What Happened To Winning Time’s Paul Westhead After Being Fired From The Lakers

Winning Time season 2, episode 5 chronicles the downfall of Coach Paul Westhead, who still went on to find success at the NBA and collegiate levels.

Summary

• "Winning Time" reveals how Paul Westhead's refusal to accept feedback from players and coaches led to his downfall as the Lakers' head coach.
• After being fired by the Lakers, Westhead had a short and unsuccessful tenure as the head coach of the Chicago Bulls before being replaced one season before Michael Jordan's debut.
• Despite his firing from the Lakers, Westhead went on to achieve success as a coach at the college and professional level, including helping Loyola Marymount University become a contender in the NCAA National Tournament.

HBO's Winning Time: The Rise of The Lakers Dynasty chronicles the rise and fall of Paul Westhead (Jason Segel) as head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers. After guiding the Lakers to an unexpected NBA Title in 1980, Westhead was ultimately let go from the team at the beginning of the 1981-82 season after starting the season at a lukewarm 7-4. Winning Time portrays the behind-the-scenes locker room dynamics that led to the ultimate firing of Westhead, largely pointing the finger at Magic Johnson's (Quincy Isaiah) frustrations with the ideological coach as the main reason why he was given the boot by owner Jerry Buss (John C. Reilly).

Winning Time season 2, episode 5 paints the full portrait of how Westhead's apparent unwillingness to accept feedback from his players or coaching staff led to his demise as Lakers head coach. The real-life Westhead was actually fired after a 5-game win streak and Magic's public criticisms which resulted in him asking for a trade. However, Buss and other Lakers players revealed that although the suddenness of Westhead's departure was surprising, the negative feelings about him as a coach extended beyond Magic alone. According to the Washington Post in 1981, Westhead's firing was already on the table before Magic's qualms went public.

Paul Westhead Became The Chicago Bulls' Head Coach After Leaving The Lakers

After Westhead was let go by the Lakers, he went on to coach the Chicago Bulls during the 1982-83 NBA season, forced to watch from the sidelines as Riley led his former team to an NBA Title in 1982. Westhead was not able to get the ball rolling as the leader of the Bulls, finishing his first and only season with a record of 28-54, the fifth-worst record in the NBA that year and the second-worst in the team's franchise history.

Westhead reportedly had similar issues with the Bulls' playing style as he had in Los Angeles. He was let go in 1983, just one season shy of the NBA debut of Michael Jordan. Westhead was still compensated for the 1983-84 season by the Bulls despite being replaced by Kevin Loughrey. Loughrey was the former head coach of the Atlanta Hawks who had led Dominique Wilkins and his team to the playoffs for two straight seasons.

Paul Westhead Continued Coaching NBA & College Teams Until 2014

After his brief stint with the Bulls, Westhead fell back to coaching at the college level at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. He was the head coach there from 1985 to 1990 and actually helped legitimize the small college as a contending team in the NCAA National Tournament during that time. Westhead's LMU team averaged a staggering 122.4 points per game in their historic 1990 season, which remains an NCAA all-time record to this day.

After Westhead's collegiate achievements, he went on to coach the Denver Nuggets from 1989-91. Westhead would later coach a number of collegiate, NBA, and ABA teams including the Golden State Warriors, Orlando Magic, and Oklahoma City Thunder. He retired in 2014 after coaching the Oregon University women's team for five years. Westhead's firing from the Los Angeles Lakers as depicted in Winning Time season 2, episode 5 may seem like the low point in his career. However, he resiliently found success as the head coach of multiple prestigious organizations after the 1981-82 NBA season.

Source: Washington Post