Lenny Wilkens, 1937-2025

We have lost an NBA legend, one with ties to many places, and beloved among basketball fans everywhere.

Leonard Randolph Wilkens was born on October 28, 1937 in Brooklyn. One of New York City’s greatest basketball players, Lenny Wilkens starred for Brooklyn's Boys High School, where he was a basketball teammate of future baseball star Tommy Davis.

Boys High opened in a Romanesque Revival building at 832 Marcy Avenue in Bedford-Stuyvesant in 1891. Bed-Stuy was a mostly-Jewish neighborhood before World War II, and has been a mostly-black one since. In addition to Lenny and Tommy, Boys High's notable athletes included basketball players Sihugo "Si" Green, Connie Hawkins, and football quarterback and coach Allie Sherman.

Outside of sports, alumni included Congressman Emanuel Celler, Class of 1906; painter Man Ray 1908, film producer Irving Thalberg 1917, composer Aaron Copland 1918, real estate developer William Levitt 19'25, psychologist Abraham Maslow 1926, actor Norman Lloyd '32, broadcaster Howard Cosell '36, actor Lawrence Tierney '37, science fiction writer Isaac Asimov '38, jazz saxophonist Cecil Payne '40, novelist Norman Mailer '41, jazz drummer Max Roach '42, comedian Alan King '45, newspaper columnist Jack Newfield '56, singer "Little" Anthony Gourdine '59, and singer Ronnie Dyson '68.

As the name suggests, Boys High was segregated by gender, though not by race or religion. Brooklyn did have a Girls High School, also in Bed-Stuy, at 475 Nostrand Avenue. Both schools were public, but rather prestigious, and hard to get into. Girls High graduates included novelist Betty Smith 1914, singer Lena Horne '35, actress Rita Hayworth '36, actress Carol Bruce '37, Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm '42, actress Norma Donaldson '46, and actress Roxie Roker '47.

In 1975, the schools were merged into Boys and Girls High School, and moved to a new facility at 1700 Fulton Street. Graduates of the new version include basketball player Dwayne "the Pearl" Washington '82 and rapper John "Fabolous" Jackson '95.

"I learned my basketball on the playgrounds of Brooklyn," Lenny Wilkens once said. "Today, being a 'playground player' is an insult. It means all you want to do is go one-on-one. It means your fundamentals stink and you don't understand the game. But the playgrounds I knew were tremendous training grounds."

Like Queens' Bob Cousy and Jersey City's Tommy Heinsohn before him, both of whom went to the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts, Lenny Wilkens left New York City to play college basketball in New England, in his case, to play for Providence College. In 1960, he was named a Second Term All-American. From 1960 to 1968, he played for the St. Louis Hawks, making 5 NBA All-Star Games. In his rookie season, 1960-61, he helped them reach the NBA Finals, something the franchise has not done since.

He would not make the move to Atlanta with the Hawks in 1968. Instead, he was traded to the Seattle SuperSonics, becoming their player-coach in 1969. He was the NBA's assists leader in 1970, and the Most Valuable Player of the All-Star Game in 1971. In 1972, he was traded to the Cleveland Cavaliers, and played his last season, 1974-75, with the Portland Trail Blazers, as player-coach that season and as head coach only the next season. All told, he was named to 9 All-Star Games, and he retired with more career assists than any player except Oscar Robertson.

The Sonics brought him back in 1977. In 1978, he led them to their 1st NBA Finals, losing to the Washington Bullets in 7 games. In 1979, he reversed that result, as the Sonics beat the Bullets in 5 games. It was the only World Championship won by a Seattle team between the Metropolitans' 1917 Stanley Cup and the Seahawks' win of Super Bowl XLVIII in 2014.

He remained with the Sonics until 1985. From 1986 to 1993, he coached the Cleveland Cavaliers. In 1993, he returned to the Hawks. On January 6, 1995, he won his 939th career regular-season game, to surpass Red Auerbach as the all-time winningest coach in NBA history. It came in a 112-90 win over the Bullets at The Omni in Atlanta. On March 1, 1996, also at The Omni, he led the Hawks past one of his former teams, the Cavs, 74-68, to become the 1st NBA head coach to win 1,000 games. (He also became the 1st to lose 1,000 games.) Later that year, with the Olympics in Atlanta, he coached the U.S. team to win the Gold Medal.

In 2000, he left the Hawks, and became head coach of the Toronto Raptors, lasting 3 years. In the 2004-05 season, he became one in a long line of coaches unable to turn James Dolan's New York Knicks into a championship team. It turned out to be his last coaching job, with a final record of 1,332-1155, a .536 winning percentage. He has since been surpassed in wins only by Gregg Popovich with 1,390 and Don Nelson with 1,335.

He returned to the Sonics in a management role. One of the oddities of his career is that the Hawks traded him immediately before moving to Atlanta in 1968, and he resigned his executive's position with the Sonics as they moved to become the Oklahoma City Thunder in 2008.

Providence retired his Number 14, and the Sonics retired his Number 19, and in each case he was the 1st on the team to be so honored. Along with John Wooden and Bill Sharman, he is one of just 3 people elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame as player and elected again a coach. But he tops them both, and everyone else, by having been elected a 3rd time, as an assistant coach on the 1992 U.S. Olympic "Dream Team," which in 2010 was elected to the Hall in its entirety.

He was also named, in 1996, as part of the NBA's 50th Anniversary celebrations, as one of its 50 Greatest Players and one of its 10 Greatest Coaches, the only man to receive both honors. In 2021, he was named to the NBA's 75th Anniversary 75 Greatest Players.

In 1962, he married Marilyn Reed. They had 3 children: Leesha, Randy and Jamie, leading to 7 grandchildren.

On June 28, 2025, a statue of Lenny Wilkens was dedicated outside the Climate Pledge Arena, built on the site of the Seattle Center Coliseum where he played and coached for the SuperSonics, a team that's officially been dormant since the original version was moved to become the Oklahoma city Thunder in 2008. He attended the ceremony.

