The Speed Game

My Fast Times in Basketball

Paul Westhead

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Paperback

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English

University of Nebraska Press
13 September 2022

Biography: sport; Basketball

"Paul Westhead was teaching high school in his native Philadelphia when he was named La Salle University's men's basketball coach in 1970. By 1980 he was a Los Angeles Lakers assistant, soon to be hired as head coach, winning an NBA title with Hall of Fame center Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and rookie guard Magic Johnson. After compiling a 112-50 record, he was fired in November 1981. After a short stay as coach of the Chicago Bulls, Westhead reemerged in the mideighties as a coach at Loyola Marymount in California, where he designed his highly unusual signature run-and-gun offense that came to be known as ""The system.""

The Speed Game offers a vibrant account of how Westhead helped develop a style of basketball that not only won at the highest levels but went on to influence basketball as it's played today. Known for implementing an up-tempo, quick-possession, high-octane offense, Westhead is the only coach to have won championships in both the NBA and WNBA. But his long career can be defined by one simple question he's heard from journalists, fellow coaches, his wife, and, well, himself: Why? Why did he insist on playing such a controversial style of basketball that could vary from brilliant to busted?

Westhead speaks candidly here about the feathers he ruffled and about his own shortcomings as he takes readers from Philadelphia's West Catholic High, where he couldn't make varsity, to the birth of the Showtime Lakers and to the powerhouse he built nearly ten years later at Loyola, where his team set records likely never to be approached.

Westhead says he always found himself telling prospective bosses, ""My speed game is gonna knock your socks off!"" So will his story and what it could do to bring back a popular style of play."

By: Paul Westhead
Imprint: University of Nebraska Press
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 229mm, Width: 152mm,
ISBN: 9781496233127
ISBN 10: 1496233123
Pages: 216
Publication Date: 13 September 2022
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

Paul Westhead has been a basketball coach and offensive innovator with forty-plus years of experience at all levels. Westhead guided the Los Angeles Lakers to an NBA championship in 1980 and brought his high-scoring offense to the Chicago Bulls, Denver Nuggets, Golden State Warriors, Orlando Magic, and Seattle Supersonics/Oklahoma City Thunder. He took his fast-break style to the college game at Loyola Marymount and also to the WNBA, where his Phoenix Mercury team won the championship in 2007.

Reviews for The Speed Game: My Fast Times in Basketball

When the madness of Coach Westhead's speed game combines with willing talent, magic happens on the basketball court. It's not the speed game people couldn't keep up with; it was his beautiful mind that most couldn't follow. An intriguing insight into the life of the guru of go. -Diana Taurasi, winner of an NCAA championship with the University of Connecticut, a WNBA championship with the Phoenix Mercury, and of an Olympic gold medal Paul Westhead is a fastbreak savant. That has been conclusively proven in numerous coaching situations. More important, he is a highly principled and extremely talented basketball coach, and unfailingly loyal to his players, fellow coaches, and his beloved system. His journey from the City of Brotherly Love to NBA and WNBA championships and NCAA women's and men's scoring records is a wonderful, insightful, and entertaining read. -P. J. Carlesimo, ESPN basketball analyst and former NBA coach of the Portland Trailblazers, the Golden State Warriors, and the Seattle Supersonics 'The great ones all have a screw loose.' That's what Stanford's legendary basketball coach Tara VanDerveer once told me. Paul Westhead has a screw loose. His unique vision for basketball, and his dedication to his beliefs, against all odds, makes him a great one. This book is the diary of a mad scientist. It is a love story with amazing tales and anecdotes. Paul is the kind of whack job that makes basketball the deepest and most theatrical sport of all. His book enriches basketball lore. -Scott Ostler, columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle