Lenny Wilkens Sets NBA Record

On March 17, 1999, Hall of Fame basketball coach Lenny Wilkens coaches game number 2,051 setting a new NBA record.

Lenny Wilkens after receiving his Coach of the Year award from 1994.

Before Wilkens was a coach he was a player in the NBA, the St. Louis Hawks drafted him in the first round sixth overall.

He played in the NBA from 1960-1975, with the Hawks, Seattle SuperSonics, Cleveland Cavaliers and Portland Trailblazers and scored 17,772 points, had 5,030 rebounds and 7,211 assists.

As a player he was a nine time All-Star, and the All-Star Game MVP in 1971. He was named to the NBA’s 50 Anniversary All-Time Team and his no. 19 jersey were retired by the SuperSonics.

Wilkens started coaching in 1969 with the SuperSonics, and coached with them until 1972 as a player coach, and in his one season as a player with Portland, he was a player-coach.

Wilkens retired from playing in 1975 and was the full-time coach of the Trail Blazers for one more season.

After a season off from coaching, he again became coach of the SuperSonics when he replaced Bob Hopkins who was fired 22 games into the 1977–1978 season after a dismal 5-17 start.

The SuperSonics won 11 of their first 12 games under Wilkens, made the playoffs, and ultimately reached the 1978 NBA Finals before losing in seven games to the Washington Bullets.

He coached in Seattle for eight seasons (1977–1985), winning his and Seattle's only NBA Championship in 1979.

He would go on to coach Cleveland (1986–1993), Atlanta (1993–2000), with Atlanta he won the NBA Coach of the Year in 1994, Toronto (2000–2003) and New York (2004–2005).

The Hall of Famer was named head coach of the New York Knicks on Jan. 15, 2004. After the Knicks' slow start to the 2004–2005 season, Wilkens resigned from the team on Jan. 22, 2005.

 

During the 1994-95 season Wilkens won career game 939, surpassing Boston Celtics legendary head coach Red Auerbach's record. He was the first coach to record 1,000 career victories and retired with a 1,332-1,155 won-loss record. He had the most wins all-time in the NBA until Golden State Warriors Coach Don Nelson surpassed the record in the 2009-2010 season.

Wilkens is in the Hall of Fame as both a player and a coach, and is only one of three players to earn that honor; the other two are John Wooden and Bill Sharman. He was inducted as a player in 1989 and a coach in 1996.

Wilkens won a Gold medal coaching the USA basketball team at the 1996 Olympics and was named one of the Top 50 Players and Top 10 Coaches in NBA History in 1996, and is the only player on both lists.

Lenny Wilkens Sets NBA Record

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.

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.

UCLA Men's Basketball Sets Record

On Jan. 27, 1973, John Wooden and his UCLA Bruins men's basketball team broke the consecutive victories record in NCAA basketball Jan. 27, 1973.

Their 61st consecutive win was an 82-63 win over the Notre Dame Fighting Irish.

Notre Dame figured prominently into the eventual 88-game winning streak of the Bruins. Notre Dame was the last team to beat UCLA as the streak started.

They were also the next team to defeat Wooden's squad to end the streak at 88 games.

The 88 game win streak was the longest in history in any major North American professional sport or collegiate sport.

He would also coach four undefeated teams in 1964, 1967, 1972 and 1973. The 1972-1973 teams continued their unbeaten streak into 1974, which was 88 game win streak team.

John Wooden, nicknamed the "Wizard of Westwood", won ten NCAA national championships in a 12-year period—seven in a row  – as head coach at UCLA, an unprecedented feat.

Within this period, his teams won a record 88 consecutive games. Wooden was named national coach of the year six times.

Wooden would win 664 games in his career as a head coach and only lose 162, to have a winning percentage of .802 (just over 80 percent).

As a player, Wooden was the first to be named basketball All-American three times and he won a national championship at Purdue. Wooden was named a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame as a player (inducted in 1961) and as a coach (in 1973), the first person ever enshrined in both categories.

Only Lenny Wilkens and Bill Sharman have since had the same honor.

He was one of the most revered coaches and was beloved by his former players, among them Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Bill Walton.

Wooden was renowned for his short, simple inspirational messages to his players, including his "Pyramid of Success". These often were directed at how to be a success in life as well as in basketball.

In 2006 Wooden was part of the founding class for the College Basketball Hall of Fame, which is located in Kansas City, Mo.