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Legendary Hall of Fame NBA Coach and Player Dies at 88

The late basketball icon also had a career in the military.

Lenny Wilkens, who was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame as both a player and a coach, died on Sunday aged 88. Wilkens had a 15-year career as a player between 1960 and 1975 at the St. Louis Hawks, Seattle SuperSonics, Cleveland Cavaliers and Portland Trail Blazers. He began his coaching career in 1969 while still playing, eventually coaching teams including the Atlanta Hawks, Toronto Raptors and the New York Knicks. Wilkens coached 2,487 games, the most in NBA history, and won 1,332 games as a coach. He also won an Olympic gold medal as coach of the 1996 U.S. team. “Lenny Wilkens represented the very best of the NBA-as a Hall of Fame player, Hall of Fame coach, and one of the game’s most respected ambassadors,” NBA commissioner Adam Silver said in a statement on Sunday. “So much so that, four years ago, Lenny received the unique distinction of being named one of the league’s 75 greatest players and 15 greatest coaches of all time... I send my heartfelt condolences to Lenny’s wife, Marilyn; their children, Leesha, Randy and Jamee; and all those throughout the NBA community who were fortunate to be touched by Lenny’s leadership and generosity.” Born in Brooklyn in 1937, at the end of the Great Depression, he joined the St. Louis Hawks in 1960 and juggled playing basketball with a career as a Second Lieutenant in the Army until 1962. Wilkens served at Fort Lee, Virginia, playing for the St. Louis Hawks on weekends.