Three-time Basketball Hall of Fame inductee and NBA legend Lenny Wilkens has passed away. He was 88 years old. Wilkens' family made the announcement on Sunday adding that he was surrounded by loved ones at the time of his passing.
Wilkens was celebrated both as a player and a coach in the NBA. He began his NBA career playing for the St. Louis Hawks and later transitioned into coaching.
He is a nine-time NBA All-Star as a player, and four-time All-Star coach, Wilkens played 15 years in the NBA with St. Louis, Seattle, Cleveland and Portland, averaging 16.5 points, 6.7 assists, 4.7 rebounds and 1.3 steals in 35.3 minutes. He also appeared in 64 postseason contests, all with the Hawks, and averaged 16.1 points, 5.8 assists and 5.8 rebounds in 37.5 minutes.
Upon his retirement as a player in 1975, he ranked second in NBA history in assists (7,211) behind only Oscar Robertson. A member of the NBA’s 50th and 75th anniversary teams, Wilkens was the 1971 NBA All-Star game MVP.
He has been inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame three times, as a player in 1989, as a coach in 1998 and as an assistant coach of the 1992 NBA Dream Team in 2010. He is also a two-time Olympic gold medalist (assistant coach in 1992, head coach in the 1996 Atlanta Olympic games).
In 2022, Wilkens was named one of the 15 greatest coaches in the 75-year history of the NBA.