Struggles on a Christmas holiday road trip a fictitious one that well discuss later led to the team being on the brink of firing Westhead before a game in Boston. eventCategory: event.slot.getSlotElementId(), Westhead returned to the college ranks, and took over as the head coach of the Loyola Marymount Lions men's basketball program. In 2007, Westhead coached the Mercury to a WNBA championship, making him the only coach to win a championship in the NBA and the WNBA. (*) You can debate whether Nike made Jordan or vice versa, and whether a similar partnership with Magic five years earlier would have had the same impact. In the locker room before the game, Westhead benches Spencer Haywood for Michael Cooper. The Houston game, the first time the show portrays Westhead as a hapless man on the sideline, was actually a game the Lakers won in late February at The Forum. In 1982-83 he was hired by Chicago, but lasted only one season as the Bulls went 2854. To say that Westhead found success in his first season in Los Angeles would be putting it mildly. I really was the mad woman in the attic that they locked me in, and I didnt get to see anybody else. (Photo by Focus on Sport/Getty Images), 2430 x 3600 px (20,57 x 30,48 cm) - 300 dpi - 6 MB. Paul Westhead Wiki, Biography, Age, Spouse, Net Worth, Fast Facts. Postseason invitational champion No camaraderie. After the 19891990 season, Westhead left LMU for the NBA's Denver Nuggets, a position he held for two seasons. The show has, obviously, taken some creative liberties along the way, including as far as we can tell pretty much everything about Dr. Jerry Buss mother, Jessie, portrayed by Sally Field. Conference tournament champion. Chick could be very difficult to work with. Division regular season and conference tournament champion Early in the episode, theres a brief, but hilarious, Jack Nicholson cameo during Dr. Buss meeting with the bankers he spends the episode negotiating with. A career assistant gets his big break and what he implemented worked. Westhead, however, wanted a recently retired journeyman named Pat Riley. The owner had been pushing for Elgin Baylor, the former Laker All-Star who lived locally. I didnt have to coach just yet. When practice ended, Westhead ran into Sharman. Speaking with some extreme You cant fire me, I quit! energy, Patrick Beverley claims he asked for a trade from the Lakers at the trade deadline. However, they only improved to 24 wins, largely because they continued to give up points so quickly that even their prolific offense couldn't keep up. Oops. Conference regular season and conference tournament champion A daily roundup of Los Angeles Lakers news from Silver Screen & Roll, By submitting your email, you agree to our, Winning Time: How Paul Westhead really prepared to be Lakers coach, Without LeBron James and DAngelo Russell, Lakers fall vs. Grizzlies. Im from the inner city. (Despite the bumps, they have passionate sex in a sequence that is shot and edited more interestingly than the great majority of comparable recent sequences in TV and film.) In 1979, Nike was still a privately-owned company that was not at the level of Converse or Adidas. The Mercury won using Westhead's fast-paced approach. With rookie guard Magic Johnson and longtime star Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, the Lakers won the 1980 NBA Finals in Westhead's first year as coach, defeating Philadelphia in six games for the first title in their Showtime era. Although it was Pat Riley (Adrien Brody in the show) who takes massive credit as the coach who led the side to four titles and was instrumental in the creation of the 'Showtime Lakers', the foundation was actually laid by McKinney. Is Coach Westhead being treated fairly?2:00- \"Just getting the job was the easiest thing I did\"3:00- \"The team was new under Jerry Buss and they just got Magic Johnson\"4:15= \"I had no problem working with the players\"4:32-\"I passed Kareem the ball thirty times from the corner and he hit all of them\"5:25-\"There is a triangle: Coach-player and in the middle management and agent\"7:09 \"I became the acting Coach out of default\" after Jack McKinney's bike injury7:55- \"I talked Jerry Buss into hiring Pat Riley as an Assistant\"8:22- \"I had players like Spencer Haywood saying I was promised a starting job\"10:25: \"In his second year Magic Johnson had knee surgery..and fourth and fifth round draft picks were moving past himhe hadn't recovered yet and was