Lenny Wilkens biography
Lenny Wilkens, byname of Leonard Randolph Wilkens, (born Oct. 28, 1937, Brooklyn, N.Y., U.S.), American skilled basketball participant and coach who is taken into account one of many sport’s most achieved playmaking guards and who gained 1,332 video games, the second most within the historical past of the National Basketball Association (NBA), behind solely Don Nelson. His complete of 1,155 losses as a coach is an NBA report.
At Providence College the slender left-handed Wilkens made good use of his calm, affected person nature to change into adept at each dispensing assists and enjoying heady protection. By the time the St. Louis Hawks drafted him in 1960, Wilkens was able to step proper into the beginning lineup. Over his 15-year profession with the Hawks, Seattle Supersonics, Cleveland Cavaliers, and Portland Trail Blazers, Wilkens, at all times a talented flooring normal, additionally developed right into a prolific scorer, compiling 17,772 profession factors, together with 7,211 assists. A nine-time all-star, he ranks among the many NBA’s elite in these classes, in addition to in free throws and minutes performed.
Before ending his enjoying profession, Wilkens took on the position of player-coach, first with the Supersonics (1969–70 to 1971–72) after which with the Trail Blazers (1974–75 to 1975–76). As a full-time coach, he guided the Supersonics (1977–78 to 1984–85), successful a championship in 1978–79; the Cavaliers (1986–87 to 1992–93), who regardless of a number of robust seasons may by no means advance past the Michael Jordan-led Chicago Bulls within the play-offs; the Atlanta Hawks (1993–94 to 1999–2000); the Toronto Raptors (2000–01 to 2002–03); and the New York Knicks (2004–05).
He additionally coached the U.S. males’s basketball group to a gold medal on the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, Ga. Moreover, Wilkens was vp of the National Basketball Players Association (1961–69), served as president of the NBA Coaches Association, held a lot of jobs within the Supersonics’ entrance workplace, and served as a sport analyst on basketball tv broadcasts. He additionally wrote an autobiography, Unguarded: My Forty Years Surviving within the NBA (2001). Wilkens was named one of many 50 best gamers in NBA historical past in 1996, and he was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as a participant in 1989 and as a coach in 1998.