Lenny Wilkens Biography

1937-

American basketball coach

With 1,268 victories in his first twenty-nine seasons as an National Basketball Association (NBA) coach, Lenny Wilkens is clearly the winningest coach in professional basketball history. Wilkens began his coaching career more than three decades ago in Seattle where he served as player-coach for the Super Sonics from 1969 until 1972. He pulled the same double duty with the Portland Trail Blazers during the 1974-1975 season but hung up his uniform at season's end and stuck to coaching the following season with Portland. In the years since, he has served as head coach for the Supersonics (1977-1985), Cleveland Cavaliers (1986-1993), Atlanta Hawks (1993-2000), and Toronto Raptors (2000—). During his years as player and coach in the NBA, Wilkens has collected one Coach of the Year Award, an NBA championship ring, two Olympic gold medals, and been named one of the fifty top players and ten top coaches in NBA history.

CONTACT INFORMATION

Address: Lenny Wilkens, c/o Toronto Raptors, 40 Bay St Ste 300, Toronto, ON, Canada, M5J 2X2.

SELECTED WRITINGS BY WILKENS:

The Lenny Wilkens Story, Kampmann & Co., 1974.

(With Terry Pluto) Unguarded: My 40 Years Surviving in the NBA, Simon & Schuster, 2000.