angry\"12:30- Magic Johnson was in a bad place.and the day I was fired we had one five straight games\"14:30 - I\" can't imagine Jerry Buss going to a liquor store and buying a bottle of liquor and lying on the floor and yelling I won the team\"16:25- \"Jason Segal is a funny guy--I did not consider myself funny--but whatever happens in the show it won't go well for me\"18:05- \"\"It took me 28 years to win the next championship---enjoy the championship you won because you don't know when you will get the next one\"18:50- \"I was just invited to Kareem's 75th birthday\"19:30- \"After I left the Lakers I did not have much interaction with Magicbut two years ago he called me.\"22:20- \"Jerry West was a quiet sort who stayed to himself---I did not see him act in an out of control fashion\"24:15- \"Pat Riley in the early eighties first showed how video can help you coach\"27:45- I coached Kobe Bryant's father28:25 - \"I always let my players evolve\"29:15- \"I had issues with some of my pro players pushing them..and i made them to conform to a system that if they did not like they got rid of me\"31:31- The death of hank gathers \"you never really get over it--it remains with you33:09- \"The winning is better than the losingand man did I have a good run\"A few follow ups as we update this in late April. He made an interesting point that \"I was never thrown in the shower by Pat Riley\" and I did teach English in college but did not walk around quoting Shakespeare. Westhead started his coaching career at Cheltenham High School in suburban Philadelphia; in 1968, he coached the Panthers to a loss in the Pennsylvania state championship. Eventually, he signs with Converse a deal that actually happened but not before an intriguing offer made by Nike. Is McKinney a Top 5 NBA coach ever? Weve mentioned that the team wasnt nearly as bad as the show portrayed in the episode, but lets look at the specifics. ------ SUBSCRIBE HERE: https://bit.ly/2VjWSBC FOLLOW US HERE: https://www.instagram.com/richeisen https://www.twitter.com/RichEisenShow https://www.facebook.com/RichEisenShow Thanks to our friends at Grabyo for supporting our live production and editing needs. The Shakespeare-obsessed Paul talks about the challenge of the student replacing his teacher, comparing it to Hamlet having no interest in inheriting the throne after his father is murdered, and coins his own Bard-like saying, Tis better to be a noble prince than a hapless king. Is this laying things on a bit thick, especially before Paul even learns that he is about to replace his friend? From 2003 to 2005, Westhead was an assistant coach with the Orlando Magic under head coach Johnny Davis. pg.acq.push(function() { }); Theres more than enough built-in drama that could be elaborated upon, to the point that this feels like an unnecessary liberty to take. Given everything above, it should go without saying there was no do-or-die ultimatum ahead of the Lakers game in Boston. The next morning, Westhead arrived at the gymnasium on the campus of Loyola Marymount University, where the team held its game-day shootarounds. Le design Getty Images est une marque de Getty Images. * 21+ (19+ CA-ONT) (18+ NH/WY). Interestingly, Thomas Day, who appears as an advisor/agent of sorts during the show, appears to be a fictionalized character as well. Westhead coached for the Lakers from 1979-81. Relations between Westhead and McKinney werent entirely open throughout the formers tenure in charge, though. INGLEWOOD, CA - CIRCA 1979: Head coach Paul Westhead of the Los Angeles Lakers talks with the media during a press conference circa 1979 at The Forum in Inglewood, California. ALEXANDRIA, VAPaul Boccone, 56, was sentenced today to 180 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release, for turning his Chantilly-based pain We were just four guys looking to pass in to one.". He quotes Shakespeare, goofs up when answering questions about McKinney, and earns the death glare of all death glares from Jerry West. But he doesnt have the imagination to picture that kind of money down the road versus the much smaller amount that Converse and others are placing in front of him right now. Westhead was 6590 overall at Oregon and 2764 in conference play in five seasons. Overall, it is clear that he is comfortable with his achievements and not greatly impacted by his portrayal. Reacts: Can the Lakers survive without LeBron James. Jason Clarke cracking us up as Jerry West. Following his tenure with the