Paul Westphal, 1950-2021

The Phoenix Suns have just begun their 53rd season in the National Basketball Association. The 1st major league sports team in Arizona, they have made the Playoffs in 28 of their 1st 52 seasons. It used to be better: It was 28 of their 1st 42. They have now gone longer without making the Playoffs than any other team.

But their success has been limited. They have only made the NBA Finals twice: Once with Paul Westphal as their star player, and once with him as their head coach.

Paul Douglas Westphal was born on November 30, 1950 in Torrance, California, outside Los Angeles. He attended Aviation High School in Redondo Beach. Opened in 1957, the school was closed in 1982, due to budget cuts forced by California's stupid anti-tax Proposition 13. Among its other notable graduates are former Chicago Cubs pitcher Bill Caudill, ESPN broadcaster Michele Tafoya, and University of Southern California quarterback Tim Green, named Most Valuable Player of the 1985 Rose Bowl.

Westphal, named the high school Player of the Year in 1968, also went to USC. While it is the signature college football team not just in Los Angeles, but in the entire region west of the Rocky Mountains, its intracity rival UCLA, the University of California at Los Angeles, has the far more successful basketball program.

Not that USC hasn't had some success. Their stars have included Jack Gardner in the 1930s; Alex Hannum, Tex Winter and Bill Sharman in the 1940s; Gus Williams in the 1970s; Harold Miner and Brian Scalabrine in the 1990s; O.J. Mayo in the 2000s; and Nikola Vučević in the 2010s. Gardner, Hannum, Winter and Sharman are, like Westphal, in the Basketball Hall of Fame. Like Westphal, Scalabrine would wear Number 44 with the Boston Celtics.  

They've won their league, now known as the Pacific-12 Conference, 7 times, but not since 1985, and only that once since 1961. The following year, John Wooden coached UCLA to their 1st appearance in the Semifinal of the NCAA Tournament, what would later be called the Final Four. He led them to the National Championship every year from 1964 to 1975, except 1966 and 1974. This included all 4 years that Westphal was at USC, 1969 to 1972.

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The Boston Celtics made Westphal the 10th pick in the 1972 NBA Draft. In his rookie season, 1972-73, the Celtics went 68-14, still the best record in team history. But they lost the Eastern Conference Finals to the New York Knicks. In 1974, they went all the way, beating the Milwaukee Bucks in the Finals. Westphal had a ring in his 2nd season.

But he would not have a place on the Celtics. In 1975, they traded him and 2 2nd round draft picks to the Phoenix Suns for Charlie Scott. With a starting five of Westphal and Dick Van Arsdale at guard, Garfield Heard and Curtis Perry at forward, and Alvan Adams at center, and coached by John MacLeod, they made the Playoffs for only the 2nd time in team history, beating the Seattle SuperSonics and the defending NBA Champion Golden State Warriors, and advancing to their 1st NBA Finals.

And the Finals would be against Westphal's former team, the battle-tested Celtics. Surprising no one, the 1st 4 games were all won by the home teams: The Celtics won Games 1 and 2 at the Boston Garden, 98-87 and 105-90; while the Suns won Games 3 and 4, the 1st finals games in Arizona in any sport, at the Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum, the 1st saddle-roofed arena in North America, 105-98 and 109-107.

Game 5, at the Boston Garden on June 4, 1976, is regarded as one of the greatest games in NBA history. The Celtics jumped out to a 36-18 lead after 1 quarter, and led 61-45 at the half. But the Suns came back, closed to within 77-72 after 3 quarters, and regulation ended 95-95.

Overtime could not find a winner, ending 101-101. John Havlicek appeared to have hit a game-winning shot at the end of the 2nd overtime, making it 111-110 Boston. The fans incorrectly thought the game was over, and stormed the court. When referee Richie Powers tried to get it cleared, a Celtic fan assaulted him. (The fan was arrested.)

Westphal knew he had 2 seconds left. The American Basketball Association had the 3-point field goal, but the NBA would not adopt it until 1979. But the Suns had to inbound the ball under their own basket, and get the ball all the way down the court, 94 feet.

