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Al Attles, the Hall of Fame coach who won an NBA championship with the Warriors in 1975 and spent more than six decades as part of the organization as a player, general manager and ambassador, has died. He was 87.
The Warriors announced Wednesday that Attles died at his East Bay home on Tuesday surrounded by his family.
Known as “The Destroyer” for his physical style of play, the Warriors were his one and only love and the team he spent his entire career with since being selected in the fifth round of the 1960 draft. This marks the longest tenure for a person with one team in league history.
Al Attles shakes hands with Stephen Curry.LAPRESSE
Attles, one of the first black coaches in the NBA, witnessed some of the best games in different eras. He was at Wilt Chamberlain’s 100-point game on March 2, 1962, with the Philadelphia Warriors in Hershey, Pennsylvania. Attles made all eight of his field goal attempts and finished with 17 points in that game.
He was also the coach for future Hall of Famer Rick Barry the day he scored 64 against Portland on March 26, 1974, and was there when Klay Thompson scored 60 points in three quarters in December 2016.
“My heart is heavy today with the passing of my mentor and friend. Al was my roommate my rookie year in the league. He taught me invaluable lessons on how to be a professional that I couldn’t have learned on the court,” Barry said in a statement released by the Warriors. “Later, as coach of the Warriors’ 1975 title season, he exemplified the leadership, togetherness and strategic skill that helped us succeed at the highest level.”
Al Attles defends during a game.LAPRESSE
Attles led the Warriors to their first title since moving West in 1975, and Golden State finally won again 40 years later in 2015. His 557 wins as a coach are the most in franchise history.
Attles never compared the great performances he witnessed. Different times in basketball, different challenges, he insisted.
“I watched the 100-point game,” Attles said from his seat the night Thompson had 60. “Rick was a great player and he cared about winning. To get to that point you need help from your teammates. I try to look at it on an individual basis because once you try to compare, someone is always going to be No. 2.”
Attles joked that he was the one who assisted Chamberlain on all of his points. In reality, he had only six assists.
As a player, Attles averaged 8.9 points, 3.5 rebounds and 3.5 assists in 11 seasons with the Warriors.
The Hall of Fame honored him with the John W. Bunn Lifetime Achievement Award in 2014. And in the months before he was set to be inducted into the Hall of Fame as part of the 2019 class, Attles remained modest and refused to take credit for his accomplishments.
“They made a mistake,” Attles joked with a smile.
Born November 7, 1936, in Newark, New Jersey, he received the National Basketball Coaches Association’s Chuck Daly Lifetime Achievement Award in 2017 and was inducted into the Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame in 1993.
