For a man who made sports history, who led one of sport’s biggest underdogs to a resounding championship triumph, Al Attles blew his trumpet so quietly it was barely visible. One had to lean in closely for any chance to hear it.
Attles would joke about the night in 1962 when he and San Francisco Warriors teammate Wilt Chamberlain combined to score 117 points. It was a joke because Chamberlain was responsible for 100 of those points.
What Attles wouldn’t say is that his 17 points came on eight field-goal attempts and one free throw. He made every shot he took.
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Such modesty was typical of Al Attles, and he never lost it no matter the heights he achieved.
Attles passed away Tuesday, the Warriors announced. He was 87 (birthdate 11/7/36). It’s altogether conceivable that during his final weeks in hospice care his every waking moment were about thoughts of those around him and not one second about himself.
And there was so much to the man.
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Attles grew up in Newark, N.J. before leaving in 1956 to attend historically Black North Carolina A&T, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in physical education and history, followed by a master’s in curriculum and instruction. He also played basketball well enough to be drafted by the Philadelphia Warriors. He was selected in the fifth round, 39th overall, in the 1960 NBA draft.
Nope. Attles, at 23, decided he would rather coach the game than play it. For real. His plan was to ignore the call of the NBA and become a gym teacher. The Warriors persisted. Attles begrudgingly decided he would show up for training camp.
“The money was too good,” he told me many years ago. “Almost $6,000 a year.”
Though Attles wasn’t much of a shooter, he did everything else well. He could run, pass and rebound exceptionally well for someone who stood 6 feet and weighed a shade below 180 pounds. He defended with the zeal of a hungry shark. That, along with his innate toughness and rumbling bass voice made him seem a foot taller and 100 pounds heavier.
Attles was slow to anger but quick to flame once his fuse was lit. It didn’t take long for his skills at self-defense to spread through the league, leading to his nickname: The Destroyer.
Attles lasted nine seasons as a player before adding another job in Year 10. He would keep playing for the Warriors but also would serve as an assistant coach. That lasted one year, as during the 1969-70 season he was named head coach while still an active player. This was less than four years after the Boston Celtics made Bill Russell the NBA’s first Black head coach in 1966.
Attles’ most incredible feat came five years later when, in his words, a Hall of Famer named Rick Barry and some all-time great winners “carried me” to a championship.
The 1974-75 Warriors under Attles dispatched the Seattle SuperSonics and Chicago Bulls to reach the NBA Finals against the Washington Bullets. Golden State’s 48 wins tied for best record in the Western Conference, while Washington’s 60 tied Boston was best record in the league.
The Bullets were huge favorites, but the tough-minded Warriors fashioned a stirring comeback to win Game 1 in Washington. They won Game 2 at the Cow Palace, as the Oakland Coliseum Arena, not anticipating postseason basketball, had booked the Ice Follies. The Warriors won Game 3 at the Cow Palace and then went back to Washington and, behind another fourth-quarter comeback, won Game 4 and the series.
In Finals series featuring two Black head coaches for the first time – Washington’s K.C. Jones was the other – Attles and the Warriors pulled off the most shocking Finals sweep in NBA history. And nothing in the 49 years since has approached that on the scale of upsets.
Attles credited his luck with having a team that was committed to victory. He praised Barry’s leadership, the grit of Charles Johnson and Clifford Ray and George Johnson and Butch Beard, the skills of youngsters Jamaal Wilkes and Derrek Dickey, the presence of veterans Jeff Mullins and Bill Bridges, assistant coach Joe Roberts and the ownership of Franklin Mieuli.
Everyone except himself.
It would be another 40 years before the Warriors would win another championship, and when that came in 2015 Attles still was representing the franchise. From player to coach to general manager to community ambassador, he remained loyal to the soil. A terrific basketball man but a kind and wonderful human being.
Attles spent more than 60 years with the Warriors, making him their most enduring legend. After his No. 16 was retired and raised inside Oracle Arena and then Chase Center, Attles often remarked “somebody must have paid them to put me up there with those guys.” This was nonsense stated with conviction.
“Those guys” are Nate Thurmond, Tom Meschery, Chris Mullin, Barry and Chamberlain. All but Meschery have enshrined in the Naismith Hall of Fame – as is Attles.
Attles is a two-time inductee. If you let him tell his story, you’d never know it.