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I've talked to him in passing. Pleasant guy. He was a regular at Seattle Storm games. RIP.
Lenny Wilkens, one of five people inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame as a player and coach, and an ambassador of Seattle basketball for more than 50 years, died at his home Sunday, those close to him said.
The 88-year-old Wilkens grew up in Brooklyn, played in St. Louis, Cleveland and Portland as part of his career on the court, and coached six different franchises during 32 seasons on the sidelines.
But Seattle was his home. As a player. As a coach. As a local leader away from the gym and the arenas through years of charitable work that benefited the Seattle community.
Wilkens was not a born-and-raised representative of Seattle and Seattle basketball. But he became one of its biggest proponents through seven decades of connection with the city he made his home.
Wilkens was inducted into the Hall of Fame as a player in 1989 to acknowledge a career that included nine All-Star Game appearances, a second-place finish in MVP voting in 1968 and recognition on the NBA’s 75th anniversary team.
He added induction as a coach nine years later while still manning the sidelines. Wilkens eventually retired after he was let go by the New York Knicks midway through the 2004-05 season. His career ended with a .536 win percentage and 1,332 wins in the regular season, and 20 playoff appearances in 32 seasons as a head coach.
His only two appearances in the NBA Finals and his only championship came with the SuperSonics, forever making him basketball royalty in Seattle.
After a season away, Wilkens took over in Cleveland beginning in 1986, the start of seven seasons with the Cavs. He reached the playoffs five times, but had the misfortune of coaching in the Eastern Conference during the height of the “Bad Boys” Pistons and the rise of one Michael Jordan with the Bulls.
From Cleveland, it was Atlanta as the next stop on Wilkens’ career path. It was with the Hawks that Wilkens became at the time the NBA’s all-time leader in coaching wins on Jan. 6, 1995 when he passed Red Auerbach with his 939th victory. Six playoff appearances in those seven seasons was followed by three years in Toronto and eventually his coaching epilogue in New York.
Despite last standing on the sidelines in 2005, Wilkens remains third in all-time coaching victories, trailing only Gregg Popovich and Don Nelson. Doc Rivers is the only active coaching within 200 victories of Wilkens and his mark of 2,487 regular season games as a head coach may never be reached.
Not to be forgotten in his exploits as a player, coach and player-coach, was the off the court philanthropy Wilkens showed for decades — primarily with the Odessa Brown Children’s Clinic in Seattle’s Rainier Valley. Wilkens’ foundation has benefited the community since the early 1970s, including its famous golf tournament and auction that was held for the last time in 2019.
“I said, ‘That’s going to be my charity,’ because they were providing health care to families regardless of their ability to pay,” Wilkens said in 2021. “I’ve always said a sick kid who goes to school puts their head down on the desk, and they don’t learn anything. But if we give them the health care that they need, we let them know that they’re important to us, and then they’ll want to strive for more.”
Wilkens received another recognition of his contributions to the basketball and local community when a statue was unveiled on the plaza outside of Climate Pledge Arena this past summer. Wilkens was feted by local leaders, former players and anyone who at some point bled green and gold.
It came just before his 63rd anniversary with his wife Marilyn, which led to a family of three children and seven grandchildren. His legacy as an inspiration for the community and for basketball was permanent long before the statue was unveiled.
“I’m just overwhelmed,” Wilkens said in an interview with The Times last summer. “It’s not something I ever thought much about or anything like that. This has been a great community. I got to know people here.
“When I first got here, I thought about going back East, but we liked it out here my wife and I … and decided it would be a wonderful place to make a home.”
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