Westphal called timeout -- knowing that the Suns didn't have any left. This resulted in a technical foul, giving the Celtics a single free throw, which Jo Jo White made, making it 112-110 Boston. But now, the Suns could inbound at halfcourt, in the hope of trying the game. Perry made the inbound pass to Heard, who fired a turnaround jumper at the top of the key. He made it, sending the game to a 3rd overtime.

Broadcasting the game on CBS, Brent Musberger yelled, "I don't believe it!" Even after the Bill Russell era, seasoned observers were not used to seeing the Celtics pushed this hard on their own floor.

The Celtics took control, taking a 128-122 lead. The Suns closed to 128-126, but that was as close as they got. Emotionally drained, the Suns did not recover, and lost Game 6 at home, 87-80, and the Celtics were World Champions again.

The next 5 seasons, 1976-77 to 1980-81, Westphal made the NBA All-Star Game. He was one of the top guards in the game. Just after the 1980 season, the Suns traded him to the Seattle SuperSonics for fellow All-Star Dennis Johnson. He went from a desert city with a team named the Suns to the American city most known for rain.

But the trade didn't work out for the Sonics: They missed the Playoffs, and Westphal played out his contract. The Knicks signed him as a free agent, and he became the next in a never-ending line of players who, as it turned out, couldn't "save the Knicks." He returned to the Suns for a final season in 1983-84, and retired, with a points-per-game average of 15.6.

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Married to Cindy and the father of 2 children, Westphal began coaching in the 1985-86 season, at the school now known as Arizona Christian University. It is a private Christian school in Phoenix, as is Grand Canyon College, to which he moved the following season. In 1988, he led them to the NAIA Championship -- effectively, NCAA Division IV.

That led Lowell Gibbs "Cotton" Fitzsimmons, by then head coach of the Suns, hired Westphal as an assistant coach. In 1992, Fitzsimmons retired, and Westphal was named head coach. The timing was great: The Suns not only moved into a new arena, the American West Arena (its naming rights recently expired, so it is now officially just "Phoenix Suns Arena"), but they had Kevin Johnson, Dan Majerle and Danny Ainge, and had acquired one of the best players of the time, Charles Barkley.

Westphal's Suns marched through the Playoffs, beating the Los Angeles Lakers, the San Antonio Spurs and the Seattle SuperSonics, reaching the NBA Finals. There, they faced the 2-time defending Champion Chicago Bulls, and had home-court advantage for the series. It didn't help: Michael Jordan and company won the 1st 2 games in Phoenix, 100-92 and 111-108.

Game 3 in Phoenix was a classic. It was only the 2nd triple-overtime game in NBA Finals history -- and the Suns played in both. This time, they won, 129-121 at the Chicago Stadium. The Bulls won Game 4, 111-105. The Suns managed to take Game 5 in Chicago, 108-98, but the Bulls triumphed in a tough Game 6, 99-98. That was June 20, 1993, and the Suns haven't played an NBA Finals game since.

Westphal couldn't get the Suns that far again, and was fired in 1996. He coached high school ball for 2 years, then was named head coach in Seattle, lasting until 2000. From 2001 to 2006, he was the head coach at Pepperdine University in Malibu, California, winning a share of the 2002 West Coast Conference title.

He spent the 2006-07 season as a broadcaster in the game, the 2007-08 season as an assistant coach with the Dallas Mavericks, and the 2008-09 season in the Mavs' front office. From 2009 to 2012, he had his last head coaching job, with the Sacramento Kings. From 2014 to 2016, he was an assistant with the Brooklyn Nets, under Lionel Hollins, a member of the Portland Trail Blazers' 1977 NBA Champions, who had been assistant to Westphal on the Suns. Overall, as a head coach, Westphal was 159-98 (.619) in college and 597-318 (.533) in the NBA.

Westphal and Hollins

USC retired his Number 25. The Suns retired his Number 44, and elected him to their Ring of Honor. He was elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame as a player in 2019.

Shortly thereafter, he was diagnosed with cancer. He died yesterday, January 2, 2021, at the age of 70.

He is the Phoenix Suns' greatest legend, and will likely remain so until they finally win their 1st NBA Championship.