Hall of Famer Al Attles lived to be 87 years old. The last 63 were spent working with the Golden State Warriors.
Attles spent more than six decades with the Warriors as a player, coach, executive and ambassador — sometimes holding one or more roles at the same time. After a stellar college career at North Carolina A&T, who retired his number in 2015, Attles was ready to take a job as a junior high coach before the Warriors convinced him to try the NBA. He stayed for 63 years.
Despite standing just six feet tall, Attles was known as “The Destroyer” because of his intensity, his relentless defense and his willingness to fight anyone in the NBA, no matter how big they were. He got the nickname after going after a loose ball so ferociously that he broke 6-foot-8 Dolph Schayes’ jaw.
But while Attles was no shooter, his passing and defense made him a mainstay of Warriors teams from 1960-71. One memorable night in Hershey, Pennsylvania, in 1962, Attles scored 17 points on a perfect 8-for-8 shooting and making his lone free throw. Unfortunately, it was overshadowed by a record 100-point performance from his teammate and friend, Wilt Chamberlain. Later, Attles used to boast about “the night Wilt and I combined for 117.”
He became a player-coach in 1968, taking over the head job with Golden State from 1971-83. His Warriors won the championship in 1975, only the second time a Black head coach won it all. Attles also achieved another milestone in that series. When Mike Riordan of the Washington Bullets took a shot at Rick Barry in Game 4, Attles stepped in to protect his star player and became the first — and only — NBA coach ejected from the NBA Finals for fighting.
Attles took the Warriors to the playoffs six times as head coach, then moved over to become the team’s general manager for three years. He never stopped working for the Warriors after turning down that junior high coaching job and was on the payroll as the team’s community representative at the time of his death.
He received a lifetime achievement award from the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 2014, then was inducted as a contributor in 2019. The Warriors have had some incredible players over the years, but no one man has ever exemplified the franchise as the late Attles did.
