Overview
- The National Basketball Coaches Association announced Friday that it selected 87-year-old Paul Westhead as the 2026 Chuck Daly Lifetime Achievement Award recipient.
- Westhead is the only head coach to win both an NBA title (Los Angeles Lakers, 1980) and a WNBA title (Phoenix Mercury, 2007), a distinction highlighted by the NBCA.
- His coaching résumé spans more than five decades and includes jobs at the high school, college, NBA, WNBA and international levels, a path he has described as roughly 20 different stops.
- Westhead built a reputation as the progenitor of a run‑and‑gun, up‑tempo offense — most famously at Loyola Marymount, whose 1989–90 squad led Division I in scoring and still holds NCAA scoring records.
- NBCA president J.B. Bickerstaff praised Westhead’s innovation and teaching, and the Finals presentation will spotlight how his pace‑first ideas helped shape later, modern high‑tempo teams.