Paul Westhead, a former Cheltenham High School basketball coach, was a huge fan of Philadelphia Sixers – until the moment he got a chance to clinch the NBA championship in 1980 with LA Lakers on enemy turf, writes Christian Red for The Philadelphia Inquirer.
“I was a fan of the Sixers and especially Julius Erving,” recalled Westhead. “But when you’re coaching the other team, you forget about that love real fast.”
Westhead found himself heading LA Lakers when the team included Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and rookie sensation Earvin “Magic” Johnson in its ranks due to a tragic happenstance. He joined the team as an assistant coach to Jack McKinney, another Philadelphian and his longtime friend.
Fourteen games into the season, McKinney suffered a serious head injury that pushed Westhead into the head coaching position. He then proved that he was brought on for a reason and secured the team the 1980 championship.
Westhead’s friendship and coaching ties with McKinney have been immortalized in the new HBO Max show, Winning Time, a series about the Lakers’ 1980s dynasty based on Jeff Pearlman’s book, Showtime.
Read more about Paul Westhead and his winning basketball career in The Philadelphia Inquirer.
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