Nuggets, Westhead returned to college coaching as the head coach of George Mason University from 1993 to 1997. You can follow Jacob on Twitter at @JacobRude. Not even close. Please enter a valid email and try again. As Pearlman writes, Westhead was focused on many things ahead of the teams game against Denver, but none of them were the game itself (emphasis mine). Im going to give you a lot of stock. I didnt know anything about stock. #Lakers. There will be variations, but they will be variations, not changes. Phil Knight, founder of a young upstart outfit called Nike, tries offering Magic stock options and a cut of every shoe sold, which would have ultimately netted him billions of dollars. WebFind Paul Westhead stock photos and editorial news pictures from Getty Images. }) Its what Adam McKay does so beautifully We had to invent a lot of Jessie because theres not a lot of real information on her, in trying to think of who she might have been. Vanessa Bryant settles lawsuit with Los Angeles County over helicopter crash photos for $28.85 million. [4] LMU's 122.4 point per game in 1990 was still a record as of 2020. }); Alan Hagman, Entering his fifth year at the helm, Westhead will look to rebound from an injury-plagued 2012-13 season and recapture his early success with the Ducks. Unlike the modern NBA, there were not big coaching staffs ready to absorb the new responsibilities. All real. AZ, CO, CT, IL, IN, IA, KS, LA, (select parishes), MD, MI, NH, NJ, NY, OH, OR, PA, TN, VA, WV, WY, CA-ONT only.Eligibility restrictions apply. Winning Time: How Paul Westhead really prepared to be Lakers coach Paul Westhead was more experienced as a head coach than Winning Time gives him credit @DrBrianMcDonough The basis of the whole episode is that Paul Westhead is struggling in his first season and the Lakers are debating whether to wait on Jack McKinney to be healthy once again, or to hire Elgin Baylor to replace him. 04/26/2022 by Anne Tyler. It is sounding more and more like DAngelo Russell will return when the Lakers get back from their road trip, while the team is still declining to put a timetable on LeBron James return. We may earn a commission from these links. Now, before we really get going, one disclaimer: We're going to keep trying to avoid any potential Winning Time spoilers by keeping our discussion of the relevant history to the current episode. "Does anyone else think Jason Segal is kind of doing Cousin Greg from Succession as Paul Westhead in #WinningTime or is it just me?" That's right, the press conference. Agence France-Presse, Paul Westhead was the cynosure of all eyes in Episode 6 of 'Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty'. Accdez au meilleur de Getty Images avec un simple abonnement. He would have always been on a plane between Phoenix and Kansas City., .css-gk9meg{display:block;font-family:Lausanne,Arial,sans-serif;font-weight:normal;margin-bottom:0;margin-top:0;padding-top:0.25rem;-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;}@media (any-hover: hover){.css-gk9meg:hover{color:link-hover;}}@media(max-width: 48rem){.css-gk9meg{font-size:1.125rem;line-height:1.15;margin-bottom:0.25rem;}}@media(min-width: 40.625rem){.css-gk9meg{font-size:1rem;line-height:1.2;margin-bottom:0.625rem;}}@media(min-width: 64rem){.css-gk9meg{font-size:1.25rem;line-height:1.2;}}@media(min-width: 73.75rem){.css-gk9meg{font-size:1.25rem;line-height:1.2;}}'Succession' Will End After Season 4. But I don't think anyone will ever totally believe that. Fortunately, Magic went on to have one or two better games in The Garden. (*) This is another instance of Winning Time taking dramatic license. The University of Oregon ushered in a new era of womens basketball with the announcement of Paul Westhead as the programs sixth head coach on March 26, 2009. [10], Westhead returned to the ABA as the head coach of Long Beach Jam in 2003. Under Westhead, the Nuggets were sometimes called the "Enver Nuggets" (as in no "D," or no defense). The next year the Nuggets drafted Dikembe Mutombo, who made the All-Star team, and played at a more conservative pace scoring just 99.7 points per game. Each week, well be looking back on the newest episode of HBOs Winning Time and fact-checking or adding more details on some of the key and bigger plot points by using the book Showtime: MAGIC, KAREEM, RILEY, AND THE LOS ANGELES LAKERS DYNASTY OF THE 1980S By Jeff Pearlman. Please also read our Privacy Notice and Terms of Use, which became