It turned out to be his last public appearance. He died today, November 9, 2025, at his home in the Seattle suburb of Medina, Washington. He was 88 years old.

NBA Commissioner David Stern said:

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. 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.

Mayor Bruce Harrell of Seattle said:

Lenny was more than just a championship coach and basketball legend – he was a community hero who made it his life’s mission to uplift and empower others. His philanthropic work with the Lenny Wilkens Foundation has benefitted thousands of youth and families in our region, a testament to his compassion and generosity.

Lenny was generous with both his time and with his kindness. From the moment I met him, Lenny quickly became a personal friend and a mentor. I’ve always felt incredibly honored to have been able to spend time with him and to learn from him, and I know there are so many others who feel the same way.

Kenny Mayne of ESPN: "My favorite player growing up, then somehow a friend later in life. His foundation looked after kids who needed a little help. Classy and kind and kept his Brooklyn accent."

Golden State Warriors coach and Chicago Bulls playing legend Steve Kerr, who played for him in Cleveland: "He was an unbelievable man. Just an incredible man."

UPDATE: On November 10, Michael Wilbon of ESPN's Pardon the Interruption pointed out that, despite having coached in the NBA over a span of 36 years, Lenny Wilkens achieved all he achieved despite only coaching 1 future Hall-of-Famer in his prime: Himself. It's not quite true: He coached Bill Walton in Portland, Dennis Johnson and Paul Westphal in Seattle, and Vince Carter in Toronto..

October 31, 1950: The NBA's 1st Black Player

Earl Lloyd

October 31, 1950, 75 years ago: The Rochester Royals defeat the Washington Capitols, 78-70, at the Edgerton Park Arena in Rochester. (It was demolished in the late 1950s.) Arnie Risen scores 20 for the home team, as they begin a season that will bring their 1st NBA Championship.

They had previously won the title in the National Basketball League in 1945. They will become the Cincinnati Royals in 1957, the Kansas City Kings in 1972, and the Sacramento Kings in 1985. Their long-term future in Sacramento is now settled, as they've opened a new arena.

Earl Lloyd, a forward wearing Number 11, scores 2 baskets and 2 free throws for the Capitols, for a total of 6 points. It doesn't sound like much, but his mere presence in the game makes him the NBA's 1st black player.

Chuck Cooper had been the 1st black player drafted, by the Boston Celtics. But, the way the schedule worked out, Earl beat him to the court by 1 day. Chuck should not be confused with another early black star, Charles "Tarzan" Cooper, who played for the New York Renaissance (a.k.a. the Rens) in the 1930s. 

Chuck Cooper

Nat "Sweetwater" Clifton, formerly of the Rens and the Harlem Globetrotters, had been the 1st black player actually signed to a contract, by the New York Knicks, but Earl beat him to the court by 4 days. So, in a way, the NBA had 3 "Jackie Robinsons."

Nat Clifton

Earl Lloyd was born on April 3, 1928 in Alexandria, Virginia, across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C. His hometown team, having fired coach Red Auerbach in 1949, was 10-25 on January 9, 1951, and folded, leaving the nation's capital without an NBA team for the next 22 years. Lloyd was then drafted, and served in the Korean War.

Discharged in 1952, "the Big Cat" (also the nickname of Baseball Hall-of-Famer Johnny Mize, then wrapping up his career with the Yankees) played for the Syracuse Nationals until 1958, and the Detroit Pistons from then until his retirement in 1960. He averaged 8.4 points per game in his 9 NBA seasons. The Pistons then hired him as a scout.

In 1968, they named him the 1st black assistant coach in the NBA. In 1972, they named him the 2nd black head coach, after Bill Russell of the Celtics, and the 1st non-playing black head coach. But the Pistons were awful then, and his career coaching record was just 22-55.

He worked for the Detroit school system, helping students find jobs, then did the same thing for a company run by Pistons Hall-of-Famer Dave Bing. He retired to Tennessee. In 2003, the Basketball Hall of Fame elected him as a "contributor," for his historical prominence.

In 2007, T.C. Williams High School, the integrated Alexandria school into which his former all-black school, Parker-Gray, had been consolidated (a tale told, with considerable dramatic license taken, in the football-themed film Remember the Titans), named their new gym's court after him. He was also elected to the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame, and died on February 26, 2015, a few weeks short of his 87th birthday.

June 18, 1924: Basketball's 1st Great Big Man

June 18, 1924, 100 years ago: George Lawrence Mikan Jr. is born in Joliet, Illinois. Basketball's 1st great "big man," the 6-foot-10 center led DePaul University to the 1945 NIT title, then considered more prestigious than the NCAA title.

He won National Basketball league titles with the 1947 Chicago American Gears and the 1948 Lakers. The Lakers then went into the nascent NBA, and he led them to the title in 1949, 1950, 1952, 1953 and 1954. That's 7 league titles in 8 seasons.

It's been 68 years since he last strode the hardwood in a game that counted, but he is still responsible for 5 of the 7 World Championships that Minnesota basketball teams have won.

He was NBL Most Valuable Player in 1948, a 5-time scoring champion (twice in the NBL, 3 times in the NBA), and played in the NBA's 1st 4 All-Star Games (1951-54). He was bigger than the league: A game against the Knicks had the marquee at the old Madison Square Garden not mention the Lakers, just him: "GEO MIKAN v/s KNICKS."

That's a legend, but it's no myth, and it's no joke.

He was named the greatest basketball player of the half-century by the Associated Press, was a charter inductee into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1959, and was named to the NBA's 25th Anniversary Team and its 50th Anniversary 50 Greatest Players. The Minnesota Timberwolves dedicated a statue of him outside the Target Center in Minneapolis. He lived long enough to receive all of these honors.

Shaquille O'Neal paid for his funeral, saying,

"Without Number 99, there is no me."

He died on June 1, 2005 at the age of 80, from the long-term effects of diabetes. In 2021, he was named to the NBA's 75th Anniversary 75 Greatest Players. In 2022, the now-Los Angeles Lakers finally retired his number, even though 99 is a number rarely seen in the NBA. They also have a banner honoring their Minneapolis-era Hall-of-Famers.

