Paul Douglas Westphal is Basketball Hall of Fame guard who played for the Boston Celtics’ 1974 N.B.A. champions and became a four-time All-Star with the Phoenix Suns and coached them to the league playoff final in 1993. Westphal played in the NBA from 1972-84 and after winning a championship with the Celtics, he made the finals in 1976 with Phoenix, where he was a key part of one of the most riveting games in league history. He also played for Seattle and the New York Knicks. He averaged 15.6 po... morePaul Douglas Westphal is Basketball Hall of Fame guard who played for the Boston Celtics’ 1974 N.B.A. champions and became a four-time All-Star with the Phoenix Suns and coached them to the league playoff final in 1993. Westphal played in the NBA from 1972-84 and after winning a championship with the Celtics, he made the finals in 1976 with Phoenix, where he was a key part of one of the most riveting games in league history. He also played for Seattle and the New York Knicks. He averaged 15.6 points, 4.4 assists and 1.9 rebounds during his career. After his playing career ended, Westphal moved into coaching. He was head coach of Seattle and Sacramento and had stints as an assistant with Dallas and Brooklyn. At the college level, Westphal coached at Southwestern Baptist Bible College (now Arizona Christian University), Grand Canyon and Pepperdine. Westphal was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame as a player in 2019. He went into the College Basketball Hall of Fame in 2018. He also tried acting featuring in Space Jam (1996), Forget Paris (1995) and NBA Hardwood Classics (1992). Westphal was diagnosed with brain cancer in the summer of 2020 and died in Scottside, Arizona aged 70. He was survived by his wife, Cindy, and two children.
