by Patrice Campbell
The Mira Costa High Mustangs girls basketball team that showed up at Fisher Gym on Saturday for the Coach Paul Westhead Mira Costa Classic was dispirited. They had lost badly to rival Redondo Union High the previous evening.
Saturday’s showcase tournament included 16 teams from throughout the Southland. Host Mira Costa would play the Palisades High, a team determined to rebound from last year’s lost season. The 2025 Palisades fire had destroyed the Dolphins’ school.
The Mira Costa girls tournament was renamed this year in honor of Paul Westhead, the only coach ever to win both an NBA Championship, with the Los Angeles Lakers in 1980, and a WNBA Championship, with the Phoenix Mercury in 2007.
Mira Costa Coach Jeff Herdman and Westhead, a longtime Palos Verdes resident, are family friends. At the start of the current season Herdman asked Westhead if he would lend his name to the Coast Classic. On Saturday, Herdman decided to ask another favor of Westhead — to give his girls a locker room pep talk.
Westhead questioned whether an 87-year-old who last coached a women’s team 20 years ago could motivate high school players. Herdman prevailed on him to give it a shot.
Westhead told the young Mustangs about the final game of the 2007 WNBA Championship. His Phoenix Mercury team was facing the Detroit Shock, coached by Palos Verdes High alumni Bill Laimbeer. The game was in Detroit and the Shock was known for rough play. Laimbeer had been the center for the Detroit Pistons during their “Bad Boy” era, with Dennis Rodman and Isiah Thomas. The Pistons’ rough play brought them back-to-back championships, in 1989 and 1990.
Westhead’s 2007 Mercury team was led by Diaha Taurasi, the WNBA all-time leader in points, three-pointers, field goals and free throws.
But when he began his locker room talk before the championship game, he sensed his team, even Taurasi, was nervous, Westhead told the Mustangs in their locker room before Saturday’s game.
Midway through his pep talk, which did not appear to be lifting anyone’s spirits, Westhead said, Mercury star point guard Cappie Pondexter interrupted him.
“Coach, look at your shoes. They don’t match,” Pondexter said.
On his left foot was a black loafer, with a tassel. On his right foot was a brown loafer without a tassel.
The Mercury team erupted in laughter. Their nerves disappeared. They went on to defeat the defending Detroit champions by 16 points, Westhead recalled.
“It looks like Coach Herdman’s shoes match tonight. But imagine they don’t. Now go play for the joy basketball brings you, and have fun out there,” Westhead told the Mustangs.
The despondent team that walked into the locker room walked out of it laughing, which may have been the deciding factor in the outcome of the game. The relaxed Mustangs held off a determined Palisades, 40 to 31. ER
