Golden State Warriors Legend and Community Ambassador Alvin Attles has been inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as part of the Class of 2019 in a ceremony in Springfield, Mass., earlier tonight.
Attles, 82, joined the Philadelphia Warriors in 1960 as the club’s fifth-round draft choice and has been affiliated with the franchise ever since, a span of nearly 60 years that represents the longest stint with a single franchise in NBA history. He is one of only six players in Warriors history to have his number retired (#16), along with Rick Barry (#24), Wilt Chamberlain (#13), Tom Meschery (#14), Chris Mullin (#17) and Nate Thurmond (#42).
Attles enjoyed an 11-year playing career with the Warriors, averaging 8.9 points, 3.5 rebounds and 3.5 assists in 711 regular-season games, spending the final two years as the club’s player/coach. The North Carolina A&T product amassed a regular-season coaching record of 557-518 (.518) at the helm of the Warriors during his 13-plus year coaching career, the most wins by a head coach in franchise history, and guided Golden State to its first championship in the team’s West Coast Era with a 4-0 series sweep over the Washington Bullets in the 1975 NBA Finals. Attles completed his coaching career at the conclusion of the 1982-83 campaign to become the Warriors’ general manager, heading the team’s basketball operations for three years.
In August 2014, Attles was honored by the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame with the John W. Bunn Lifetime Achievement Award. The award, which is the most prestigious of its kind presented by the Hall of Fame outside of enshrinement, honors coaches, players and contributors whose outstanding accomplishments have impacted the game of basketball. In 2017, Attles was named a co-recipient of the 2017 National Basketball Coaches Association’s Chuck Daly Lifetime Achievement Award, which honors coaches whose bodies of work have had a positive and powerful impact on the NBA coaching profession. Attles’ endless contributions as a player, executive and civic leader also led to his induction into the Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame in 1993.