Two of those on the first 10 for L.A. County hoops would have to be Paul Westphal from Aviation of Redondo Beach (left) and James Harden from Artesia of Lakewood. Westphal, who died on January 2 at age 70 from cancer, is shown during his Hall of Fame induction speech. Photos: france24.com & wikipedia.com.
We present this all-time all-L.A. County team with a heavy heart since learning on Saturday that one of the all-time greats, guard Paul Westphal, had died at age 70 from brain cancer. As mentioned in our first part of this series, for boys basketball, we have to present L.A. County as a separate county or section from all others because of the immense talent that has come from there, going way back even into the 1950s. Westphal and almost all of the first 10, for example, are in the Hall of Fame or probably should be in it soon. L.A. County also happens to be one of the top places in the nation for hoop talent, not that far behind New York City, Chicago and Philadelphia.
FOR OUR ALL-TIME BEST BOYS BASKETBALL TEAMS FROM ORANGE COUNTY, THE CIF SAC-JOAQUIN SECTION AND THE CIF CENTRAL SECTION, CLICK HERE.
Note: This is a post on CalHiSports.com for Gold Club members only. We continue to add more all-state, all-decade, and all-time lists in boys basketball for our Gold Club team so make sure to click on the tabs on our main nav bar. We’ll still have more boys basketball content, including updated player rankings, even if we don’t have a CIF season for 2020-21. To become a Gold Club member, sign up today: CLICK HERE.
(Below is the All-County team for the highly-populated and super-talented group for Los Angeles County, which includes both CIF Southern Section and L.A. City Section programs. Similar to our Cal-Hi Sports All-Decade team, it’s chosen in the same format as our annual all-state team, which we have done for 41 consecutive seasons. This one is based on post-high school success and although the Bay Area would have a starting five just as strong as any here, the depth is now what separates L.A. from the Bay. We left off tons of players who easily would have made a team in another section/county. Also note that a player had to have played his last high school game at an L.A. County school and not just have gone to one before transferring to a school like Oak Hill Academy or Findlay Prep.)
