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Lenny Wilkens

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Lenny Wilkens
Wilkens in 1968
Personal information
Born (1937-10-28) October 28, 1937 (age 87)
Brooklyn, New York
NationalityAmerican
Listed height6 ft 1 in (1.85 m)
Listed weight180 lb (82 kg)
Career information
High schoolBoys (Brooklyn, New York)
CollegeProvidence (1957–1960)
NBA draft1960: 1st round, 6th overall pick
Selected by the St. Louis Hawks
Playing career1960–1975
PositionPoint guard
Number32, 15, 14, 19, 17
Coaching career1969–2005
Career history
As player:
1960–1968St. Louis Hawks
1968–1972Seattle SuperSonics
1972–1974Cleveland Cavaliers
1974–1975Portland Trail Blazers
As coach:
1969–1972Seattle SuperSonics
1974–1976Portland Trail Blazers
1977–1985Seattle SuperSonics
1986–1993Cleveland Cavaliers
1993–2000Atlanta Hawks
2000–2003Toronto Raptors
2004–2005New York Knicks
Career highlights and awards
As player:

As coach:

Career statistics
Points17,772 (16.5 ppg)
Rebounds5,030 (4.7 rpg)
Assists7,211 (6.7 apg)
Stats at NBA.com Edit this at Wikidata
Stats at Basketball Reference
Basketball Hall of Fame (playing)
Basketball Hall of Fame (coaching)
Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame
Medals
Head Coach for  United States
men's national basketball team
Olympic Games
Gold medal – first place 1996 Atlanta Team
Assistant Coach for  United States
men's national basketball team
Olympic Games
Gold medal – first place 1992 Barcelona Team

Leonard Randolph "Lenny" Wilkens (born October 28, 1937) is an American retired basketball player and coach in the National Basketball Association (NBA). He has been inducted three times into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, first in 1989 as a player, as a coach in 1998, and in 2010 as part of the 1992 United States Olympic "Dream Team", for which he was an assistant coach. He is also a 2006 inductee into the College Basketball Hall of Fame.

Wilkens was a combined 13-time NBA All-Star as a player (nine times) and as a head coach (four times), was the 1993 NBA Coach of the Year, won the 1979 NBA Championship as the head coach of the Seattle SuperSonics, and an Olympic gold medal as the head coach of the 1996 U.S. men's basketball team.

From the 1994–95 season until the 2009–10 season, Wilkens was the winningest coach in NBA history and retired still holding the record at 1,332 victories. Wilkens is now second on the list behind Don Nelson. He won the Chuck Daly Lifetime Achievement Award for the 2010–11 NBA season.[1]

Early life

Wilkens grew up in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn.[2] His father was African American and his mother was Irish American.[3] Wilkens was raised in the Roman Catholic faith.[3]

At Boys High School, Wilkens was a basketball teammate of longtime Major League Baseball star Tommy Davis.

Playing career

Wilkens was a two-time All-American (1959 and 1960) at Providence College. He led the team to their first NIT appearance in 1959, and to the NIT finals in 1960. When he graduated, Wilkens was, with 1,193 points, the second-ranked scorer in Friar history (he has since dropped to twentieth as of 2005). In 1996, Wilkens' No. 14 jersey was retired by the college, the first alumnus to receive such an honor. In honor of his collegiate accomplishments, Wilkens was one of the inaugural inductees into the College Basketball Hall of Fame in 2006.

Wilkens was drafted sixth overall by the St. Louis Hawks in the 1960 NBA draft. He began his career with eight seasons with the St. Louis Hawks, who lost the finals to the Boston Celtics in his rookie season. The Hawks made the playoffs consistently with Wilkens but never again reached the finals. Wilkens placed second to Wilt Chamberlain in the 1967–1968 MVP balloting, his last with the Hawks.

