Warriors legend Alvin Attles passes away at 87

The Hall of Famer was affiliated with the Warriors franchise as a player, coach and executive for over 60 years.

Al Attles, 88: played for Golden State Warriors, coached the team that won the NBA finals in 1975 and then served as General Manager and most recently a Team Ambassador for combined 60+ years.

He was 87. The media was informed on Wednesday by the Warriors that Attles had passed on in his East Bay home on Tuesday in the company of his family.

Known for his aggressive physical on-court persona he had the nickname “The Destroyer” and the Warriors were his only team and love after they picked him in the fifth round of the 1960 draft. It became the longest stint with a single franchise for one person in the league history.

About the time that Attles began his Lakers association, he was able to watch some of the most historic games across different eras. He was on the floor when Wilt Chamberlain scored 100 points for Philadelphia Warriors in Hershey, PA on March 2, 1962. He succeeded at making all of the eight attempts that he made from the field goal area to score 17 points.

He also was the coach for Rick Barry the day he scored 64 on Portland on March 26, 1974 and Klay Thompson scoring 60 points in three quarters in December of 2016.

I must say it is a very sad day for me and I can only say RIP to a man whom I considered my role model Al was my roommate during my first season in the NBA and he was the one who had the perfect definition of how a professional should be, things that I could never learn in practice,” said Barry, on the Warriors’ official website. “Later, he shared with us as our coach in the 1975 championship season, leadership, togetherness and a dramatic strategic sense that allowed us to play top level football .”

This is another tragedy for the Bay Area sports after recent loss of Giants baseball Hall of Famers Willie Mays and Orlando Cepeda.

The first and what had seemed to be the only NBA championship in the Warrior’s new home West arrived via Attles in 1975 while the second, 40 years later and more precisely in 2015. He has recorded 557 coaching wins, thus being a record holder for the franchise.

Candidly, Attles never looked at all the great performances he used to get to witness while raising his hand. As the basketball times are different, so are its difficulties. Too many wonderful occasions to generate exceptional feelings and express gratitude, he continued.

He knew little, though, of the magnitude of Thompson’s scoring spree when he quipped to reporters during the last stoppage with under two minutes left: “I’ve seen a 100-point game.” “Rick was such a great player and he cared about winning. To be scoring that many points though, you have to be receiving support from your team-mates. As much as I have tried to analyse individual performances because one can never be better than the other, let him have his due.”

Attles used to kid that he took the ball out to Chamberlain for all those points. He had six while Guy Rodgers had total of 20 assists out of the 39 total for the team in the 169-147 victory over the Knicks.

It is true that Attles could hardly mask his enthusiasm when posed with the question that sought to know how much he was involved in the making of the record game, ‘I think 50,’ he responded. “I don’t know. Guess what? We won the game. That’s all that matters.

“Because of it people come up to me and say, ‘What do you think about Wilt scoring 100 points?’ I say ‘You can credit him for what he did then ‘. You know, it is comparing apples with oranges They are both fruits They are both performing animals But it is what one likes I was friends with Wilt But I could only admire them for what they did on that night.

During his playing time, Attles scored an average of 8points per a game and at the time was not well to say famous. 9 points, 3. 5 rebounds and 3. A point guard with 5 assist average who spent his eleven seasons with the Golden State Warriors.