The Philly-born Paul Westhead had been head coach at La Salle only a year earlier and Cheltenham High before that when in 1980 he returned to his hometown, patrolling the opposing sidelines, about to sink the team he rooted for earlier in life.
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.
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, about the Lakers’ 1980s dynasty.
“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.” Luckily for Westhead, the Lakers had no shortage of superstar talent, and the club went 50-18 after he took over.
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