C-a-C Past Lives: Paul Westphal has to let a good one go

Gotta get�back in time ... Welcome to another edition of�Create-a-Caption Past Lives.

Maurice had been with Paul Westphal for years ? the two first met in Mesa, Ariz., in 1989, before Westphal took the reins of the Phoenix Suns from Cotton Fitzsimmons. Through the peaks of Westphal's time with the Suns and the valleys of his two-year exile as a high-school assistant, one thing remained constant: Maurice. He'd even made the trip up the Pacific shoreline to Washington when Westphal got the lead job with the Seattle SuperSonics.

The two were close. Real close.�But stray strands during televised tilts with the Golden State Warriors simply couldn't be tolerated.

And so it was, with a heavy heart, that Paul Westphal ordered the execution of Maurice, his longtime barber. It was the NBA's last coach-ordered, league-sanctioned murder ? just one of many ways in which the 1999 lockout and resultant redrawn collective bargaining agreement forever changed the game's landscape.

Best caption wins a fond farewell to a friend (whose death you ordered). Good luck.

In our last adventure: INTO THE PAST! Lenny Wilkens patiently explains, again, that Mark Jackson can stop blowing on his hands. Just because it's Canada, that doesn't mean it's cold. Especially indoors.

Winner, Russell S: Wilkens: "Blow on those dice, Jack-o! Lenny needs a new pair of shoes!"

Jackson: "Get my agent on the phone. Now."

Runner-up, Vaffanculo: Mark has the beat going, but Lenny just can't pull of the rap.

Second runner-up, Carlos S: Mark Jackson: "Coach, I'm telling you, I'll be great at this. Watch: 'You talk about ... a guy who ?'"

Lenny Wilkens (interrupting): "Mark, I don't have 20 minutes to spare."

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