On March 1, 1996, NBA head coach Lenny Wilkens becomes the
first coach in NBA history to record 1,000 regular season NBA victories. Wilkens
would go on compile 1,332 wins and be the winningest coach of all time until
the 2009-2010 season, when former Golden State Warriors head coach Don Nelson
would pass him with 1,335.
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| Lenny Wilkens in 2004 as a coach for the New York Knicks. |
After 30 seasons as an NBA head coach, Wilkens left the
bench with his last stop being the Toronto Raptors in the 2002-2003 season. He
would come back in the 2004-2005 season to coach the New York Knicks, but after
a slow start, would retire from the team on Jan. 22, 2005.
Wilkens, had coached 2,046 regular season games, 164 playoff
games, and four NBA All-Star games, making him the only head coach in NBA
history with more than 2,000 games under his belt.
Wilkens trailed only Major League Baseball’s, Connie Mack,
53 years, John McGraw 33 years, National Football League’s George Halas, 40
years, Curly Lambeau, 33 years, and Don Shula, 33 years, for the longest tenure
as a head coach in a major professional sports league.
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