SEATTLE—Lenny Wilkens, a towering figure in basketball whose career spanned five decades as one of the game’s premier point guards, innovative coaches and a champion of youth development, died on November 9, 2025, surrounded by family. He was 88.
Born Leonard Randolph Wilkens on October 28, 1937, in Brooklyn, New York, Wilkens grew up in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood, the son of a Black American father and an Irish American mother.
Raised in the Catholic faith after his father’s early death, he honed his skills at Boys High School alongside future MLB star Tommy Davis, emerging as a graceful left-handed guard known for his court vision and consistency.
Wilkens attended Providence College from 1957 to 1960, where he became a two-time All-America selection, leading the Friars to their first National Invitation Tournament (NIT) appearance in 1959 and the finals in 1960.
Upon graduation, he ranked second in school history with 1,193 points—a mark that has since slipped to 26th—and Providence retired his No. 14 jersey in 1996, honoring him as the program’s first alumnus to receive the distinction. In 2006, he was inducted into the College Basketball Hall of Fame.
Drafted sixth overall by the St. Louis Hawks in the 1960 NBA Draft, Wilkens launched a 15-season playing career that solidified his status as one of the league’s elite guards. Over 1,077 games, he amassed 17,772 points (16.5 per game), 5,030 rebounds (4.7 per game) and a then-second-place 7,211 assists (6.7 per game). He earned nine All-Star nods and was named All-Star Game MVP in 1971.
His playing tenure began with eight seasons in St. Louis (1960–1968), where the Hawks reached the 1961 NBA Finals—losing to the Boston Celtics in his rookie year—and made consistent playoff runs. In 1967–68, his final Hawks season, Wilkens finished second in MVP voting behind Wilt Chamberlain. Traded to the expansion Seattle SuperSonics in 1968, he averaged 22.4 points, 6.2 rebounds and 8.2 assists in his debut campaign, leading the league in assists during the 1969–70 season. Brief stints followed with the Cleveland Cavaliers (1972–1974) and Portland Trail Blazers (1974–1975), where he concluded his on-court career.
Wilkens’ transition to coaching marked him as a trailblazer, becoming one of the few to excel as both player and bench leader. He began as a player-coach with the SuperSonics in 1969, a role he reprised briefly with Portland in 1974–75. Over 36 seasons (1969–2005), he compiled a 1,332–1,155 record (.536 winning percentage) across 2,487 games—the most in NBA history at the time.
Returning to Seattle as full-time coach in 1977, Wilkens engineered a turnaround, guiding the SuperSonics to the 1978 NBA Finals (a seven-game loss to the Washington Bullets) and the 1979 championship (a five-game victory over the same foe). He coached eight seasons there, including multiple 50-win campaigns. After a one-year player-coach stint in Portland (1975–76), he led the Cleveland Cavaliers (1986–1993) to three 50-win seasons and the 1992 Eastern Conference Finals. With the Atlanta Hawks (1993–2000), he surpassed Red Auerbach as the winningest coach on January 6, 1995, with his 939th victory, though the team never advanced beyond the second round.
Later stops included the Toronto Raptors (2000–2003), where he secured the franchise’s first playoff series win in 2001, and the New York Knicks (2004–2005).
Wilkens’ accolades reflect his dual legacy: inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as a player in 1989 and as a coach in 1998, he is the only person enshrined in both categories. He served as an assistant on the 1992 “Dream Team” and head coach for the gold-medal-winning 1996 U.S. Olympic squad, earned NBA Coach of the Year honors in 1994 and was named to the NBA’s 75th Anniversary Team as both player and coach in 2021. In 2022, he ranked among the league’s 15 Greatest Coaches.
Beyond the court, Wilkens left an indelible mark on community initiatives.
He founded the Lenny Wilkens Foundation for Children, which has raised millions for pediatric care, including support for Seattle’s Odessa Brown Children’s Clinic. A longtime advocate for youth empowerment, Wilkens was a dedicated supporter of Rise Up Academy in Everett—formerly Greater Trinity Academy—participating in fundraising events like celebrity golf tournaments to bolster its programs for underserved students.
Wilkens, who lived in Medina, was married to Marilyn Reed from 1962 until his death; the couple had three children—Leesha, Randy and Jamee—and seven grandchildren. In 2021, Seattle renamed Thomas Street to Lenny Wilkens Way in his honor, and a statue was unveiled outside Climate Pledge Arena earlier this year.
Author: Mario Lotmore
