When the Los Angeles Lakers lost at home to the Boston Celtics in Game 7 of the 1969 NBA Finals, superstar guard Jerry West walked off the floor in shambles.
The Chelyan, W.V., native didn’t care that he was named MVP of the series, still the only player on a losing team to ever receive the award. He didn’t care how close he’d gotten; or how, just a few months later, his silhouette would become the NBA’s official logo.
What then pounded away in West’s mind, pushing out everything else, was the cruel, hard math at play: the Lakers had lost to the Celtics on the biggest stage six times in the 1960s.
West detailed the grueling toll these losses took in the documentary Jerry West: The Logo, released last week. He passed away in 2024 at the age of 86 after decades as a world-class NBA executive and consultant, but could never shake the toll so many losses to the same opponent took on his psyche.
So much of his misery came from that ever-present, green-clad nemesis.
Squint hard enough, and you can see a similarly frustrating opponent developing for No. 6 Arkansas softball (36-8, 11-7 SEC) after yet another loss to No. 1 Oklahoma (42-6, 15-3 SEC) this weekend.
Arkansas Softball’s Kryptonite
Much like Red Auerbach’s Celtics, Oklahoma softball coach Patty Gasso has constructed a juggernaut that is simultaneously an unstoppable force and an immovable object.
The Sooners have reached the College World Series 18 times this century, winning eight national titles, including four in a row from 2021-24. (Of course, it helps that the WCWS is played in just 25 minutes down the road from Norman.) Gasso has stacked 1,609 victories in Norman, winning 85% of her games since her tenure began in 1995.
The Razorbacks felt hope in the air after a 3-2 win against Oklahoma to force a rubber match. It snapped a 16-game head-to-head losing streak, and a nation-leading 31-game home win streak for the Sooners.
“Just fight for it,” starting pitcher Payton Burnham said of her mentality. The sophomore held an OU lineup batting .410 and averaging 11.1 runs to just 4 hits and 2 runs across 5.1 innings. “You’re out there with your back against the wall and the only thing you need to do is go for it. I was just trusting my stuff and the defense, and obviously they came up big when they needed to. The dugout was electric.”