effective December 20, 2019. HBO \"Winning Time\" chronicles the Los Angeles Lakers of the 1980's. Laker Coach Paul Westhead: A Whole Lotta Shakespeare Going on | by Mike Butler | The Press Box | Medium 500 Apologies, but something went wrong on our "It was just becoming a job," Johnson later said of his time under Westhead. That was hurting me because that's what I'm all about--having fun playing basketball. Magic was also pretty terrible in the game, scoring a single point on two shot attempts with three rebounds, two assists, two steals and three turnovers in 21 minutes. WebPaul Westhead - The System & Zone Defense Slappin' Glass 6.33K subscribers Subscribe 587 views 9 months ago Coach Paul Westhead joins the podcast to discuss the details of "The System. It is a bit exaggerated how inexperienced Westhead was. He was in his first year as an NBA coach and was a college professor the year prior, but he also was serving as the La Salle University mens basketball coach. He spent nine seasons as coach of the Explorers, leading them to two NCAA Tournament appearances. In reality, neither Cooper nor Haywood started the game. Reuters, Oops. Paul Westhead is Primed to Be a Bigger Player in Winning Time Than We Thought About Jason Segel, Jack McKinney, and that press conference. },false) He wants Jack to survive and get better not only for the sake of his mentor, but because he really doesnt want to have to be the face of the Lakers. Winning Time: Did Jack McKinney really have a bike wreck like that? hitType: 'event', That temporary position would eventually become a permanent one. hitType: 'event', if(document.querySelector("#google_image_div")){ And sure, losing McKinney could have sent the Lakers into a spiral, especially once they were taken over by a fresh-faced head coach in Westhead, but that isnt what happened. The logistics of replacing a head coach on the fly as the Lakes had to do in 1979 are hard to truly contextualize, let alone fully grasp. ga('ads.send', { Winning Time: Introducing Paul Westhead Rolling Stone TV & Movies Winning Time: Its Good to Be the King With Jack McKinney down for the count after his Big picture--a great decision. There were some minor inaccuracies along the way. In 2005, Westhead was hired as the head coach of the WNBA's Phoenix Mercury, a position that he held until the 2007 WNBA season concluded. To learn more or opt-out, read our Cookie Policy. By choosing I Accept, you consent to our use of cookies and other tracking technologies. The game, however, did not end on a game-winning Cooper layup at the buzzer. Westhead's tenure with the Lakers started and ended the same way: abruptly. While Winning Time may have portrayed Paul Westheads first season with the Lakers as a struggle, the reality was anything but, as he found instant success in charge. }); Paul Westhead was the cynosure of all eyes in Episode 6 of 'Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty'. ga('ads.send', { Dr. Day is also part of the hours most emotionally thorny development of the season, because hes also the father of Magics sometime-hookup Cindy (Rachel Hilson), who has begun presenting herself as Magics girlfriend even though he has no interest in settling on any one woman. Please enter a valid email and try again. The substitute teacher. Prior to that season, the Bulls traded away all-star center Artis Gilmore to the San Antonio Spurs, and the franchise was still two years away from the debut of Michael Jordan. Segel imbues Westhead, who actually was an English teacher prior to coaching, with a high-strung nervousness, but, importantly, also makes very clear just how much the man loves the game. [8], Westhead was the head coach of the Los Angeles Stars in the inaugural season of the new ABA in 20002001. If that Paul Westhead presser is fr I need to see the clip . He was in his first year as an NBA coach and was a college professor the year prior, but he also was serving as the La Salle University mens basketball coach. WebPaul Westhead was teaching high school in his native Philadelphia when he was named La Salle Universitys mens basketball coach in 1970. Westhead's Oregon contract was worth more than $3 million for five years, with his final season earning him $675,000. But when Cindy makes Magic look bad by showing up at the hospital with a bouquet of flowers for Jack (while Magic is busy being courted by the sneaker people), Magic decides to assign the job of dumping Cindy to her dear old dad and