Paul Westhead

Exactly four weeks ago, basketball star Hank Gathers of Loyola Marymount University died, and ever since, the story has twisted and turned. There have been reports of doctors' assessments of what happened, purchases of life-saving machinery, questions of medicine dosage, unused $1-million insurance policies, emotional funerals and emotional basketball victories, grieving families and a fatherless son, legal threats and nervous school administrators....

Where have you gone, Jerry Buss? If sports are a shared experience handed down from fathers to sons, it's not every dad who can give his boy the NBA's glamour franchise. As Jim Buss' first solo decision, the coach search was a Lakers landmark before it led to Mike Brown. Well, people didn't like the Louisiana Purchase, either. However it turns out, Brown didn't hire himself, making it unfortunate the sky fell on him. Actually, Jim didn't appoint himself, either, making it unfortunate the sky fell on him too. The question is not what Jim should have done, like run Brown's name past their franchise player.

Mike Downey failed to mention in his column that Loyola Marymount is located in Westchester. Westchester is as proud of Loyola and Paul Westhead as Westwood is of UCLA and John Wooden. The fans are calling Westhead the Wizard of Westchester. Slap a technical on Downey and all will be forgiven. RICHARD R. LINDE Los Angeles

Paul Westhead and Michael Cooper go way back. Back to a day when basketball shorts were short, when Converse sneakers ruled, when Westhead coached the Lakers and Cooper was his defensive stopper. That might not mean a lot when Westhead's Oregon Ducks and Cooper's USC Trojans play Friday in the State Farm Pac-10 women's basketball tournament at the Galen Center. Then again, it might. Westhead's Ducks play the same sneakers-to-the-accelerator offense his teams have always been known for. They rank fourth nationally in scoring, averaging 81.5 points.

While Phil Jackson and the Lakers chase another NBA championship, the coach who guided Magic Johnson's memorable rookie playoff run toils in virtual anonymity. Paul Westhead's circuitous coaching journey has taken him to the University of Oregon, where in March the former Lakers and Loyola Marymount coach was hired to lead the struggling women's basketball program.

George Mason will announce former Laker and Loyola Marymount coach Paul Westhead as its basketball coach at a news conference today, the Washington Post reported. Westhead, 54, who coached the Lakers to the 1980 NBA title, coached nine seasons at La Salle and five at Loyola Marymount. He had teams in five NCAA tournaments and played in three for St. Joseph's (Pa.). He will succeed Ernie Nestor, who resigned March 8 after consecutive 7-21 seasons.

Loyola Marymount basketball Coach Paul Westhead was reunited with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for the big fella's recent Pacific exhibition tour, and may have set up Kareem's last public sky hook. International rules made it tougher to orchestrate. Abdul-Jabbar and several other National Basketball Assn. veterans--some retired--toured Australia and Taiwan last month.

When the three-point shot was put in place at 19 feet, 9 inches in college basketball last year, some called it a travesty and others licked their chops. But the smart saw it for what it was: a new aspect of the game that could be used at the right times. One of the coaches who immediately incorporated the three-pointer into his offense was North Carolina's Dean Smith. Another was Loyola Marymount Coach Paul Westhead.

Five miles down the LAX glide path from the Forum, Paul Westhead, now the coach of Loyola Marymount, continues in a new career amid a rising decibel count. The roar you hear isn't the surf, or the jets. It's Saturday night and there are 4,465 people in Loyola's Gersten Pavilion, its largest crowd ever and 300 above listed capacity. The student section is right behind Westhead's bench. There are students in fake grass skirts with their chests painted gray and crimson, the school colors.

He didn't want a Wizard of Westchester tag, but Paul Westhead left Loyola Marymount with a legacy of victories and virtually every collegiate scoring record in five seasons as basketball coach. Westhead, who was named coach of the Denver Nuggets of the NBA on Sept. 8, turned the Lions from perennial losers into NCAA championship contenders after taking the job before the 1985-86 season.

While Phil Jackson and the Lakers chase another NBA championship, the coach who guided Magic Johnson's memorable rookie playoff run toils in virtual anonymity. Paul Westhead's circuitous coaching journey has taken him to the University of Oregon, where in March the former Lakers and Loyola Marymount coach was hired to lead the struggling women's basketball program.

Paul Westhead is leaving the WNBA champion Phoenix Mercury to return to the NBA, accepting an assistant coaching job with the Seattle SuperSonics on Thursday. Westhead, 68, also won the NBA championship in 1980 as a rookie coach with the Lakers. He is the only coach to win titles in both leagues. Westhead joins friend P.J. Carlesimo for the second time, serving as his assistant from 1997-99 at Golden State.

'He's kind of old and he needs some fashion advice, but we'll have him ready for next year.' -- Diana Taurasi Phoenix guard, on 68-year-old Coach Paul Westhead, who wore mismatched shoes in the Mercury's WNBA finals victory Saturday

Paul Westhead, who coached the Lakers to an NBA championship in 1980 and guided high-scoring Loyola Marymount from 1985 to '90, will coach the Long Beach Jam of the American Basketball Association. Considered a guru of fastbreak basketball, Westhead coached in the Japan Basketball League the last two seasons. He also has coached at La Salle and George Mason and in the NBA at Chicago and Denver.

This is Trivial Pursuit for basketball fans, a chance to quiz your neighbor. Where is Stanley Roberts now? Stanley Roberts is the 340-pound center for the San Diego WildFire of the American Basketball Assn. Where is JaRon Rush now? JaRon Rush is wearing street clothes and sitting on the bench for the Los Angeles Stars of the ABA. Isn't Kenny Brunner playing basketball in junior college somewhere? Or at Fresno State? No.

It's one of the strangest NBA coaching stories. On Nov. 8, 1979, Laker Coach Jack McKinney left his Palos Verdes home for a morning bicycle ride. He couldn't remember later how it happened, but he fell off his bike and suffered a serious head injury. He was put on medical leave and his assistant coach, Paul Westhead, took over. Rookie Coach Westhead and a rookie player named Earvin "Magic" Johnson proceeded to lead the Lakers to the 1980 league championship.

Paul Westhead picks up his telephone messages from a secretary in the Marymount Palos Verdes College office. The athletic director at Caltech has called. "He heard we might have a team next year," Westhead says, laughing. "He wants to pick up a W." Hey, those Caltech guys are no dummies. If tiny Marymount (586 students, no jocks) does have a basketball team next school year, it would probably be a team that Caltech could beat.

The Loyola Marymount basketball team will go into this weekend's Gator Bowl Tournament at Jacksonville, Fla., with one of its top guns, in the words of its coach, being retooled. Senior guard Jeff Fryer broke the fourth metacarpal in his right--shooting--hand (a bone near the thumb, not his ring finger as earlier reported), but things could be worse.

The bus carrying the Golden State Warriors on Sunday drove past Loyola Marymount and then came to the Forum. "That's two of my lifetimes," Paul Westhead said shortly after arriving. This is his newest one. The former coach of the Lakers and Loyola Marymount was back as an assistant coach with the Warriors under longtime friend P.J. Carlesimo, also serving as his return to the NBA after four seasons as head coach at George Mason.

Paul Westhead, who failed to deliver the exciting, high-scoring game he promised, was fired as basketball coach at George Mason on Tuesday. The Patriots finished their fourth season under Westhead at 10-17, including losses in nine of their last 10 games. "I did the best I could to raise the level of basketball at George Mason University," Westhead said in a written statement. "Our coaching staff worked very hard at turning a down program into a winner.