-Bed-Stuy, is that
the area you were in?
-Yeah.
[♪♪]
- Wilkens goets the shot off.
It’s good! .
[♪♪]
He was born
Leonard Wilkens Jr.
And raised
in the
Bedford-Stuyvesant section
of Brooklyn, New York.
At the age of five,
his father passed away,
and Lenny,
as he would be called,
would become
the man of the house.
- Honesty and integrity
should define
your character.
You know,
these are things
that were drummed
into me as a youngster
and that
if you really wanted to,
you could impact
your life.
Wilkens father was black
and his mother was white.
She was a devout
Irish Catholic
who wanted her son
to become a priest.
But the game of basketball
got in the way.
And ironically,
a Catholic priest,
Father Thomas Mannian,
had something
to do with it.
- We used to call him Iron
Hands, you know,
because he would...
he'd grab you!
You couldn't
get away from him.
Father Mannian
saw that young Lenny
Wilkens was a talented
basketball player.
While he didn't play
for his high school team
until his senior year.
Wilkens still shined
while Mannian
was determined
to get him to
the next level.
- Encouraged me
to stay in school,
and then wrote to
Providence College
to get them interested
and given me a scholarship.
At Providence,
Lenny Wilkens
found success
on the basketball court
and in the classroom.
His senior year,
he led
the Providence Friars
to a 24 and five record
and earned
All-American honors.
[♪♪]
In 1960,
Wilkens began his
professional
basketball career
when the Saint Louis Hawks
made him a first round
draft choice.
But off the court,
he had his first encounter
with the Jim
Crow segregation
laws of that time.
- You'd felt racism before,
but you felt it
for the first time,
I think...hard.
- Well, it was
it was very blatant.
I hadn't experienced it
to that degree.
We moved into
this neighborhood
and for sale
signs went up everywhere.
We had a little Collie
puppy, and,
it was poisoned, you know?
So, yeah,
there was some
tough times, but I was.
I refused to
be intimidated.
Some people moved,
some stay
and saw that
we were just human beings.
Like they were.
[♪♪]
- But those hard times
would change in 1968,
when Wilkens
was traded to Seattle.
His floor leadership
and scoring ability
would make him
a fan favorite.
It was in Seattle
that he became
a player coach.
At the time,
Wilkens was only
the second
African-American to serve
as a head coach
in the NBA.
The first
was Bill Russell.
[♪♪]
- How did that go
when you first took over?
- It was a struggle
the first year.
And then what happened
was there were a
couple of games that,
I felt
my coaching helped us win,
and that piqued
my interest.
- Under Wilkens leadership,
the team was improving.
But then the front
office decided
to trade him
to the Cleveland
Cavaliers.
Wilkens was unhappy
with the move,
and so were Sonic fans.
The trade proved to be
a bad move.
Wilkens got his payback
when he returned
to Seattle,
and his Cleveland team
beat the Sonics
with the hometown
crowd cheering him on.
- I felt good
that the reception was
what it was.
I didn't know
what it would be.
And,
the fans were incredible.
They were tremendous,
and they rooted for us
the whole game.
- Wilkens
finished his
playing career
in Portland in 1975.
But his heart
was still in Seattle
and that would be home.
- Seattle has always been
a place that I fell in
love with.
My family
fell in love with.
We love the community.
The community
responded to us,
you know,
and my kids
have grown up here.
So this
was going to be home.
[♪♪]
- Lenny Wilkens
love for Seattle
and the city's love
for him
was cemented in 1979
when, as head coach,
he guided the SuperSonics
to the NBA title.
[♪♪]
- The Seattle SuperSonics
have won
the NBA
World Championship!
[♪♪]
-It was
just incredible.
And and I truly believe
that we would win
the championship.
I believe that
with all my heart
and when we did
and we came home,
there were 20,000
people at the airport,
which was incredible.
[♪♪]
- Over a five decade career
as a player and coach,
Lenny Wilkens
set a level of excellence
that defined his legacy.
He was a nine time
NBA all star.
He was the head coach
of five NBA teams.
He won an NBA title.
He was an assistant
coach on the 1992 U.S.
Olympic Dream Team
that won a gold medal.
He won gold again as head
coach of the 1996
Olympic team.
He was a three time
inductee in the Naismith
Basketball Hall of Fame.
And he taught
Shaquille O'Neal
a thing or two
about posting up.
- He looked at me
and said, coach,
you have to play
at this level?
And of course,
Scottie Pippen
and all the other guys
started laughing
and teasing him.
The neat thing was the
next day before the game,
he came
rushing into
the locker room
with a camera
and he asked
one of the guys
to take a picture
of me and him.
He said,
and I talked to my dad.
He said,
you were pretty good.
[♪♪]
- In his later years,
Lennie Wilkens became
well known
for his philanthropy.
The Lenny
Wilkens Foundation
raised money for Seattle's
Odessa Brown
Children's Clinic.
Wilkens mentored
young people
from all walks of life,
and, along with actor
Danny Glover
and other NBA stars,
he supported Rise
Above,
a nonprofit
that empowers
native youths.
- I hope that
the young people
that I come in contact
with, that
I help them
get to the point
where they
maximize their career,
but also that they grow
as human beings
so that it can
be functional.
They can take something
back to the community
other than
just basketball.
- In June 2025,
a bronze statue
depicting Wilkens
from his playing days
with the Seattle
SuperSonics was unveiled.
Honoring his legacy
as a champion
on and off
the basketball court.
- Yeah, I feel very blessed.
You know, with family,
friends, you know,
I mean, you couldn't
ask for more.
[♪♪]
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