A rare NBA legend, Lenny Wilkens etched his name in history as one of only five people to make the Hall of Fame as both player and coach. He died Sunday at age 88.
There are only five people who's been inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame as both a player and a coach. Lenny Wilkins is one of those five. He had an amazing basketball life for nearly five decades.
Wilkins passed away on Sunday at his home in Medina, Wash.. He was 88 years old.
The 6-foot guard played 15 years in the NBA from 1960 to 1975. He coached from 1969 to 2005, first as a player-coach. He won 1,332 games, which was the most in the NBA when he retired. He's since been passed by Gregg Popovich and Don Nelson.
"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 Sunday. "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."
The other four men to be inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame as both player and coach are John Wooden, Bill Sharman, Tom Heinsohn and Bill Russell.
Pacers coach Rick Carlisle had a long relationship with Wilkens, and the upmost respect for the man.
"He did a lot of things to further the profession; the pension, benefits, coaching salaries rose significantly during his time,'' Carlisle of Wilkens' time as president of the National Basketball Coaches Association. "He was a great representative to the league office, advocating for coaches and the things that coaches experience that a lot of people didn't know about. Lenny was a great communicator with things like that.
"The thing that I'll always remember, he was such a great gentleman, and such an eloquent human being, along with being a super competitive coach. He is still way up there in all-time victories. Very, very special man. He'll be missed, but he'll be remembered."
Top-10 All-Time Winningest Coaches
1. Gregg Popovich — 1,390 wins
2. Don Nelson — 1,335 wins
3. Lenny Wilkens — 1,332 wins
4. Jerry Sloan — 1,221 wins
5. Pat Riley — 1,210 wins
6. George Karl — 1,175 wins
7. * Doc Rivers — 1,168 wins
8. Phil Jackson — 1,155 wins
9. Larry Brown — 1,098 wins
10. Rick Adelman — 1,042 wins
* Editor's Note: Doc Rivers is the only active coach on the top-10 list. He is currently the head coach of the Milwaukee Bucks.