March 31, 1923: Don Barksdale, Basketball Pioneer

March 31, 1923, 100 years ago: Donald Argee Barksdale is born in Oakland, California. Before Drew Gooden, before Paul Pierce, before Jason Kidd, before Gary Payton, before Paul Silas, before Bill Russell, before Jim Pollard, Don Barksdale was the original Oakland basketball star.
 
And before Ed O’Bannon, before Bill Walton, before Sidney Wicks, before Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, before Gail Goodrich, and before Walt Hazzard, Don Barksdale was the original UCLA basketball star. They retired his Number 11.
 
In 1947, he became the 1st black basketball player to be named an All-American. In 1948, he was a member of the U.S. team that won the Gold Medal at the Olympics in London. He played for semi-pro teams in Oakland until 1951, when with the original Baltimore Bullets, he was only the 5th black player in the NBA. In 1953, with the Bullets, he was named an NBA All-Star. He played 2 more seasons, with the Boston Celtics, wearing Number 17 years before John Havlicek, before an ankle injury ended his career.

 

He made more money in his off-season job, owning 1 of Oakland's 1st 2 black-owned record stores. He later founded and owned a record label, a radio station, and a nightclub. He became the San Francisco Bay Area's 1st black beer distributor, and its 1st black television host, with a show called Sepia Review on KRON-Channel 4.

In 1983, he launched a foundation that is credited with saving high school sports in Oakland. He died of cancer in 1993. In 2012, long overdue, he was elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame. 

Bill Russell, 1934-2022

Bill Russell was not the greatest player in basketball history. He was the sport's greatest winner. Maybe any sport's greatest winner. And he was so much more than that.

William Felton Russell was born on February 12, 1934 in West Monroe, Louisiana. When he was 8 years old, his parents decided that living in the segregated South wasn't worth it, and that living in a housing project in Oakland, California was an improvement.

Russell attended McClymonds High School in West Oakland (named for a superintendent of the city's schools), at roughly the same time as Baseball Hall-of-Famer Frank Robinson, baseball All-Stars Curt Flood and Vada Pinson, Olympic sprinting champion Jim Hines, Congressman Ron Dellums. Before them, it was attended by Baseball Hall-of-Famer Ernie Lombardi. After them, it was attended by baseball player turned NFL referee Aaron Pointer and his sisters, the singing Pointer Sisters; basketball All-Stars Paul Silas and Antonio Davis, baseball player Lee Lacy, rapper Stanley Burrell a.k.a. MC Hammer, and actor Yahya Abdul-Mateen II.

He was nearly cut from the basketball team as a freshman, but head coach George Powles encouraged him and worked with him on fundamentals. Russell later said, "To play good defense... it was told back then that you had to stay flatfooted at all times to react quickly. When I started to jump to make defensive plays and to block shots, I was initially corrected, but I stuck with it, and it paid off."

To say the least. He was recruited by the University of San Francisco, a Catholic school in the bigger city across the Bay. Head coach Phil Woolpert not only welcomed black players such as Russell and K.C. Jones, but emphasized defense and patience, which suited Russell's game. UCLA coach John Wooden called him "the greatest defensive man I've ever seen."

In the 1954-55 season, the Dons began a 60-game winning streak that lasted into the 1956-57 season, after his graduation, and remains the 2nd-longest streak in men's college basketball history, surpassed only by the 88-game streak of Wooden's 1971-74 UCLA. It included the National Championships of 1955 and 1956. In 1955, Russell was named the Most Outstanding Player of the NCAA Tournament. In 1956, it went to Hal Lear, a white player from Philadelphia's Temple University, which only finished 3rd, losing in the Semifinals to Iowa, which USF beat in the Final.

Like the man who would become his great rival in the NBA, Wilt Chamberlain, Russell was also an outstanding high-jumper on his university's track & field team, scissor-kicking his way (in the days before the Fosbury Flop) to a peak of 6 feet, 9 1/4 inches -- roughly his own height.

Abe Saperstein, the white owner of the all-black Harlem Globetrotters, wanted Russell, but would only speak with Woolpert. Knowing this, Russell flat-out refused to play for him. He did play for the U.S. Olympic team, along with his USF teammate K.C. Jones, and they won the Gold Medal in Melbourne, Australia. Since Australia is in the Southern Hemisphere, the Olympics were held in November, and Russell wasn't able to join his professional team until December.

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With the 1st pick in the 1956 NBA Draft, the Boston Celtics -- having just completed their 1st 10 seasons, and not yet having appeared in an NBA Finals -- selected Tommy Heinsohn, forward from the nearby College of the Holy Cross, a player that Russell once held scoreless in a 1st half.

With the 2nd pick, the Rochester Royals selected Sihugo Green, a guard from Duquesne University in Pittsburgh. Green was a decent player, but hardly the kind of star you would expect to go as the 2nd pick overall.

With the 3rd pick, the St. Louis Hawks drafted Russell. It looked like the Hawks had gotten the best player of the 3. But later that day, the Hawks traded the rights to Russell to the Celtics, for center Ed Macauley and forward Cliff Hagan. The Hawks won just 1 title, and were forced to move out of St. Louis, to Atlanta, where they have been a perennial letdown. It is the biggest transactional blunder in the NBA's 76-year history.

What about the Royals? As the biggest star coming out of college basketball, Russell was already believed to be ready to demand big money, which most NBA team owners didn't have. Hawks owner Ben Kerner and Royals owner Les Harrison didn't have it. Celtics owner Walter Brown did, because he also owned his arena, the Boston Garden, and the other team that played there, the NHL's Boston Bruins.

What's more, Brown owned the Ice Capades. At the time, it was a bigger moneymaker than the NBA or the NHL. So was the Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus. So Brown made a deal with Harrison: Select somebody other than Russell, and I'll add Rochester to the Ice Capades' tour. It was an offer Harrison couldn't refuse. (And no heads -- human, horse, or otherwise -- were hurt in the process.)

