Paul Westphal, a member of the Hall of Fame, who was five times All-Star and three times selected for the team’s first team NBA, died at the age of 70, he announced on Saturday Sun. from Phoenix. The famous base had been diagnosed with brain cancer in August 2020.
The former player grew up in Southern California and played basketball at USC before being selected 10th at the Boston Celtics in the 1972 draft. He won an NBA title with the Celtics in 1974 in his second season, but his career took off when was changed to Phoenix.
His scoring average doubled to 20.5 points per game and helped the Suns make their first appearance in the NBA Finals. NBA in 1976. In Game 5 of the 1976 final, Westphal made several key pieces to triple overtime. Although the Celtics predominated in the game and in the series.
After five consecutive All-Star Game seasons, Westphal suffered injuries that limited his playing time until 1982-83, when he won the New York Knicks Return of the Year honors. He returned the following season to end his playing career with the Suns before taking over as coach.
As a coach, he had 318-279, including a trip to the 1993 finals and two conference semifinals. Westphal also joined the University of Seattle, Sacramento and Pepperdine from 2001 to 2006. He last worked in the NBA as an assistant coach for the Brooklyn Nets from 2014 to 2016. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in September 2019.