Westhead’s Job Became Riley’s for the Axing

While Coach Pat Riley left the Lakers of his own choice, his predecessor, Paul Westhead, first heard he could be departing under drastically different circumstances.

Westhead knew there were several unhappy players on the team in the fall of 1981. He knew Magic Johnson had spoken out in Utah, asking to be traded, but he was convinced the situation was not lost.

Westhead had a scheduled meeting with owner Jerry Buss the day after his return from Utah. Over lunch, Westhead explained to his wife, Cassie, and his daughter, Monica, then 18, how he thought the meeting would go, and how the problems would be resolved.

Nothing to worry about.

It was Monica who burst the bubble.

“Dad,” she said, “you’re going to get fired!”

Add Laker coaching change: Riley was bitter the night of Johnson’s outburst in Utah. Then Westhead’s assistant, he figured he would also go if his boss did.

As Riley sat in a bar atop a Utah hotel, a Jazz assistant coach tried to calm Riley’s fears.

“Don’t worry, Pat,” the assistant said, “you never know how things are going to turn out.”

The assistant was Bill Bertka.

You know the rest of the story.

Neck and Neck: Riley and Detroit’s Chuck Daly, perhaps rivals for the analyst job on NBC next season, are both good talkers, according to those who should know.

A nationwide media panel, picking the NBA all-interview team, put both Riley and Daly on the coaches’ squad, along with Doug Moe of Denver, Cotton Fitzsimmons of Phoenix, Del Harris of Milwaukee and Richie Adubato of Dallas.

Making the first team were Johnson, Charles Barkley, Michael Jordan, Karl Malone and Kevin McHale.

Trivia time: When the Kansas City Royals’ Amos Otis made the last out in Nolan Ryan’s first no-hitter in 1973, it was the second time Otis completed a pitching gem. What was the first?

Ouch: Talking about former New York Jet defensive star Mark Gastineau, team president Steve Gutman said, “Mark has indicated a desire to return to football. We have no desire for him to play here.”

Trivia answer: Otis, then with the New York Mets, was also Steve Carlton’s last strikeout victim in the 1969 game in which he set the modern National League record with 19, a mark later tied by Tom Seaver.

Quotebook: Dave Gavitt, head of the Boston Celtics’ basketball operations, on the club’s search for a head coach: “I said that there were three candidates instead of two because when one of the press reports circulated that we were going to pay $2 million a year to our head coach, Red (Auerbach) reapplied to come out of retirement.”