In the midst of the 1980 NBA Finals, Haywood passed out during practice after a night of freebasing cocaine. Lakers head coach Paul Westhead suspended him, and Haywood hired someone to assassinate the coach. “I left the Forum and drove off in my Rolls that night thinking one thought — that Westhead must die,” Haywood wrote. “In the heat of anger and the daze of coke, I phoned an old friend of mine, a genuine certified gangster. … We sat down and figured it out. Westhead lived in Palos Verdes, and we got his street address. We would sabotage his car, mess with his brake lining.”