Obit Wilkens Basketball FILE - Former Seattle SuperSonics coach and player Lenny Wilkens acknowledges the crowd during the second half of a preseason NBA basketball game between the Los Angeles Clippers and the Utah Jazz, Oct. 10, 2023, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson, File) (Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.) (Lindsey Wasson/AP)
Obit Wilkens Basketball FILE - Former NBA basketball player and coach Lenny Wilkens delivers remarks during his statue unveiling event outside Climate Pledge Arena, June 28, 2025, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson, File) (Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.) (Lindsey Wasson/AP)
Obit Wilkens Basketball FILE - Seattle Supersonics Coach Lenny Wilkens holds up the NBA World Championship trophy before some of the thousands of fans that lined in Seattle streets June 4, 1979 in celebration of the Sonics victory over the Washington Bullets. (AP Photo, File) (Copyright 1979 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.) (Anonymous/AP)
Obit Wilkens Basketball FILE - Seattle Supersonic head coach Lenny Wilkens gestures with his arms during a basketball game against the Washington Bullets in Landover, Md., May 25, 1979. (AP Photo/Smith, File) (Copyright 1979 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.) (Smith/AP)
Obit Wilkens Basketball FILE - Former NBA basketball player and coach Lenny Wilkens smiles before his statue unveiling event outside Climate Pledge Arena, June 28, 2025, in Seattle. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson, File) (Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.) (Lindsey Wasson/AP)
SEATTLE (AP) — Lenny Wilkens, a three-time inductee into the Basketball Hall of Fame who was enshrined as both a player and a coach, has died, his family said Sunday. He was 88.
The family said Wilkens was surrounded by loved ones when he died and did not immediately release a cause of death.
Wilkens was one of the finest point guards of his era who later brought his calm and savvy style to the sideline, first as a player-coach and then evolving into one of the game's great coaches.
He coached 2,487 games in the NBA, which is still a record. He became a Hall of Famer as a player, as a coach and again as part of the 1996 U.S. Olympic team — which he coached to gold at the Atlanta Games.
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Tim Booth, a former Associated Press sports writer, was the principal writer of this obituary.
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