NBA Hall of Famer Paul Westphal dies of brain cancer at age 70

Paul Westphal (Wikimedia Commons)

According to ESPN on Saturday, basketball legend and hall of fame guard Paul Westphal of Torrance, California, died at the age of 70 of brain cancer. Westphal played 12 NBA seasons with the Boston Celtics, Phoenix Suns, Seattle SuperSonics, and New York Knicks from 1972 to 1984. He then went on to be a NBA head coach with the Suns, Supersonics, and Sacramento Kings.

Westphal was a NBA All-Star for five consecutive seasons with the Suns from 1976 to 1981, and a three-time first-team all-star in 1977, 1979, and 1980. In the 1977-78 season, Westphal had a career-high 25.2 points per game. His number 44 was retired by the Suns in 1989, and he was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 2019.

In his career, Westphal averaged 15.6 points per game, 4.4 assists per game, and 1.9 rebounds per game over 823 regular season games. He also had a shooting percentage of .504, and a free throw percentage of .820.

Westphal also had a notable time with the Boston Celtics. After being selected with the 10th overall pick by Boston in the 1972 NBA Draft out of the University of Southern California where he made the College Basketball Hall of Fame, Westphal was on the Celtics team that won the 1974 NBA Finals. The Celtics beat the Milwaukee Bucks four games to three. Westphal averaged 5.7 points per game during the 1974 NBA postseason. The Celtics team at the time was coached by Tom Heinsohn of Jersey City, New Jersey, who passed away at the age of 86, of kidney failure on November 9. Another former Celtics legend, K.C. Jones, died on Christmas Day, at the age of 88 of Alzheimer’s Disease.

Near the end of his career, Westphal was also the NBA comeback player of the year in 1982-83. That year with the Knicks, he averaged 10.0 points per game in 80 games after only playing 12 games with the Knicks in 1981-82, due to complications with a broken foot that he suffered while with Seattle.

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