Al Attles, the winningest coach in Golden State Warriors history and the longest continuous employee of any team in the NBA, is headed to Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame. He is one of 10 individuals and two teams that will make up the Hall of Fame Class of 2019, which also includes Sacramento Kings star Vlade Divac.
“I could not think of a person more deserving of this honor,” said Warriors owner Joe Lacob in a statement.
Attles, who will be enshrined as a contributor, started his career in 1960 as a player with the Philadelphia Warriors after graduating from North Carolina A&T. He played 11 seasons, including nine after the team moved to the West Coast before the 1962-63 season.
He averaged 9 points a game during his career, and he was the second-leading scorer for the Warriors on March 2, 1962, when Wilt Chamberlain scored an NBA-record 100 points in one game. Attles added 17.
Asked by The Undefeated in 2016 if current Warriors star Stephen Curry could score 100 points in a game, Attles said, “I just think that the defenses now would make it almost virtually impossible to score 100 points.”
Attles was known as “The Destroyer” during his playing days for his tenacious approach to the game. The 82-year-old has been in and out of the hospital in recent months, but a Warriors spokesman said he is back home and “getting stronger every day.”
In his final two seasons, he served as a player/coach, beginning a 13-plus year run as the team’s head coach, which would include a team-best 557 wins and the Warriors’ first West Coast championship in 1975. He told The Undefeated that he didn’t like coaching at first and that it took a lot for the team’s owner Franklin Mieuli to get him on board.
“He had to be a great man to convince me to be a coach, because I didn’t want to be a coach,” Attles said.
After the 1982-83 season, Attles left the bench to for a brief stint as the team’s general manager before becoming a community ambassador, a position he holds to this day, making him the longest continuous employee of any team in the NBA, stretching back nearly 60 years.
Attles is one of only six players whose numbers have been retired by the Warriors, along with Chamberlain, Rick Barry, Tom Meschery, Chris Mullin and Nate Thurmond. In 2014, Attles was given the John W. Bunn Lifetime Achievement Award by the Hall of Fame, its most prestigious award outside of enshrinement.
The induction ceremony will take place on Friday, Sept. 6, in Springfield, Massachusetts.