Jack McKinney (basketball)

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Jack McKinney is a former college and professional basketball coach. He has served as head coach for three NBA teams--the Los Angeles Lakers, the Indiana Pacers, and the Kansas City Kings. In addition, he served as an assistant for the Milwaukee Bucks and the Portland Trail Blazers.

McKinney's term as head coach of the Lakers lasted for only 14 games because he suffered a near-fatal head injury in a bicycle accident in late 1979. McKinney was the first professional coach for future Basketball Hall of Fame guard Magic Johnson. In Johnson's first game as a pro, he hit the game-winning shot at the buzzer to lift the Lakers over the San Diego Clippers. Ironically, that game was the first in a Clippers uniform for San Diego native Bill Walton, himself a future Hall of Famer.

Paul Westhead suceeded McKinney and led the Lakers to the first of their five NBA championships in the 1980s, defeating the Philadelphia 76ers in the NBA Finals in six games.

McKinney went on to win the NBA Coach of the Year Award the next season at Indiana, leading the Pacers to the playoffs for the first time since the NBA's merger with the American Basketball Association in the summer of 1976.

He also was a longtime coach at Saint Joseph's University.

In 2005, McKinney co-authored a book about his experiences at Saint Joseph's.

[edit] External links

• BasketballReference.com: Jack McKinney
• Jack McKinney with Robert Gordon, Jack McKinney's Tales from the Saint Joseph's Hardwood: The Hawk will Never Die, Sports Publishing (2005) ISBN 1-58261-929-8

Preceded by Jerry West	Los Angeles Lakers Head Coach 1979	Succeeded by Paul Westhead
Preceded by Slick Leonard	Indiana Pacers Head Coach 1980–1984	Succeeded by George Irvine
Preceded by Cotton Fitzsimmons	Kansas City Kings Head Coach 1984 (interim)	Succeeded by Phil Johnson