It was a short-term fix for the Royals. But that's the way the NBA had to operate at the time. A year later, Harrison moved the Royals to Cincinnati. They won the NBA Championship in 1951. In the 71 years since, this franchise, now known as the Sacramento Kings, has never been back to the NBA Finals. But Harrison did what he had to do to stay in business, and that meant giving up a chance at a man who could have become one of the NBA's greatest players ever, and did. Russell asked Auerbach for $24,000, or $1,000 less than the team's best player, Bob Cousy, was making. He got it.

Under head coach Arnold "Red" Auerbach, the Celtics already had All-Stars Heinsohn, Cousy and Bill Sharman. With Russell, they marched to their 1st NBA Finals, against... the Hawks. Game 7 at the Boston Garden went to double overtime, and the Celtics won it, 125-123. In the 1958 Finals, Russell injured his ankle, and the Hawks won the title. They've never won the title again, and Russell would never lose another Finals.

The New York Yankees once won 5 straight World Series. The Montreal Canadiens once won 5 straight Stanley Cups. At the time, the NBA was a smaller league with fewer Playoff rounds. At one point, it had just 9 teams, and New York Knicks broadcaster Marv Albert said that the purpose of the regular season seemed to be to eliminate the Knicks from the Playoffs. And it wasn't getting some great athletes: For example, Sandy Koufax and Bob Gibson had both played college basketball, but chose baseball instead. But the Celtics won 8 straight championships.

They beat the Minneapolis Lakers in 1959. They beat the Hawks again in 1960 and 1961. The Lakers moved to Los Angeles, and the Celtics beat them in 1962 and 1963. The Celtics beat the Philadelphia Warriors, with Wilt Chamberlain, in the Eastern Conference Finals in 1958, 1960 and 1962; then, with the Warriors having moved to San Francisco, beat them in the NBA Finals in 1964.

Earlier players like Cousy and Sharman retired. New players like Sam Jones and John Havlicek came in. The Celtics kept winning. Chamberlain was traded to the Philadelphia 76ers, and the Celtics beat them in the Conference Finals in 1965, 1966 and 1968, although the 76ers did beat the Celtics in 1967, ending their eight-peat en route to Chamberlain's 1st title.

All this while, Russell was named to the NBA All-Star Game 12 times, every year from 1958 to 1969 -- every season in the league, except his 1st. He was named the NBA's Most Valuable Player 5 times: In 1958, 1961, 1962, 1963 and 1965.

In 1965, Chamberlain became the 1st NBA player with a contract that paid him $100,000 a year. Russell went to Auerbach, and asked for $100,001. He got it.

In 1966, Auerbach, retaining his title as general manager, appointed Russell as head coach. Aside from Fritz Pollard at the dawn of the NFL, Russell was now the 1st black head coach in any of North America's "Big Four" sports. He had certainly earned it: He was the ultimate team player. He didn't have the gaudy statistics of Chamberlain, but he made everyone on his team better.

He had also reminded his team of its responsibilities. He knew he wasn't the only black contributor. His college teammate K.C. Jones, the unrelated Sam Jones, Tom "Satch" Sanders, and, briefly, the man who would go on to become the 1st black head coach of an NCAA Champion, John Thompson, were keys to Celtic success.

In the 1958 off-season, Russell was a member of an NBA All-Star team that toured the U.S. They stopped in North Carolina, a segregated Southern State, and the team's black players were denied rooms in a white hotel. In 1961, the Celtics were scheduled to play a preseason game at the University of Kentucky's Memorial Coliseum. It would take until 1970 for Kentucky to play a black player, although Russell and his black teammates were allowed to play in the game. But they were refused service at a local restaurant. So they refused to play in the game, and flew home at their own expense rather than do so.

In 1967, he joined Jim Brown, UCLA basketball star Lew Alcindor (later Kareem Abdul-Jabbar), and other black athletes at the "Cleveland Summit" in support of Muhammad Ali, who had been convicted of draft evasion and stripped of the Heavyweight Championship of the World.

While the Celtics lost to the 76ers in the 1967 Conference Finals, they reversed that result in 1968, and they went on to beat the Lakers in the NBA Finals. In a calendar year that saw the assassination of Martin Luther King, James Brown have a Top 10 hit with "Say It Loud (I'm Black and I'm Proud)," The Supremes step away from the sequins and the glamour to have a Number 1 hit with "Love Child," Muhammad Ali continue his fight for reinstatement, the protest of Tommie Smith and John Carlos at the Olympics, and Abdul-Jabbar and Elvin Hayes of the University of Houston boycott the Olympics, a black head coach had won a World Championship. Sports Illustrated named him its Sportsman of the Year. (He was the 2nd black person to receive that honor, after Rafer Johnson in 1958.)

Russell had let it be known that the 1968-69 season would be his last as a player, retiring at age 35. Once again, the NBA Finals turned out to be Celtics vs. Lakers. The Lakers would have Game 7 at The Forum, outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California.

Jack Kent Cooke, builder of The Forum and owner of the Lakers, and also the NHL's Los Angeles Kings, had prepared the building for the Lakers' 1st World Championship since moving to Los Angeles in 1960. (They had previously won titles in Minneapolis in 1949, '50, '52, '53 and '54.) Balloons were suspended from the ceiling, in anticipation of the celebration.

There was good reason for this anticipation. The Lakers had 4 men on their roster who went on to the Basketball Hall of Fame: Guards Jerry West and Gail Goodrich, forward Elgin Baylor, and, acquired the previous off-season, center Chamberlain. Goodrich was an excellent passer. West was that, and the best shooter the game had ever seen, and a great defensive player. Baylor was the flashiest player in the league, with offensive moves no one had ever seen before. And Chamberlain was the greatest basketball player who ever lived. 

Due to the aging of the Celtics, for the 1st time, they went into an NBA Finals as an underdog. And, sure enough, the Lakers took the 1st 2 games in Inglewood. No one was really surprised when the Celtics took the next 2 at the Boston Garden. Or when the Lakers won Game 5 at home. Or when the Celtics won Game 6 at home. There was no way Bill Russell was going to lose his last game at the Boston Garden.

