Corridor of Famer Al Attles lived to be 87 years outdated. The final 63 had been spent working with the Golden State Warriors.
Attles spent greater than six a long time with the Warriors as a participant, coach, government and ambassador — generally holding a number of roles on the identical time. After a stellar faculty profession at North Carolina A&T, who retired his quantity in 2015, Attles was able to take a job as a junior excessive coach earlier than the Warriors satisfied him to attempt the NBA. He stayed for 63 years.
Regardless of standing simply six toes tall, Attles was generally known as “The Destroyer” due to his depth, his relentless protection and his willingness to struggle anybody within the NBA, regardless of how massive they had been. He obtained the nickname after going after a unfastened ball so ferociously that he broke 6-foot-8 Dolph Schayes’ jaw.
However whereas Attles was no shooter, his passing and protection made him a mainstay of Warriors groups from 1960-71. One memorable evening in Hershey, Pennsylvania, in 1962, Attles scored 17 factors on an ideal 8-for-8 capturing and making his lone free throw. Sadly, it was overshadowed by a file 100-point efficiency from his teammate and buddy, Wilt Chamberlain. Later, Attles used to boast about “the evening Wilt and I mixed for 117.”
He grew to become a player-coach in 1968, taking up the pinnacle job with Golden State from 1971-83. His Warriors received the championship in 1975, solely the second time a Black head coach received all of it. Attles additionally achieved one other milestone in that sequence. When Mike Riordan of the Washington Bullets took a shot at Rick Barry in Recreation 4, Attles stepped in to guard his star participant and have become the primary — and solely — NBA coach ejected from the NBA Finals for preventing.
Attles took the Warriors to the playoffs six occasions as head coach, then moved over to turn out to be the crew’s basic supervisor for 3 years. He by no means stopped working for the Warriors after turning down that junior excessive teaching job and was on the payroll because the crew’s group consultant on the time of his dying.
He acquired a lifetime achievement award from the Naismith Basketball Corridor of Fame in 2014, then was inducted as a contributor in 2019. The Warriors have had some unbelievable gamers over time, however nobody man has ever exemplified the franchise because the late Attles did.