In Memory

Somewhere along the way, Al Attles might have looked in the mirror and said, “Maybe, just maybe, I underestimated myself.” How else do we reconcile a green, almost naive kid going to his first NBA training camp figuring - no, assuming - he’d last a few days, get cut and move on, with the man whose involvement with one of the NBA’s oldest franchises wound up lasting more than a half-century?

Attles passed away on August 21, 2024 at his home in the Bay Area, according to his family and the Golden State Warriors, the team he embodied for so long. He was 87. The 2019 Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame enshrinee leaves behind generations of grateful teammates, players he coached, and anyone whose path he crossed in a remarkable 60-year career in pro basketball. 

Not bad for a guy who “only” averaged 9 points, 3.5 rebounds and 3.5 assists in an 11-year playing career. But numbers never told the full story of the kid from Newark who arrived at Philadelphia Warriors training camp in 1960 convinced he’d soon be headed back to New Jersey to begin the teaching job he had lined up.

“I only took one pair of shorts because I thought the team would release me,” Attles said during his Enshrinement speech. 

He was one of the NBA’s first black point guards and though he only stood 6 feet and 175 pounds, he backed down from no one and routinely drew the opposition’s best player to guard. Oscar Robertson called him the toughest defender he faced. He could fill it up, too: One of his best performances came on the night teammate Wilt Chamberlain dropped 100 points on the New York Knicks, something he and The Dipper joked about over the years.

“I am humbled to have competed with so many great athletes of my era,” Attles said. “I didn’t have the gifts and the talent that most of the other players had, but I did it my way.”

Attles went on to become the NBA’s first full-time black head coach - Lenny Wilkens and Bill Russell had been player-coaches previously - and he led the Warriors to 557 wins in 13-plus years and the NBA title in 1975. In contrast to his often combative playing style, off the court Attles was known as thoughtful, humble, and sincere. He stayed with the team as an executive and ambassador and was a fixture at Warriors games for decades.

“He exemplified leadership, togetherness, and a keen strategic ability that enabled us to succeed at the highest level,” Rick Barry, the star of the ‘75 team, said in a statement. Former Warriors great Chris Mullin called Attles “a dear friend, mentor, and role model and someone I admired tremendously and tried to emulate.”