But no home team had ever lost an NBA Finals Game 7. Home teams were 8-0. And so, for Game 7, with every good reason to believe that it would happen, Cooke ordered the balloons, yellow with "World Champion Lakers" written in purple on them, suspended from the rafters of The Forum. In every seat, and all 17,568 were filled, a flyer was placed, stating, "When, not if, the Lakers win the title, balloons will be released from the rafters, the USC marching band will play 'Happy Days Are Here Again' and broadcaster Chick Hearn will interview Elgin Baylor, Jerry West and Wilt Chamberlain in that order."

Cooke was counting his chickens before they hatched. West, trying to get through a hamstring pull in Game 5, went out for a pre-game shoot-around, and saw the balloons, and yelled at Cooke. Russell saw them, and walked over to West, and said, "Those fucking balloons are staying up there."

Russell told his players to take advantage of West's injury by running the fast break every chance they get. And, early in the 4th quarter, Chamberlain, proud of the fact that he had never fouled out of a game, was assigned his 5th foul. One more, and he was out. He had to take it easy on defense. With 5 minutes left, and the Celtics leading 103-94, he injured his knee, and walked to the bench.

Laker coach Butch van Breda Kolff sent backup center Mel Counts in -- and with 2 minutes left, it was Boston 103, Los Angeles 102. Chamberlain told van Breda Kolff he was ready to go back in. VBK said, "We're doing fine without you." They were not doing fine without him: They were still behind. And so, in the most important two minutes of his coaching career, down by one point, Butch van Breda Kolff left the greatest player of all time on the bench. It remains the greatest coaching blunder in the history of the NBA.

The game ended Celtics 108, Lakers 106. Two points made the difference between the Lakers finally winning their 1st NBA Championship in Los Angeles, and letting the balloons come down, and the most humiliating defeat in NBA history.

Russell had retired with 13 seasons, 12 Finals berths, and 11 World Championships. Only the late Henri Richard of the Montreal Canadiens has matched this achievement of having more championship rings than he had fingers. Yogi Berra of the New York Yankees won 10 World Series. The record for NFL Championships is 7, held by Tom Brady. For men who have not been caught cheating, it's 6, by Fuzzy Thurston, Forrest Gregg and Herb Adderley.

Bob Ryan, former sports columnist for The Boston Globe, who probably knows more about basketball than anyone who's never played it or coached it, said in 2019, "If Bill Russell came back today with the same equipment and the same brainpower, the same person exactly as he was when he landed in the NBA in 1956, he'd be the best rebounder in the league. As an athlete, he was so far ahead of his time. He'd win three, four or five championships, but not 11 in 13 years, obviously." (Ryan had previously called the 1986 NBA Champion Celtics the best team in NBA history, with Russell's 1965 Champion Celtics 2nd.)

*

Just after graduating from USF in 1956, Russell married classmate Rose Swisher. Together, they had 3 children: Daughter Karen, and sons William Jr. and Jacob. They divorced in 1973. In 1977, he married Dorothy Anstett, Miss USA 1968. They divorced in 1980. In 1996, he married Marilyn Nault, and they stayed together until she died in 2009. He later married Jeannine Russell, and they were married until death did they part.

In 1970, The Sporting News named Bill Russell their Athlete of the Decade for the 1960s -- ahead of Ali, who had not yet been reinstated (that would come later in the year) or had his conviction overturned (that came in 1971). In 1972, he served as a pallbearer at Jackie Robinson's funeral, and the Celtics retired his Number 6. USF also retired it.

To this day, he is the athlete most connected with Number 6. Stan Musial had worn it with great distinction in baseball, and Al Kaline still was at that point. Later basketball stars Julius Erving and LeBron James would wear it in tribute to Russell. Perhaps internationally, English soccer legend Bobby Moore might be better known for wearing it. But in North America, 6 belongs to Russell.

He was elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame as a player in 1975, and as a coach in 2021. He is 1 of 5 men elected as both. The others: John Wooden, Lenny Wilkens, and his Celtic teammates Bill Sharman and Tom Heinsohn -- but not, as yet, his Celtic teammate K.C. Jones. (No women have yet been so honored. Dawn Staley is most likely to become the 1st.)

After 2 seasons as a broadcaster for ABC, a profession at which he was uncomfortable -- he said, "The most successful television is done in eight-second thoughts, and the things I know about basketball, motivation and people go deeper than that" -- Russell was named head coach of the Seattle SuperSonics. Although he enjoyed the Seattle area, and buying a house in Mercer Island where he would live the rest of his life, he found coaching without himself as a player considerably more challenging. After 4 seasons, making the Playoffs only once, he was let go. He coached once more, with the Sacramento Kings in the 1987-88 season.

Knicks Hall-of-Famer Bill Bradley, a graduate of Princeton University, said Russell "was the smartest player ever to play the game." He was named to the NBA's 25th, 50th and 75th Anniversary All-Time Teams. He, Cousy, George Mikan and Bob Pettit were the only players named to all 3 teams. (To be fair, the 25th Anniversary Team only had 12 players, while, for the other anniversaries, they named 50 and 75 "greatest players.")

As part of the league's 50th Anniversary celebrations, he did a joint interview with Chamberlain, with whom he had 8 Playoff series, winning 7. On the night in 1961 that Chamberlain set a still-standing record of 55 rebounds, it was against Russell -- but the Celtics beat the Warriors, anyway.

Their relationship had been tricky. They had dined with each other's families as players, but after Russell criticized Chamberlain over van Breda Kolff holding him out in 1969, things soured. But by the time of their 1996 joint interview, things had picked up a bit. Wilt revealed that Bill had taken to using their middle names, calling him on the phone and saying, "Hello, Norman? This is Felton."

When Chamberlain died in 1999, Russell spoke at his funeral. With that experience in mind, he acted as a peacemaker to end the feud between former Laker teammates Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant.