Dr. Day agrees without question. Luckily, Hadley, in the form of Jeanie, would come and visit me and Jerry, John C. [Reilly], would come and visit me. newsletter, Silver Screen and Roll Community Guidelines, had this hilariously odd quote about Shakespeare and the NBA, Winning Time: Fact-checking HBOs series on the Showtime Lakers, Jeanie Buss says John C. Reilly deserves Emmy for portrayal of her father, Dr. Jerry Buss, in Winning Time. FAIRFAX, Va. (AP) _ In another losing effort before another paltry crowd, Paul Westhead's offense sputtered like a jet engine trying to run on regular unleaded. Patrick Beverley is claiming he demanded a trade from Lakers. For more Lakers talk, subscribe to the Silver Screen and Roll podcast feed on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher or Google Podcasts. In the beginning shed have this tremendous edge, but then Id get to where I could compete with her and shed switch games. One of the oldest storytelling tropes are the plucky underdogs overcoming all the odds to reach the mountaintop. With Spencer Haywood suspended and a hobbled Kareem Abdul-Jabbar back in Los Angeles, Westhead gambled by starting 20-year-old rookie point guard Magic Johnson at center for Game 6 of the finals against the Philadelphia 76'ers. Speaking with some extreme You cant fire me, I quit! energy, Patrick Beverley claims he asked for a trade from the Lakers at the trade deadline. Tirez parti du rseau mondial GettyImages, avec plus de 340 000 crateurs, pour dvelopper un contenu exclusif, cr spcialement pour votre marque. In 1990-91, Westhead returned to the NBA with the Denver Nuggets, a position he held for two seasons. Westhead coached for the He was the head coach for three National Basketball Association (NBA) teams and an assistant for four others, and also coached in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA), American Basketball Association (ABA), and Japan Basketball League (JBL). It failed to make the front page of the main or sports sections: I was the accidental head coach, said Westhead. "This weeks episode of #WinningTime was really good. He spent nine seasons as coach of the Explorers, leading them to two NCAA Tournament appearances. AZ, CO, CT, IL, IN, IA, KS, LA, (select parishes), MD, MI, NH, NJ, NY, OH, OR, PA, TN, VA, WV, WY, CA-ONT only.Eligibility restrictions apply. We hate to report this, but as of now, we're unable to find footage or a precise record of the gathering, so it may very well be another Winning Time TV-ified moment. The show then discusses a three-game Christmas road trip with stops in Indiana, Detroit and Boston. westhead@uoregon.edu. What it perhaps most accurately depicts is the relationship between McKinney and Paul Westhead, one in which they considered each other brothers. So, What do you think? He attended Saint Joseph's University. By Brady Gambling problem? Its unlikely the whole team waited for him outside the hospital, especially given the timeline and the fact few players even knew before shootaround the next morning. Theres no record of the press conference Westhead had before his first game. Again, logistically, there wasnt that much time to have a press conference. WebHead coach Paul Westhead of the Los Angeles Lakers talks with the media during a press conference circa 1979 at The Forum in Inglewood, California. The passes weren't crisp, and the shots didn't fall. After his brief stint in Chicago, he returned to the college ranks and turned tiny Loyola Marymount into a legitimate contender with the help of USC transfers Hank Gathers and Bo Kimble. I entered the gym and I was, literally, the only person there at first. "Paul Westhead went in that press conference & said CANNONS TO THE LEFT OF THEM! The idea of that happening is hilarious and could have, technically, been possible as Nicholson was a season ticket holder starting in 1970, at least according to Wikipedia. Getty Images, But he is in no condition to be coaching an NBA team, and that burden falls upon his longtime protege, Paul Westhead. You can safely assume it was a good chunk of change that Magic missed out on, a rare business misstep for a man who has made plenty of shrewd deals and investments to build up a sizable fortune throughout his life since the NBA. It didn't take Westhead long to land another head coaching job. Nicholson sends over a bottle of wine to their lunch table to which Dr. Buss tells the camera he had to comp his season tickets to get him to do