How Magic Johnson's shocking Lakers trade request led to Paul Westhead's firing in 1981
Editor’s note: All interviews for this story were completed prior to the SAG-AFTRA strike.
Magic Johnson played for the Lakers during the entirety of his NBA career. But all of that nearly ended when he demanded a trade in 1981.
Such frustration seemed unlikely when Johnson was named NBA Finals MVP as a rookie in 1980. Fans saw the joys of victory during the first season of HBO’s Winning Time when Paul Westhead (brilliantly portrayed by Jason Segel) improbably led the Lakers to win an NBA championship during his first year as interim head coach.
“Season 1 is about a guy stepping into his adulthood and it’s a series of unlikely circumstances that leads to an unlikely victory,” Jason Segel told For The Win. “It’s really a story of underdog triumph.”
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But after he became the permanent head coach of the team the following season, his new offensive game plan “did not endear him” to Johnson or his similarly skeptical teammates.
Stubbornly, he stuck to his intuition and may have lost the locker room in the process.
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“[Season 2] is the story of somebody who probably didn’t belong to be in this position in the first place trying to hold the ring of power and just not being able to do it,” Segel said. “He can’t see his way out of pride.”
Los Angeles began the 1981-82 season with a 2-4 record and the chemistry on the team was awful. According to sportswriter Jeff Pearlman, the author of the Winning Time source material, Johnson refused to board the team bus after the Lakers lost to the Spurs during the sixth game of the season.
Winning Time is elite television they got Magic Johnson cooking Utah Jazz fans pic.twitter.com/IzT5CUMQfy
— Ahmed/The Ears/IG: BigBizTheGod (@big_business_) August 28, 2023
A few games later, Johnson and Westhead reached a breaking point during a game against the Jazz at the Salt Palace in Utah (via Los Angeles Times):
After receiving a postgame lecture from Westhead, Magic … said: “I can’t play here anymore. I want to leave. I want to be traded. I can’t deal with it no more. I’ve got to go in and ask [Buss] to trade me.”
HoopsHype recently ranked Johnson’s trade request as the second-most important in league history. The reason is that, despite riding a five-game win streak, Westhead was fired the next day.
Westhead was eventually replaced by longtime Lakers head coach Pat Riley, who is portrayed in the show by Adrien Brody. The two coaches, who were once friends, saw their relationship dissolve largely over differing opinions about how to coach Johnson.
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“In order to save himself and Magic and help everyone live up to their potential, it causes a rift in his friendship with Paul,” Brody explained. “There’s really a lot of humanity going on in the game and their lives.”
Segel recalls a pivotal moment in the timeline of the two coaches that happens on screen.
“Pat Riley has been protecting me from myself for most of the season,” Segel said. “There is a moment where I go to go after Magic and Pat stops me and I turn on Pat and I say, ‘What, Pat?’ really aggressively and you see on Adrien’s face and he makes the decision to just say nothing. He lets me end it.”
Riley admirably stepped up with Westhead no longer in the picture.
Led by Riley after Westhead was ousted, the Lakers were 50-21 (.704) to end the season and Los Angeles went on to win another championship. That may not have happened if Johnson hadn’t publicly requested his trade, which then effectively forced Westhead out of his position.
Jason Segel is putting on a masterclass as Paul Westhead in Winning Time
— philip lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) August 28, 2023
According to Rodney Barnes, who is an executive producer and writer on the show, Segel was able to perfectly capture Westhead’s many flaws during this season of Winning Time.
“Everybody is not cut out for [the job],” Barnes said. “To have the pressure of a [personality like] Pat Riley sitting next to you the whole time and what that does to you emotionally and psychologically … Jason Segel is fantastic.”
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