In 2009, the NBA Finals Most Valuable Player Award was renamed the Bill Russell Award. Russell presented the 1st such award to Bryant, and didn't seem to care that Kobe was a Laker -- or a native of the Philadelphia area, home to the Celtics' other major rival. In 2011, he was a guest at the White House for a celebrity basketball game in honor of President Barack Obama's 50th birthday, and Obama awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom. In 2013, he was honored with a statue at Boston's City Hall.

But the man who titled one of his autobiographies Memoirs of an Opinionated Man never stopped speaking his mind. He had a Twitter account, but didn't start using it until September 26, 2017. In solidarity with blackballed quarterback Colin Kaepernick, he used it to show himself down on one knee, while wearing his Medal of Freedom, and wrote, "Proud to take a knee, and to stand tall against social injustice." When Donald Trump continued to say that the gesture was unpatriotic, Russell, almost literally, doubled down.

Bill Russell, an American hero, died this morning, July 31, 2022, at his home in Mercer Island, Washington, after being unwell for a while. He was 88 years old.

Official statement from the Celtics' organization: "Bill Russell's DNA is woven through every element of the Celtics organization, from the relentless pursuit of excellence, to the celebration of team rewards over individual glory, to a commitment to social justice and civil rights off the court. Our thoughts are with his family as we mourn his passing and celebrate his enormous legacy in basketball, Boston, and beyond."

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver: "I cherished my friendship with Bill and was thrilled when he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom. I often called him basketball's Babe Ruth for how he transcended time. Bill was the ultimate winner and consummate teammate, and his influence on the NBA will be felt forever."

Michael Jordan: "Bill Russell was a pioneer -- as a player, as a champion, as the NBA's first Black head coach and as an activist. He paved the way and set an example for every Black player who came into the league after him, including me. The world has lost a legend. My condolences to his family and may he rest in peace."

Magic Johnson: "Bill Russell was my idol. I looked up to him on the court and off. His success on the court was undeniable; he was dominate and great, winning 11 NBA championships. Off the court, Bill Russell paved the way for guys like me. He was one of the first athletes on the front line fighting for social justice, equity, equality, and civil rights. That’s why I admired and loved him so much. Over the course of our friendship, he always reminded me about making things better in the Black community. Despite all of his achievements, he was so humble, a gentle giant, a very intelligent man, and used his voice and platform to fight for Black people.

"Since the day we met, he mentored me and shared advice. Later in life, he never missed an opportunity to tell me how proud he was of me for what I was doing in Black America throughout the country. I will forever remember his cackling laugh, sense of humor and love for the game of basketball.

"This is a tremendous loss for the entire basketball world. Cookie and I are praying for Bill’s family and loved ones, our NBA family, and the entire basketball community."

Charles Barkley: "Bill Russell's passing is not just an NBA loss, it is a world loss. When your actions match your words on important issues, you are a great man, not just a great basketball player. The word 'hero' is tossed around a lot, but today it is perfect. RIP great man BR."

Stephen A. Smith: "An activist, a pioneer, a humanitarian. He made the world better for us all. #RIPCHAMPION"

Jon Stewart: "Bill Russell was one of the kindest, most thoughtful people I’ve ever met. Once called out of the blue because he thought I looked sad on TV…best pep talk of my life. RIP"

Barack Obama: "Today, we lost a giant. As tall as Bill Russell stood, his legacy rises far higher—both as a player and as a person."

Some things are more important than winning. Bill Russell was great at those things, too.

Happy 75th Birthday, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

In 1989, in a column for Sports Illustrated, titled "The Heavenly Hundred," Rick Reilly made a list of the greatest athletes ever to wear each uniform number. For Number 33, he chose "Lew Alcindor, slightly ahead of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar."

It was funny to me at the time. But it messed with the man's identity, not just his religion. He wouldn't have said that Cassius Clay was ahead of Muhammad Ali on the list of greatest Heavyweight Champions, would he?

Kareem was one of the greatest athletes who ever lived -- and one of the most complicated. And he still is.

Ferdinand Lewis Alcindor Jr. was born on April 16, 1947 in Harlem, Upper Manhattan, New York City. Lew grew up in the Dyckman Street projects in Inwood. By age 9, he was already 5-foot-8. In the 8th grade, he was 6-foot-8 and could already dunk a basketball.

In 1961, he was enrolled at Power Memorial Academy, a Catholic high school at 161 West 61st Street in Manhattan. He led them to the City Championship in 1963 and 1964. They extended their winning streak to 71 games, 2nd-longest in the history of American high school basketball, behind New Jersey's "Passaic Wonder Five" winning 159 straight from 1919 to 1925. On January 30, 1965, they went to Cole Field House on the campus of the University of Maryland, and lost to DeMatha High School of nearby Hyattsville, 46-43.

Power Memorial went 96-6 in Lew's high school career. His 2,067 points were a City record. The school later produced basketball stars Len Elmore, Mario Elie and Chris Mullin, but closed in 1984, when they couldn't afford needed repairs to their building.

Now 7-foot-1, Lew was recruited to the University of California at Los Angeles by their head coach, John Wooden, who had been a great player himself at Purdue University in the early 1930s, and had already guided UCLA to what would now be called the NCAA Final Four in 1962, and won the National Championship in 1964 and 1965.

Until 1972, college freshmen weren't allowed to play varsity sports. So Lew played for UCLA's freshman team, and on November 27, 1965, in the 1st event ever held at UCLA's Pauley Pavilion, the UCLA freshmen beat the varsity, 75-60. Lew scored 31 points and had 21 rebounds. The freshmen went 21-0 that season.

In 1966-67, with Lew as a sophomore, UCLA went 30-0 and won the National Championship. To try to stop him, the NCAA banned the dunk shot, not restoring it until 1977. In response, he developed a new shot, a variation on the hook shot: The "skyhook." Between his height and the length of his right arm, the shot was undefendable, and he was deadly accurate with it.

In 1968, a "Game of the Century" was set up at the Astrodome, between UCLA, then undefeated and ranked Number 1, and the University of Houston, with All-American Elvin Hayes, then undefeated and ranked Number 2. Lew had an eye injury, and Houston won, 71-69. UCLA then beat Houston in the NCAA Tournament Semifinal, and won another National Championship, finishing 29-1. In 1969, they lost a meaningless regular-season finale to the University of Southern California, and went 29-1 to win another National Championship.

