Golden State Warriors Legend and Community Ambassador Alvin Attles has been named the 2017 co-recipient of the National Basketball Coaches Association’s Chuck Daly Lifetime Achievement Award, it was announced today. Attles is sharing the honor with Hall of Famer Hubie Brown, and both will be presented with the award by Dallas Mavericks Head Coach and National Basketball Coaches Association President Rick Carlisle at Oracle Arena in an on-court ceremony at Game 2 of the NBA Finals.
Chuck Daly Lifetime Achievement Award
Attles, 80, joined the Philadelphia Warriors in 1960 as the club’s fifth-round draft choice and has been affiliated with the franchise ever since. 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 and 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 its 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.
Attles’ endless contributions as a player, executive and civic leader resulted in his induction into the Bay Area Sports Hall of Fame in 1993 and, in August 2014, he 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.
The National Basketball Coaches Association’s Chuck Daly Lifetime Achievement Award honors the memory of Hall of Famer Chuck Daly, who over an outstanding NBA coaching career set a standard for integrity, competitive excellence and tireless promotion of NBA basketball. This year’s award recognizes the extraordinary contributions Attles and Brown have made to the sport throughout their NBA careers through building bodies of work that have had a positive and powerful impact on the NBA coaching profession. Attles and Brown have embodied the high standards and leadership philosophies that Coach Daly brought to the game.
The National Basketball Coaches Association’s Chuck Daly Lifetime Achievement Award recipient(s) are selected annually by the Award Selection Committee. This committee is comprised of some of the most respected coaches and basketball executives in the game, including Bernie Bickerstaff, Billy Cunningham, Joe Dumars, Phil Jackson, Gregg Popovich, Pat Riley, Donnie Walsh and Lenny Wilkens.
The National Basketball Coaches Association (NBCA) is the labor union that represents basketball coaches in the NBA. Founded in 1976 by legendary Boston Celtics player and coach Tommy Heinsohn, the NBCA consists of all NBA head coaches, assistant coaches and alumni, and works closely with the NBA on all matters that pertain to the coaching profession.