even when the story isn’t glamorous.

Context matters: West’s authority comes from proximity to greatness, and from the old-school belief that a franchise and its supporters are bound together by something thicker than entertainment. That makes the line feel like a generational scold aimed at a modern, fickle consumer mindset: if you only validate a team when it’s a spectacle, you’re not a supporter, you’re a customer.

The subtext is also protective. Calling it a “good team” is a public defense of players and coaches, a way of shifting pressure outward. When the building is quiet, performance starts to feel lonely; West is naming that loneliness, and daring the crowd to admit it helped create it.