In 3 years, Lew Alcindor led UCLA to 3 National Championships, won the Tournament's Most Outstanding Player all 3 times, and went 88-2. Counting his freshman team performance, he was 109-2. That is insane. Throw in his high school play, and he was 195-8. Think about that: He had played over 200 competitive games, and lost fewer than 10 of them.

*

In 1968, Lew converted from Catholicism to Sunni Islam, and adopted the name Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. It means "noble one, servant of the Almighty." However, he did not announce these changes until 1971. By that point, it was considerably less controversial than the conversion and name change made in 1964, when Cassius Clay became Muhammad Ali.

Kareem should have led the U.S. national team to the Gold Medal at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City. But with everything that had gone on in race relations in the 1960, especially the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King 6 months earlier, he chose not to try out: "I was trying to point out to the world the futility of winning the Gold Medal for this country, and then coming back to live under oppression." Hayes also boycotted, so Spencer Haywood was the player who led the U.S. to the Gold.

Kareem got his Bachelor of Arts degree from UCLA in 1969, and began studying martial arts with Bruce Lee. In 1972, he appeared as an opponent for Lee, with an extraordinary height and reach advantage (both arms and legs), in the film Game of Death. (It was left unfinished when Lee died in 1973, and not released until 1978.)

The Harlem Globetrotters offered Kareem $1 million to play for them. He turned it down, and became the Number 1 pick in the 1969 NBA Draft, by the Milwaukee Bucks. He immediately turned them from an expansion team to a title contender, and was the 1970 NBA Rookie of the Year. In 1971, his 2nd season, he led them to the NBA Championship, winning the Finals' Most Valuable Player Award, alongside veteran guard Oscar Robertson, sweeping the Baltimore Bullets in 4 straight. It would be the Big O's only title.

In 1972, the Bucks broke the Los Angeles' Lakers' record 33-game winning streak, but lost to them in the Western Conference Finals. They won the West in 1974, but lost the NBA Finals to the Boston Celtics in 7 games. In both of those seasons, he was named the NBA's regular-season MVP.

Robertson retired right before the 1974-75 season, because he and the Bucks could not agree on a new contract. Right after that, Kareem requested a trade. His choices were, in order: The New York Knicks, the Washington Bullets, and the Los Angeles Lakers. He had never spoken negatively of the city of Milwaukee or its fans, but he said that being in the Midwest "did not fit his cultural needs."

On June 16, 1975, the Bucks traded Kareem and Walt Wesley to the Lakers for Dave Meyers (who had not yet played a pro game, but had just led UCLA to the last of their 10 National Championships under Wooden), Junior Bridgeman, Elmore Smith and Brian Winters. Wesley was essentially a throw-in, to make it look like it wasn't just 4-for-1. All 4 players the Bucks got helped them win some Division titles, so it wasn't a terrible trade for the Bucks. But they did not return to the NBA Finals until 2021.

It took the Lakers a while to get back, too, until 1980. That year, Kareem appeared as co-pilot Roger Murdock in the disaster-film spoof Airplane! It was a tribute to the film on which Airplane! was based on, Zero Hour! where the character was played by an earlier Los Angeles sports legend, Rams receiver Elroy "Crazy Legs" Hirsch. Kareem briefly breaks character, complaining about how hard it is to "drag (Bill) Walton and (Bob) Lanier up and down the court for 48 minutes!"

The Lakers got to Game 6 of the NBA Finals, needing 1 more win over the Philadelphia 76ers to win the title. But Kareem was injured, and rookie sensation Earvin "Magic" Johnson -- his 6-foot-9 height now being considered short for the position -- played center, and the Lakers won the title.

The Lakers won again in 1982, 1985, 1987 and 1988. In 1985, at age 38, Kareem was still 1 of the 3 best players in the NBA, alongside Johnson and Larry Bird of the team they beat in the Finals, the Boston Celtics. It was the 9th time the Lakers had played the Celtics in the Finals, but it was the 1st one they won. It was also the 1st time a team had clinched the NBA title against the Celtics on the parquet floor of the Boston Garden. Sports Illustrated named Kareem its Sportsman of the Year. The 1988 title was his 6th.

In 1984, Kareem surpassed Wilt Chamberlain to become the NBA's all-time leading scorer. They even did a TWA (Trans World Airlines) commercial together. However, they had a difficult relationship, to the point that, when Sports Illustrated celebrated the NBA's 50th Anniversary in 1996, they wanted to get the 4 great Laker centers together: George Mikan from the Minneapolis years, Wilt, Kareem, and Shaquille O'Neal, a superstar newly-acquired from the Orlando Magic. Shaq, Kareem, and Mikan, despite being 72 years old and a bit unsteady on his feet, were all willing to participate, and even wear their respective uniforms. Wilt refused.

The 1988-89 season was Kareem's 20th (at the time, an NBA record) and last, and it was a season-long celebration of his career. The Bucks and the Lakers both retired his Number 33, and his hometown Knicks gave him a huge plaque with all 4 of his 33 jerseys: Power Memorial, UCLA, the Bucks and the Lakers. The Celtics gave him a replica segment of the Boston Garden's parquet.

The Lakers were unable to make it 3 straight titles, as the Detroit Pistons, who nearly derailed the Lakers' back-to-back titles the year before, swept them in 4 straight. But although the Pistons led Game 4 at The Forum in Inglewood big in the final minute, the crowd just kept chanting, "Kareem! Kareem! Kareem!"

He won 6 regular-season and 2 Finals MVP awards. He was elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame in his 1st year of eligibility. He was named to the NBA's 35th, 50th and 75th Anniversary All-Time Teams. A statue of him stands outside the Lakers' home, now named the Crypto.com Arena.

In a 2017 post, I named him the greatest athlete ever to come from the City of New York, ahead of Yankees legend Lou Gehrig; and the 2nd-greatest to come from the State of New York, behind Cleveland Browns running back Jim Brown.

