From the ghetto to the top of basketball: The legendary life of Lanny Wilkens

Hall of Fame member Lanny Wilkens passed away on Sunday local time at the age of 88.

In his 15-year playing career, Wilkens was selected to the All-Star nine times and led the league in assists twice. With exceptional court awareness, Wilkens served as player-coach for four seasons, three with the Seattle SuperSonics and one with the Portland Trail Blazers, before transitioning to full-time coaching. He led the Sonics to the 1979 NBA championship and won the Coach of the Year Award in 1994.

As the head coach of the Sonics, Trail Blazers, Cleveland Cavaliers, Atlanta Hawks, Toronto Raptors and New York Knicks, Wilkens won 1,332 games before retiring in 2005, ranking third in history. He coached 2,487 games, the most in NBA history. Additionally, he won an Olympic gold medal as the head coach of Team USA in 1996.

He is one of only five people elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as a player and coach, the other four being John Wooden, Bill Sharman, Tom Heinsohn and Bill Russell.

"Lenny Wilkens represented the highest level of the NBA as a Hall of Fame player, Hall of Fame coach and one of the game's most respected ambassadors," NBA Commissioner Silver said in a statement on Sunday. "Because of this, four years ago, Lanny received the unique honor of being named one of the 75 greatest superstars and one of the 15 greatest coaches in league history. "

Wilkens is a relatively small left-handed player, just over 6 feet tall (about 1.83 meters). He grew up in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York. His father was a driver who died when Wilkens was 5 years old; his mother worked in a candy factory. Wilkens didn't play on the varsity team until his senior year of high school. The priest of his diocese wrote to Providence College's athletic director asking for consideration for a scholarship to Wilkens, despite his limited playing experience. Later, Wilkens became the first superstar of Providence College's "Friars" and was twice selected to the All-American team.

He led Providence College to the NIT (National Invitation Tournament) for the first time in 1959 and reached the NIT finals in 1960. Wilkens' No. 14 jersey was retired in 1996, the first jersey to be retired by Providence College. In 2006, he became one of the first inductees into the College Basketball Hall of Fame.

The St. Louis Eagles selected Wilkens in the first round of the 1960 draft. In his second season, he played only 20 games due to military service, but he returned full time in 1962-63 and led the Eagles to the playoffs for six consecutive seasons. In the 1967-68 season, his final season with the Hawks, Wilkens finished second in MVP voting behind Wilt Chamberlain.

In 1968, Wilkens was traded to the newly formed Seattle SuperSonics. In his first season with the Sonics, he averaged 22.4 points, 8.2 assists and 6.2 rebounds per game, and was an All-Star in each of his three seasons with the Sonics.

Before the start of the 1969-70 season, Sonics general manager Dick Vertlieb invited Wilkens to serve as player-coach. "We went back and forth for a long time," Wilkens told the Boston Globe. "I said no at first. I eventually decided, what the heck, I had nothing to lose; I would give it a try and see if I liked it. Everyone said I was like a coach on the court. "

In his third season as player-coach, the Sonics went 47-35, the first time in franchise history that their winning percentage had exceeded 50%.

Before the 1972-73 season, Wilkens was traded to the Cavaliers, a move that caused great dissatisfaction in Seattle. In his first season with the weak Cavaliers, he averaged 20.5 points and 8.4 assists per game and represented the Cavaliers in the 1973 All-Star Game. He spent his final season as player-coach with the Portland Trail Blazers in 1974-75 before transitioning to full-time coaching.

After serving as a full-time coach in Portland for one season, Wilkens returned to Seattle as head coach in the 1977-78 season, replacing Bob Hopkins who started the season with 5 wins and 17 losses. That season, Wilkens led the Sonics to the NBA Finals, where they lost to the Washington Bullets in seven games. In 1979, he once again led the Sonics to the Finals and defeated the Bullets, bringing Seattle its first and only NBA championship.

When asked how he got along so well with the players, Wilkens told Newsday: "I know what the young players are going through. I understand their background. I myself It's not like he came from a privileged background, so I feel the same way. Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr (who played for Wilkens from 1989 to 1992) called his former coach "a great guy." The Warriors held a moment of silence for Wilkens before Sunday night's game against the Indiana Pacers, a decision that pleased Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle.

"I later succeeded him as president of the National Basketball Coaches Association," Carlisle said. "He did a lot to advance the profession; pensions, benefits, coaching salaries increased significantly during his tenure. He was a great voice to the league office and a voice for the coaches and a lot of the things that coaches go through that are not well-known. Lenny was a great communicator when it came to that kind of stuff.. "

"What I will always remember is that he was such a great gentleman, such a classy person, and also a very competitive coach. His total number of wins still ranks among the highest in history. He was a very, very special man. We will miss him, but he will be remembered. "

Wilkens also led four other teams to the playoffs. In 1995, he set a record that he thought would last forever: He surpassed Boston Celtics coach Auerbach to become the winningest coach in league history. He celebrated with a cigar.

"He was my benchmark. So I lit that cigar," Wilkens said. "I'd never smoked a cigar in my life, you know, and I lit it and almost choked, but I wanted to do it as a tribute to Auerbach. "

Wilkens was eventually surpassed by Don Nelson, who ranks second all-time with 1,335 wins, three more than Wilkens. Popovich has since surpassed both men, with 1,388 wins at the time of his retirement.

When Wilkens retired after 32 seasons, he maintained the record for wins, losses and games coached. Historical record. His teams rarely have superstars. The only Hall of Fame player Wilkens has coached in his prime is himself.

"I've always believed you need balance, " he once said. "It's not that I don't want stars, I will always accept stars, but even if you have a star, it is important to surround him with the right complementary players. "

Wilkens was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as a player in 1989. In 1998, he was inducted again as a coach and coached until the 2004-05 season. He also won the 1992 Olympics in 2010 "Lanny didn't dunk," Sam Smith wrote in a 2002 column about Wilkens for ESPN. "He was just over 6 feet tall and weighed 175 pounds." He doesn't look very fast, but he can always get to the basket. Nothing he does stands out. He just scores or passes the ball to someone who can score. It was like his coaching style later on. Nothing flashy. "

"Lanny is also tough, but he doesn't look like it. Because he was a pioneer. In 1956, it was rare for African-American kids to get college basketball scholarships, which was one of the reasons he ended up at Providence College. When Wilkens took over the Sonics as player-coach in 1969, it was difficult for African Americans to get coaching opportunities. "

"Wilkens doesn't shout to get attention or demand attention. He gets attention with results, and that's how it should be. He had few stars, but he built winning teams. He rarely had ultimate success, but his teams were always well prepared, efficient, competitive and committed. You can't ask for more from a coach. And few do it better than Wilkens. Wilkens retired and lived in Medina, Washington. He headed the NBA Coaches Association for 17 years. His Lenny Wilkens Foundation raised millions of dollars in Seattle, where he is still beloved for bringing the Sonics a championship.