Paul Westhead discusses his Lakers tenure and Philly’s close ties to ‘Winning Time’

Paul Westhead was wrestling with his own emotions when he arrived at the Spectrum with the Los Angeles Lakers that Friday, about an hour and a half before Game 6 tipped off. The Lakers were up three games to two on the 76ers in the 1980 NBA Finals with a chance to clinch the championship on enemy turf.

On one hand, the Philly-born Westhead had been head coach at La Salle only a year earlier and Cheltenham High before that, and now he was back in his hometown patrolling the opposing sidelines, about to sink the team he rooted for earlier in life.

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Despite the series lead and the momentum from a Game 5 win at the Forum, Westhead’s team limped — literally — into South Philly. The Lakers’ star center, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, was unavailable for the game and as he nursed a sore ankle back in California.

“I was a fan of the Sixers and especially Julius Erving,” said Westhead, 83, in a phone interview. “But when you’re coaching the other team, you forget about that love real fast.”

The fact that Westhead was even in position to coach Abdul-Jabbar, rookie sensation Earvin “Magic” Johnson and Co. was only possible because of tragic happenstance. Jack McKinney, another Philadelphian, was originally hired as Lakers head coach before the start of that 1979-80 NBA season, and he had lured Westhead to Hollywood to be his assistant.

But 14 games into the 1979-80 regular season, McKinney suffered a serious head injury in a bicycle accident. He never returned to the Lakers sidelines during the title run. The friendship and coaching bond between McKinney and Westhead — not to mention their Philadelphia ties — are just a few of the story lines in HBO Max’s Winning Time, the multi-episode series based upon Jeff Pearlman’s book, Showtime, about the Lakers’ 1980s dynasty.

“Jack and I went way back in our college careers,” said Westhead. “I played at St. Joe’s. He was a young assistant then with Jack Ramsay. Years later, after I coached at Cheltenham High School, [McKinney] hired me as his assistant at St. Joe’s. We also spent time coaching together in Puerto Rico. We knew each other about as well as you can expect. That’s why I didn’t hesitate when he made the [Lakers] offer. I said, ‘I’ll be there tomorrow.’”

Max Borenstein, the series writer and showrunner, added: “Philly is central to this story in a lot of ways.”

Winning Time has already introduced McKinney (played by Tracy Letts) and Westhead (Jason Segel), and the real-life Westhead said “so far, so good” on Segel’s portrayal. But Westhead has other criticisms of the show, including a scene in which Lakers great Jerry West (Jason Clarke) chucks his MVP trophy out of his office window in anger.

“West would never do something like that,” said Westhead. “They’re taking all the poetic license they feel like doing, I guess, to make an interesting series.”

He said real drama came once he accepted McKinney’s offer in 1979 to come west and help coach the Lakers.

“The basketball part, because I knew Jack well, was relatively easy for me,” said Westhead. “I knew his style, I knew him as a person. And Jack had set up a good system. So I found the coaching part kind of smooth. When Jack was injured, that’s when everything became much more difficult. The day after Jack was injured, we had a shootaround and a game that night. I didn’t have much time to say, ‘Hey, how difficult is this going to be?’ I just was thrust into it.”

Luckily for Westhead, the Lakers had no shortage of superstar talent, and the club went 50-18 after he took over.

“I was surrounded by a terrific cast. Kareem was probably the best player in the game at that time,” said Westhead. “Magic, the best young rookie. Jamaal Wilkes, Norm Nixon, Michael Cooper — I kind of fell into a winning situation.”

The Lakers dispatched the Phoenix Suns and Seattle SuperSonics, respectively, once the 1980 postseason began, before the showdown with Dr. J and the Sixers. That Finals featured one of Erving’s greatest moves, a Game 4 highlight-reel, windmill reverse layup at the Spectrum that still dazzles viewers on YouTube 40-plus years later.

“We stood there, a wall of two guys [Abdul-Jabbar and Mark Landsberger], like, ‘Erving’s not getting through here.’ Then he drove baseline and he wraps around,” said Westhead. “It was an incredible play. One of many by the Doc.”

When the series returned to Philadelphia for Game 6, Westhead’s journey had come full circle.

“It was more sweet than bitter, I can tell you that,” said Westhead with a laugh. “[Game 6] is kind of magical. We play without Kareem. We start Magic at center and he does everything from play center to power forward to point guard. Scores 42 points. I was a Philly guy and no one in Philadelphia would have thought that I was about to beat their Sixers. That was a shock. I’m sure there were people in the [Spectrum] stands saying, ‘Isn’t that Westhead?’”

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McKinney, who died in 2018, was not present for the title-clinching game, and Westhead’s time as Lakers head coach turned out to be short-lived, despite winning a ring. He was fired during the 1981-82 season and replaced by Pat Riley. There were several more coaching opportunities for Westhead, including winning a WNBA championship with Phoenix, but no return engagement in Philadelphia.

“I’d have been happy to come back anywhere, especially if it was Philly, because that was my hometown,” said Westhead, who lives in L.A. “I still have family that lives in the Philly area. Yeah, I get back there. I have a lot of real good friends who I grew up with in West Philly and in Delaware County.

“Deep down I’m a Philly guy.”