*

Kareem is an introvert. He did not open up to the media for most of his playing career. After a game, instead of answering reporters' questions, he would rather have gone straight home, read, and listen to music. Many reporters considered him "difficult."

He thinks it got in the way of him receiving coaching opportunities: "I didn't understand that I also had affected people that way, and that's what it was all about. I always saw it like they were trying to pry. I was way too suspicious, and I paid a price for it." He served as an assistant coach with the Los Angeles Clippers and the Seattle SuperSonics, as the head coach of the minor-league Oklahoma Storm, a scout with the Knicks, and a "special assistant coach" to Phil Jackson on the Lakers.

In 2013, he gave up on an NBA head coaching job. He has spent a significant amount of his retirement writing. Some of it focuses on the history of African-Americans, including:

* Black Profiles in Courage: A Legacy of African-American Achievement.

* What Color Is My World? The Lost History of African American Inventors. 

* On the Shoulders of Giants: My Journey Through the Harlem Renaissance.

* Brothers In Arms: The Epic Story of the 761st Tank Battalion, World War II's Forgotten Heroes.

During his senior year at UCLA, he met Janice Brown. When they married, she became Habiba Abdul-Jabbar. They had 3 children: Daughters Habiba and Sultana, and son Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Jr., who played basketball at Western Kentucky. Kareem Sr. and Habiba have since divorced. He later had sons Amir and Adam.

He has survived 2 eye injuries that led to his iconic on-court goggles, severe migraines, leukemia, and heart bypass surgery, to reach the age of 75.

Happy Birthday, Kareem. May you enjoy many more.

Bobby "Slick" Leonard, 1932-2021

There haven't been many people in sports who get to be called "Mr. (Name of Team)." Bobby Leonard was Mr. Pacer.

William Robert Leonard was born on July 17, 1932 in Terre Haute, Indiana. He attended Gerstmeyer High School, which is now known as Terre Haute North. Some of its other notable alumni are Basketball Hall-of-Famers Clyde Lovellette and Terry Dischinger, former Yankees Tommy John and Brian Dorsett, Indiana All-American running back Anthony Thompson, and Steve Weatherford of the New York Giants' Super Bowl XLVI winners.

Bobby Leonard played basketball and tennis at Gertsmeyer, and got a basketball scholarship to Indiana University. This was before Bobby Knight became the face of Hoosier basketball: Branch McCracken was the head coach, leading them to the 1940 National Championship. With Leonard, they won the title in 1953, defeating the previous year's champions, Kansas, which had Lovellette the year before. A guard, Leonard was a 3rd team All-American in 1953 and a 2nd team All-American in 1954.

At IU, the poor kid from Terre Haute met a rich kid from South Bend, named Nancy. The day after graduation, they got married, staying together for the next 60 years, having 5 children and 12 grandchildren.

From 1956 to 1961, he played for the Lakers, including their 1959 NBA Western Conference title, and their 1960 move from Minneapolis to Los Angeles. At the beginning, former Lakers star George Mikan was their coach, and he gave Leonard his nickname, "Slick."

He then became a charter member of the franchise then known as the Chicago Packers, playing the 1961-62 season under that name; then, because football fans knew that "Chicago Packers" was a dumb name, the 1962-63 season as the Chicago Zephyrs, with Leonard as player-coach. Then they moved, becoming the Baltimore Bullets, and he was head coach only in 1963-64. In 1973, they became the Washington Bullets; in 1997, the Washington Wizards.

In 1968, the 2nd season of the American Basketball Association, he became the head coach of the Indiana Pacers. He would tell his players -- including forwards George McGinnis and Roger Brown, and centers Gus Johnson and Mel Daniels -- "No tears, no fears. Walk out like you own the place."

The Indianapolis-based team did end up owning the place: He led them to the ABA Championship in 1970, 1972 and 1973. People began to call the Pacers "the Boston Celtics of the ABA," and "Slick" Leonard, for a time also the team's general manager was being compared to Celtics boss Arnold "Red" Auerbach. That may not have been to his liking: After the 1976 ABA-NBA merger, he threatened to fight Auerbach during a game.

"Wasn't afraid of nobody," McGinnis said. "And that rubbed off on us." Daniels added, "When it came down to it, he loved us. We went to war for him."

But, as with the New York Nets, who lost the 1972 ABA Finals to the Pacers and then won the title in 1974 and 1976, they had to sell off big names to pay for their 1976 entry into the NBA. Leonard actually ran a telethon for them in 1977, and it saved the team from being moved. But he couldn't make them competitive on the court again, and left in 1980.

His record as an NBA and ABA head coach was 573-534. Of his 573 wins, 529 came with the Pacers, and they eventually hung a banner with that number on it, representing a "retired number" for him. He had worn 21 throughout his career as a player.

In 1985, Leonard came back to the Pacers as a broadcaster. His catchphrase was yelling, "Boom, baby!" after a 3-point field goal. He held the post until a heart attack in 2011. In 2014, he was elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame.

"I've had a love affair with the fans and the people in the state of Indiana," he said in his induction speech. "We call ourselves Hoosiers. And they've been very supportive. It's a love affair that has gone on for years, since I was at Indiana University. And I wish it could last forever."

It lasted until died today, April 13, 2021, when he died at the age of 88.

Derek Schultz, an Indianapolis broadcaster, said today, "Slick Leonard is the most important sports figure in Indianapolis history. More than Peyton (Manning) and Reggie (Miller), because without Slick, there’s a strong chance neither would’ve had professional careers in this city. It’s impossible to overstate his impact. R.I.P. to an Indiana legend."

Local weatherman Sean Ash went further than that: "Without him there's no Pacers...and arguably no Colts. The city of Indianapolis and state of Indiana are forever indebted to the Leonard Family for their wide-ranging impacts. RIP, Slick."

That's how important Bobby Leonard was to Indiana sports. Mark Boyle, his former broadcast partner, said, "The fans love him, I love him, and he's done everything there is to do.

"He is Mr. Pacer. There's just no one else."