Jerry West and Phil Jackson had a strained relationship when both were with the Lakers. Jackson's first season with the Lakers was the final season West spent with the franchise.

West was troubled by Jackson's relationship with Jeanie Buss.

”So one of the problems I had with Phil was this,” West writes in his new autobiography. “His office was right near mine and when he would arrive in the morning, he would walk right past and never even bother to wave or duck his head in to say hello.

“He would later say that he felt the need to stake out his territory, that on top of that he was ’a wack job,’ but I am sure it was more than that.”

West compares Jackson's ambitions to what he experienced with Pat Riley, except it was colder.

“Phil and I had no relationship,” West writes. “None. He didn’t want me around and had absolutely no respect for me–of that, I have no doubt.”  

West's relationship with Jerry Buss changed when the Lakers moved from the Forum in 1999 to Staples Center and Buss was less frequently around.

“The close nature of our relationship began to change, and not only did I feel more and more unappreciated, or under-appreciated, but my own personal demons, rooted in my childhood, were threatening me,” West writes.

“The Lakers had been home to me, unlike the home I had grown up and felt apart from. But now the home was feeling less and less hospitable, and I was sensing that I didn’t belong, or wasn’t wanted, there any more, that I had stayed too long at the fair and it was time for me to go.”

West coolly mentions that Buss did not attend the Lakers’ announcement of West’s resignation.