Wilkens was traded to the Seattle SuperSonics for Walt Hazzard and spent four seasons there. He averaged 22.4 points, 6.2 rebounds, and 8.2 assists per game in his first season for the SuperSonics, and was an All-Star in three of his seasons for them. He was named head coach in his second season with the team. Although the SuperSonics did not reach the playoffs while Wilkens simultaneously coached and started at point guard, their record improved each season and they won 47 games during the 1971–72 NBA season. Wilkens was dealt to the Cleveland Cavaliers before the start of the next season in a highly unpopular trade, and the SuperSonics fell to 26-56 without his leadership on the court.[4]

Wilkens ended his career spending two seasons with the Cleveland Cavaliers (1972–1974) and one with the Portland Trail Blazers (1974–1975).

Wilkens scored 17,772 points during the regular season, was a nine-time NBA All-Star, and was named the 1971 NBA All-Star Game MVP in 1971. With Seattle, he led the league in assists in the 1969–70 season, and at the time of his retirement was the NBA's second all-time leader in that category, behind only Oscar Robertson.

Coaching career

From 1969 to 1972 with Seattle, and in his one season as a player with Portland, he was a player-coach. He retired from playing in 1975 and was the full-time coach of the Trail Blazers for one more season. After a season off from coaching, he again became coach of the SuperSonics when he replaced Bob Hopkins who was fired 22 games into the 1977–78 season after a dismal 5-17 start. The SuperSonics won 11 of their first 12 games under Wilkens and made the playoffs in back-to-back years, losing in seven games to the Washington Bullets in the 1978 NBA Finals before returning to the 1979 NBA Finals and defeating the Washington Bullets in five games for their first and only NBA title.

He coached in Seattle for eight seasons (1977–1985), winning his (and Seattle's) only NBA championship in 1979. He would go on to coach Cleveland (1986–1993), Atlanta (1993–2000), Toronto (2000–2003) and New York (2004–05).

The Hall of Famer was named head coach of the New York Knicks on January 15, 2004. After the Knicks' slow start to the 2004–05 season, Wilkens resigned from the team on January 22, 2005.

Awards and honors

Later years

On November 29, 2006 he was hired as vice chairman of the Seattle SuperSonics' ownership group,[5] and was later named the Sonics' President of Basketball Operations on April 27, 2007.[6] On July 6, 2007 Wilkens resigned from the Sonics organization. Wilkens currently is seen on Northwest FSN Studio as a College Hoops analyst and occasionally appears on College Hoops Northwest at game nights. He is the founder of the Lenny Wilkens Foundation for Children.[7]

Quotes

  • "I learned my basketball on the playgrounds of Brooklyn. Today, being a playground player is an insult. It means all you want to do is go one-on-one, it means your fundamentals stink and you don't understand the game. But the playgrounds I knew were tremendous training grounds."
  • "Show people how to have success and then you can push their expectations up."[8]

