Warriors staple Al Attles, one of NBA’s first Black head coaches, dies aged 87
Al Attles, a Hall of Famer who coached the 1975 NBA champion Warriors and spent more than six decades with the organization as a player, general manager and most recently as a team ambassador, has died.
He was 87. The Warriors announced Wednesday that Attles died Tuesday at his East Bay home surrounded by family.
The Warriors, nicknamed “The Destroyer” for his physical playing style, were his love and only team after selecting him in the fifth round of the 1960 draft. It is the longest tenure with one franchise for one person in league history.
Attles, one of the NBA’s first black head coaches, witnessed some of the greatest games of the era. He played in Wilt Chamberlain’s 100-point game for the Philadelphia Warriors in Hershey, Pennsylvania, on March 2, 1962. Attles made all eight of his field-goal attempts for 17 points.
He also coached Hall of Famer Rick Barry on the day he scored 64 points against Portland on March 26, 1974, and then watched Klay Thompson score 60 points in three quarters in December 2016.
“My heart is heavy today for the loss of my mentor and friend. Al was my roommate during my rookie season in the league. He taught me valuable lessons about being a professional that you couldn’t learn on the field,” Barry said in a statement released by the Warriors. “Later, as our coach during the 1975 championship season, he exemplified leadership, camaraderie and a keen strategic mind that enabled us to succeed at the highest level.”
This is another heartbreaking blow to the Bay Area sports community following the recent deaths of Giants Hall of Famers Willie Mays and Orlando Cepeda.
Attles coached the Warriors to their first championship since moving west in 1975, and 40 years later, in 2015, Golden State finally won again. His 557 career victories are the most in franchise history.
Attles never compared all the great achievements he longed to see up close. Different basketball times, different challenges. So many special milestones to celebrate and appreciate, he insisted.
“I’ve seen a 100-point game,” Attles said from his seat during a late timeout on Thompson’s big night. “Rick was such a great player and he wanted to win. To score the amount of points he scored, you need help from your teammates. I try to look at them individually because when you start comparing them, there’s always someone who’s No. 2. Let’s give him credit.”
Attles joked that he passed Chamberlain for all those points. He even had six assists, while Guy Rodgers had 20 of the team’s 39 assists in the 169-147 win over the Knicks.
“I think 50,” Attles said with a laugh of his assist total in the record-setter. “I don’t know. Guess what? We won the game. That’s all that matters.
“Because I played with Wilt, people always ask, ‘What do you think about Wilt scoring 100 points?’ I say, ‘Give him credit for what he did back then.’ It’s like apples and oranges. They’re both good fruits. It’s a matter of what you like. I was very close to Wilt, but you’ve got to enjoy what they did that night. I enjoy every great performance.”
As a player, Attles averaged 8.9 points, 3.5 rebounds and 3.5 assists in 11 seasons with the Warriors.
The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame honored him in 2014 with the John W. Bunn Lifetime Achievement Award.
Then, in the months leading up to his induction into the Hall of Fame as part of the Class of 2019, Attles remained his usual modest self, always preferring to give compliments rather than accept credit for his own achievements.
“They’ve made a mistake,” Attles joked with a broad grin, still with that quick wit. “They haven’t caught me yet.”
Warriors manager Steve Kerr had long been known for his stylish suits on the touchline and later even when he was in the stands, and he once paid tribute to Attles by wearing one.
“He’s the face of the franchise,” Kerr said. “He’s been the face of the franchise for 60 years, so he’s an incredible presence.”
After missing most of the 2018-19 season — his smiling face was a reliable fixture at the team’s former Oracle Arena — Attles returned for Game 4 of the 2019 NBA Finals against Toronto to cheers and fanfare.
When Attles left, it wasn’t the same.
Former center Clifford Ray considered Attles a “father figure to all of us” and noted that black NBA players often felt more comfortable learning from the coach because of their similar cultural backgrounds.
“He made things easy and simplified things,” Ray said. “He also didn’t overwhelm us with a lot of technical stuff and paperwork. It was very structured. We knew what we were doing.”
Attles was born on November 7, 1936, in Newark, New Jersey and was a recipient of the National Basketball Coaches Association’s Chuck Daly Lifetime Achievement Award in 2017. He was also inducted into the Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame in 1993.
“Alvin’s name has become synonymous with the Warriors franchise after dedicating his entire adult life to our organization, dating back to our final seasons in Philadelphia,” Warriors owner Joe Lacob said in announcing Attles’ Hall of Fame induction. “He has thrived in every role and responsibility over the past 60 years, from player to coach to general manager and, most recently, ambassador. And he has done so with an incredible amount of class and humility.”