that.. So he said, Stock. Sarah Ardalani, NBAE via Getty Images, In reality, there isnt really any information about her readily available, meaning basically everything has been made up. But the way the system was then, nobody was having fun. window.googletag.pubads().addEventListener('slotRenderEnded', function(event) { We are one of the worlds fastest growing There was never anyone saying, Heres what we want you to do. I was lucky that this was just a shootaround. Yes, Cooper played a lot of minutes in this game, but Haywood played more, and had shifted back and forth between the starting unit and the reserves throughout the season to this point. 'Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty' Season 2: Here's what we know so far. "No high fives. window.googletag.pubads().addEventListener('impressionViewable', function(event) { Rassembler, slectionner et commenter vos fichiers. Hearst Magazine Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved. They talked about marching forward; about being strong; about the upcoming schedule and the following days practice. Westhead would be the third head coach of the Lakers in 1979 after Buss purchased the team (following Jerry West and Jack McKinney). If he doesnt get into the accident, does Pat Riley coach elsewhere? another comment said. } WebHead coach Paul Westhead of the Los Angeles Lakers talks with the media during a press conference circa 1979 at The Forum in Inglewood, California. eventAction: 'load' eventCategory: event.slot.getSlotElementId(), About Jason Segel, Jack McKinney, and that press conference. Mit unserem einfachen Abonnement erhalten Sie Zugriff auf die besten Inhalte von Getty Images. The families, who long considered themselves more like one extended family than friends, stopped seeing each other as often to avoid the awkwardness of the situation. Magic is not exactly feeling that pinch this week, but there is a sense of him being overwhelmed by all the positive attention that comes from being, as new friend Richard Pryor(*) puts it, white-famous. The attention is more than he can handle, as are all the business decisions he is being asked to make as a 20-year-old who left college early. I want to watch the Lakers dominate the league as they did, not cosplay as some professional version of the Bad News Bears. All the other companies offered me money, but they couldnt offer me money because they just started. A review of this weeks Winning Time, Memento Mori, coming up just as soon as I ask not to be buzzard fucked. Thus, 11 games into his third season, with the Lakers off to a disappointing 7-4 start, Westhead was fired, despite having the second highest winning percentage of any coach in team history to that point, behind only the man he replaced, Jack McKinney. In the episodes final scene, Dr. Day pursues another romantic errand for his new client, offering Cookie the one woman for whom Magic might consider settling, even if hes not right now tickets to the Lakers upcoming road game in Detroit. Optimieren Sie Ihren Workflow mit unserem erstklassigen Digitalen Asset Management System. So, whats the point of all these creative liberties then? Paul William Westhead (born February 21, 1939) is an American basketball coach who most recently was the head coach of the University of Oregon women's team. In his first year as an NBA head coach, he led a rookie Magic Johnson and the Los Angeles Lakers to the 1980 NBA Title. Hell, the team was really good from day one under McKinney. hitType: 'event', ga('create', 'UA-67136960-15', 'auto', 'ads'); This is Westhead's brilliant, famous quote about the legendary writer: If Shakespeare had been in pro basketball, he never would have had time to write his soliloquies. WebLocation: Tampa, Florida. Still, the company was interested in Magic and made a pitch to him that couldnt match financially with Converse, but did feature an offer that would have been worth much, much, much more eventually. Los Angeles Lakers. Since it seems (nudge, wink) like Westhead is primed to take a bigger role in Winning Time, let's talk about what was the best non-Phil Knight moment in Episode Six. Afterward, Westhead and his players took ten minutes to meet in the locker room. Dveloppez votre marque de manire authentique en partageant son contenu avec tous les crateurs Internet. eventCategory: event.slot.getSlotElementId(), hitType: 'event', Houston Mitchell, His longest losing streak was two games, and that only happened twice.