Head coaching record

Legend
Regular season G Games coached W Games won L Games lost W–L % Win–loss %
Playoffs PG Playoff games PW Playoff wins PL Playoff losses PW–L % Playoff win–loss %
Team Year G W L W–L% Finish PG PW PL PW–L% Result
Seattle 1969–70 82 36 46 .439 5th in Western — — — — Missed playoffs
Seattle 1970–71 82 38 44 .463 4th in Pacific — — — — Missed playoffs
Seattle 1971–72 82 47 35 .573 3rd in Pacific — — — — Missed playoffs
Portland 1974–75 82 38 44 .463 3rd in Pacific — — — — Missed playoffs
Portland 1975–76 82 37 45 .451 5th in Pacific — — — — Missed playoffs
Seattle 1977–78 60 42 18 .700 3rd in Pacific 22 13 9 .591 Lost in NBA Finals
Seattle 1978–79 82 52 30 .634 1st in Pacific 17 12 5 .706 Won NBA Championship
Seattle 1979–80 82 56 26 .683 2nd in Pacific 15 7 8 .467 Lost in Conf. Finals
Seattle 1980–81 82 34 48 .415 6th in Pacific — — — — Missed playoffs
Seattle 1981–82 82 52 30 .634 2nd in Pacific 8 3 5 .375 Lost in Conf. Semifinals
Seattle 1982–83 82 48 34 .585 3rd in Pacific 2 0 2 .000 Lost in First Round
Seattle 1983–84 82 42 40 .512 3rd in Pacific 5 2 3 .400 Lost in First Round
Seattle 1984–85 82 31 51 .378 5th in Pacific — — — — Missed playoffs
Cleveland 1986–87 82 31 51 .378 4th in Central — — — — Missed playoffs
Cleveland 1987–88 82 42 40 .512 4th in Central 5 2 3 .400 Lost in First Round
Cleveland 1988–89 82 57 25 .695 2nd in Central 5 2 3 .400 Lost in First Round
Cleveland 1989–90 82 42 40 .512 4th in Central 5 2 3 .400 Lost in First Round
Cleveland 1990–91 82 33 49 .402 6th in Central — — — — Missed playoffs
Cleveland 1991–92 82 57 25 .695 2nd in Central 17 9 8 .529 Lost in Conf. Finals
Cleveland 1992–93 82 54 28 .659 2nd in Central 9 3 6 .333 Lost in Conf. Semifinals
Atlanta 1993–94 82 57 25 .695 1st in Central 11 5 6 .455 Lost in Conf. Semifinals
Atlanta 1994–95 82 42 40 .512 5th in Central 3 0 3 .000 Lost in First Round
Atlanta 1995–96 82 46 36 .561 4th in Central 10 4 6 .400 Lost in Conf. Semifinals
Atlanta 1996–97 82 56 26 .683 2nd in Central 10 4 6 .400 Lost in Conf. Semifinals
Atlanta 1997–98 82 50 32 .610 4th in Central 4 1 3 .250 Lost in First Round
Atlanta 1998–99 50 31 19 .620 2nd in Central 9 3 6 .333 Lost in Conf. Semifinals
Atlanta 1999–2000 82 28 54 .341 7th in Central — — — — Missed playoffs
Toronto 2000–01 82 47 35 .573 2nd in Central 12 6 6 .500 Lost in Conf. Semifinals
Toronto 2001–02 82 42 40 .512 3rd in Central 5 2 3 .400 Lost in First Round
Toronto 2002–03 82 24 58 .293 7th in Central — — — — Missed playoffs
New York 2003–04 42 23 19 .548 3rd in Atlantic 4 0 4 .000 Lost in First Round
New York 2004–05 39 17 22 .436 (resigned) — — — — —
Career 2,487 1,332 1,155 .536 178 80 98 .449

See also

References

  1. ^ Wilkens presented Chuck Daly Lifetime Achievement Award | NBA.com
  2. ^ Beck, Howard. "PRO BASKETBALL; Wilkens Denies He Was Asked to Go", The New York Times, September 28, 2005. Accessed November 20, 2007. "A native of Brooklyn's Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood, Wilkens had added motivation to succeed in New York, which made leaving so quickly that much tougher."
  3. ^ a b Smith, Gary (December 5, 1994). "He Has Overcome". Sports Illustrated. Retrieved July 31, 2008.
  4. ^ Gastineau, Mark; Thiel, Art; Rudman, Steve (2009). The Great Book of Seattle Sports Lists. United States: Running Press. pp. 261–262. ISBN 9780762435227. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
  5. ^ Evans, Jayda (December 1, 2006). "Wilkens a Sonic again – as vice chairman". The Seattle Times.
  6. ^ SONICS: Lenny Wilkens Confirmed as President of Basketball Operations
  7. ^ http://lennywilkensfoundation.org/lwf_home.html
  8. ^ "Lenny Wilkens Interview (page: 6 / 7)". Academy of Achievement. Retrieved October 4, 2013.
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