David West has been a very good, but never elite, power forward for his entire career. He has entered the “blatant ring-chasing” stage of his career that many faded, ringless stars pursue, but that shouldn’t diminish his past accomplishments. Or, if it does diminish his past accomplishments, it should only diminish them a little bit.
Unfortunately, nobody will remember West after he retires. Nobody except Chris Paul maybe. But even that’s not a guarantee. Ultimately, his fate is to be forgotten, just like so many other fundamental, but not flashy, power forwards of this era and of previous eras. I would list other examples of forgotten power forwards who were once feared scorers, but I don’t remember any of them. Strange how that works.
West punched Father Time in the balls for this one game, but the advantage in that conflict always belongs to the immortal man with the white beard and the golden watch on a chain. Father Time will continue to punch West in the balls until the latter eventually retires. Hopefully he has a ring by the time it’s all said and done, or he’ll have endured a lot of sore balls for nothing.