YouTube Gold: Paul Westphal, Freaking Everyone Out

Always overshadowed but undeniably great

One of the things about time never stopping is that new memories crowd out older ones. In basketball, as in life, older players are pushed aside for newer guys. That’s why we see people suggest that LeBron James is a better player than Michael Jordan, which is incorrect because Jordan’s competitive desire dwarfed James’s, as it dwarfed everyone else’s (the Bulls would not let Jordan lift weights with teammate Horace Grant because they feared that Jordan would injure himself trying to out-lift the much stronger Grant).

So it’s natural that older players get less attention. It’s a shame sometimes because we forget truly wonderful athletes. Take Paul Westphal for instance.

A native of California, Westphal played for USC from 1969 to 1972, which means that he overlapped with both Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Bill Walton during their astonishing careers at UCLA (indeed, UCLA started an epic 88-game win streak while Westphal played for the Trojans).

Westphal was drafted by Boston in 1972 and was traded to the Phoenix Suns in 1975. He was one of the greatest ambidextrous players in NBA history and at 6-4 could do astonishing things. Let’s look at two of his great plays.

Play 1: As a Seattle Supersonic, Westphal just absolutely throws one down over Magic Johnson.

Play 2: in the 1976 Finals, Phoenix and Boston had a legendary three-overtime Game 5 and Westphal did this, which is by any sane standard, completely ridiculous. Wow.