Sacramento coach Doug Christie was born and raised in Seattle. The SuperSonics meant everything to him as a kid. And when he heard the news about the death of Lenny Wilkens, who meant the world to basketball fans in that city, Christie couldn\u2019t hold back the tears.<\/p>\n
\u201cWithout him,\u201d Christie said, \u201cI\u2019m not here.\u201d<\/p>\n
The tributes \u2014 many of them emotional \u2014 began being offered quickly Sunday as the NBA world mourned the death of Wilkens, a three-time enshrinee into the Naismith Memorial Hall of Fame for what he did first as a silky-smooth player and then as a soft-spoken coach who not only coached the Sonics to an NBA title in 1979 but also guided his country to an Olympic gold medal in 1996.<\/p>\n
\u201cAn unbelievable man,\u201d Golden State coach Steve Kerr said. \u201cJust an incredible man.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kerr played for Wilkens in Cleveland and told the story Sunday of how those Cavaliers were once missing a slew of players because of injuries. So, Wilkens \u2014 who was in his 50s at the time and on his way to becoming the NBA\u2019s all-time coaching wins leader \u2014 decided to take part in a scrimmage.<\/p>\n
Kerr never saw Wilkens play during his official career, one that included nine All-Star selections and was good enough to earn him spots on both the NBA\u2019s 50th anniversary and 75th anniversary teams. But that day, he learned that his middle-aged coach still had tons of game.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think he\u2019s the only guy I know who\u2019s a Hall of Fame player and Hall of Fame coach,\u201d Kerr said. \u201cTwo different ways, maybe there\u2019s one or two others. I didn\u2019t watch him play, I wasn\u2019t old enough to see him play but reading about his game and how talented he was and that he ends up breaking the all-time wins record as a coach. What a career.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wilkens eventually saw Don Nelson pass his record for coaching victories, and then Gregg Popovich eclipsed Nelson\u2019s total. But Wilkens\u2019 impact on coaches, even now, cannot be argued, Indiana coach Rick Carlisle said.<\/p>\n
Wilkens was president of the National Basketball Coaches Association for 17 years, which was a record. It has since been eclipsed by Carlisle, who has been in that role for two decades. And Carlisle was pleased with the decision by Golden State to have a moment of silence during which Wilkens could be remembered before the Pacers-Warriors game Sunday.<\/p>\n
\u201cI ended up following him as president (of the NBCA),\u201d Carlisle said. \u201cHe did a lot of things to further the profession; the pension, benefits, coaching salaries rose significantly during his time. He was a great representative to the league office, advocating for coaches and the things that coaches experience that a lot of people didn\u2019t know about. Lenny was a great communicator with things like that.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe thing that I\u2019ll always remember, he was such a great gentleman, and such an eloquent human being, along with being a super competitive coach,\u201d Carlisle said. \u201cHe is still way up there in all-time victories. Very, very special man. He\u2019ll be missed but he\u2019ll be remembered.\u201d<\/p>\n
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver lauded Wilkens for influencing \u201cthe lives of countless young people as well as generations of players and coaches\u201d and doing so \u201cwith integrity and true class.\u201d The Seattle Storm, the city\u2019s WNBA team, said Wilkens\u2019 \u201clegacy and impact, both on the court and throughout our community, will continue to inspire for generations.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou set the standard of what it means to lead and have an impact in our community. You will be missed dearly,\u201d former Seattle standout Detlef Schrempf posted on social media in reaction to Wilkens\u2019 death.<\/p>\n
Wilkens played eight seasons for the St. Louis Hawks, four in Seattle, two in Cleveland and one in Portland. He was a player-coach in four of those seasons; three with the SuperSonics, one in Portland.<\/p>\n
After his playing days were done, he continued coaching Seattle, Portland, Cleveland, Atlanta, Toronto and New York.<\/p>\n
The Blazers said he was a \u201cPacific Northwest legend\u201d who \u201chelped grow the game of basketball in Rip City.\u201d The Cavaliers, noting that he remains their all-time regular season coaching wins leader, said Wilkens \u201cwill forever be part of the history of this franchise.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBeyond his excellence as a player and a coach, he was an innovator, a trailblazer, a winner and a leader not just in Atlanta but every community in which he played and coached,\u201d the Hawks said. \u201cIn addition to his numerous achievements, Lenny always carried himself with a calm dignity and undeniable class and grace.\u201d<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
AP Sports Writer Janie McCauley in San Francisco contributed to this report.<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
AP NBA: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/NBA<\/p>\n
Tim Reynolds, The Associated Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sacramento coach Doug Christie was born and raised in Seattle. The SuperSonics meant everything to him as a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":273661,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[49,48,459,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-273660","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-nba","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273660","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=273660"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273660\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/273661"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=273660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=273660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=273660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}