Former Sun Rising Again With His Son

A year ago Thursday, a very good coach, Paul Westphal, was dismissed by the NBA’s Phoenix Suns. He was in his fourth season. In three full 82-game seasons, Westphal’s teams averaged--averaged, mind you--59 wins.

Danny Ainge was running the Suns a few nights ago, when Robert Horry committed a flagrant-towel violation. Horry threw one in his coach’s face.

“These players today,” Westphal says, “they’re really feeling their oats.”

I don’t know whose players Westphal will coach next, but I doubt he will run into any such insubordination with the ones he has now.

He is an assistant coach at a high school.

Westphal, 46, is devoting all his time to a Phoenix area prep team. His son plays on it. The team’s record is 15-1. It is ranked No. 1 in the state in 4-A competition, the second-largest of Arizona’s class system.

At first, it seemed like a bad idea.

“I don’t think it has ever worked out in the history of basketball, a father coaching his son’s team,” Westphal says.

Not ever?

“I don’t think so. You’re either too hard on him, or you baby him. It’s not fair to the kid.”

Westphal was willing to try, though, for a couple of reasons.

One was that he wouldn’t have to be head coach. Another was that the coach, Terry Kearney, brought it up himself.

“I saw him last summer, and he said, ‘You should come help us.’ And we just kind of laughed,” Westphal says.

By all rights, some NBA club should have snapped up Westphal by the start of the 1996-97 season. Either that, or some major college.

But none did.

Michael Westphal approached his coach to say, “If you still want my dad, he says he’ll help.”

And that’s what he has been doing. The team’s only defeat came out of state, in a California tournament to a Pennsylvania team. Westphal attends practice daily to assist the coach, Kearney.

“He’s a real secure guy,” Westphal says.

Meanwhile, the Suns struggle along. They changed coaches again less than a month into the season. At the mid-January point, they had won 12 games.

I don’t know whether Horry’s trade to the Lakers was a result of his towel toss. But I do know that the Suns are scrambling to improve their team, bringing in Jason Kidd and Cedric Ceballos.

Why they cut their tie with Westphal in the first place is a mystery for the ages.

He played for the Suns. He is their fifth all-time leading scorer. His number, 44, is retired. He spent 1988-92 as an assistant coach. As head man, he went 62-20, 56-26 and 59-23, and took Phoenix to the NBA finals for the first time in 17 years.

Go figure. The Suns began last season 14-19, and on Jan. 16, 1996, they fired the coach.

Danny Manning missed all 33 of those games. Kevin Johnson was hurting for most of them.

But Manning did play in all but 16 of the final 49 games. And Johnson missed only one game after the All-Star break.

With both of them, plus Charles Barkley, the Suns under Cotton Fitzsimmons went 27-22.

I watch NBA teams pick coaches, often recycling oldies but goodies such as Dick Motta, and I wonder why in the world Paul Westphal wouldn’t be at the top of everybody’s list.

“We’ll see what happens when they shuffle the deck next time,” Westphal says. “You never know.”

I know a pro team would be nuts not to want him, with that record.

I also know a college program, UCLA’s, that should keep him in mind, if nobody would object to having an old USC man on campus. Westphal grew up in Torrance. His daughter attends Pepperdine. He knows the L.A. area like the back of his hand.

In the meantime, he will continue in his current job.

America’s most overqualified high school assistant.