Lenny Wilkens, whose Hall of Fame basketball career as a player and coach included being the head coach of the 1996 U.S. Olympic men’s team, has died at age 88.
Wilkens was a coach for the first two U.S. Olympic teams to include NBA players in 1992 (one of Chuck Daly’s three assistants) and 1996 (head coach at the Atlanta Games).
“Lenny Wilkens represented the very best of the NBA — as a Hall of Fame player, Hall of Fame coach, and one of the game’s most respected ambassadors,” NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said in a statement. “So much so that, four years ago, Lenny received the unique distinction of being named one of the league’s 75 greatest players and 15 greatest coaches of all time.
“But even more impressive than Lenny’s basketball accomplishments, which included two Olympic gold medals and an NBA championship, was his commitment to service – especially in his beloved community of Seattle where a statue stands in his honor. He influenced the lives of countless young people as well as generations of players and coaches who considered Lenny not only a great teammate or coach but also an extraordinary mentor who led with integrity and true class.
“I send my heartfelt condolences to Lenny’s wife, Marilyn; their children, Leesha, Randy and Jamee; and all those throughout the NBA community who were fortunate to be touched by Lenny’s leadership and generosity.”
In 1960, Wilkens was not invited to try out for the Olympic team despite finishing his Providence career as an Associated Press All-America Second Team selection.
“To me, the Olympics were huge,” Wilkens wrote in his book, “Unguarded.” “I wanted to represent my country. I had taken part in the ROTC program in college. During my senior year, my basketball goal wasn’t the NBA, it was the Olympics. … I couldn’t even think about the Olympics without having a sick feeling for some thirty-two years, not until the 1992 dream team.”
In April 1995, Wilkens was named head coach for the Atlanta Olympic team while also coaching the Atlanta Hawks, three months after breaking Red Auerbach’s career regular season wins record for an NBA head coach.
“If ever I was going to be the head coach of the Olympic team, 1996 was the year,” Wilkens wrote. “And when it happened, I was very pleased. I knew the moment would be special, but when I was alone and had a chance to think about it, I was surprised at how emotional I became. I was talking about it with some friends, and I got a little choked up. I started to think of where I came from, of all the things that had to happen for me to reach that point, of the odds against a kid who played only a half-year of high-school basketball going on to have a longer career as a player and coach than anyone in NBA history.”
Wilkens led the U.S. on an 8-0 run to gold at the Atlanta Games, each win by at least 22 points.
The roster included returning Olympians — Charles Barkley, Karl Malone, Scottie Pippen, Mitch Richmond, David Robinson and John Stockton — as well as first-time Olympians Penny Hardaway, Grant Hill, Reggie Miller, Shaquille O’Neal, Hakeem Olajuwon and Gary Payton.
“By the end of the Olympics, I felt just like Chuck Daly had in 1992: I was relieved it was over, relieved we won, and very proud of how the players held up under the pressure,” Wilkens wrote. “I was happy that we won my way, by playing all the guys, playing different lineups every game, and we still won big. But with some people, we couldn’t win: If we beat a team by only 20 points, then we were flat and just going through the motions; if we won by 40 or 50 points, we were pouring it on. I thought the media criticism we got early in the Olympics was unfair; they kept putting us up against the 1992 team, and there was no way we’d ever win that comparison.”
Wilkens was a nine-time All-Star as a player, was the first person to reach 1,000 wins as an NBA coach and was the second person inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame as a player and coach.
He coached the Seattle SuperSonics to the NBA title in 1979 and remained iconic in that city for the rest of his life, often being considered a godfather of sorts for basketball in Seattle — which lost the Sonics to Oklahoma City in 2008 and has been trying to get a team back since.
Wilkens, the 1994 NBA coach of the year with Atlanta, retired with 1,332 coaching wins — a league record that was later passed by Don Nelson (who retired with 1,335) and then Gregg Popovich ( who retired with 1,390).
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
