Lenny Wilkens Interview (page: 5 / 7) Basketball Hall of Fame	Print Interview

Could you tell us more about your first year in the NBA?

Lenny Wilkens: I was probably the greenest NBA player there ever was. I mean, because I didn't know the history real well. I didn't know who all the stars were. I knew everybody on the Celtics because if you were in New England you had to know who they were. But the other teams I didn't really know. I mean, I knew some of the rookies because in the college all star games and stuff like that I played against them. And I'll never forget one game I was playing against Bob Cousy -- who was a great player at the time -- and I stole the ball from him cleanly and the referee blew the whistle, called a foul on me and I was really upset, you know, because I took it clean and I turned to the referee and I said, "You know, if I was a superstar you wouldn't make a call like that." And he realized I was a rookie and, you know, maybe I didn't get it or whatever, and he didn't want to call a technical so he just looked at me for a second and he said, "Well--" because I said, "If I was a superstar, you know you wouldn't make that call," and he looked at me and he said, "Well, we'll never have to worry about that." And it let me know right then and there, "Leave the officials alone."
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My first year in St. Louis was not an easy year because the teammates weren't so friendly to rookies back then. Also, the city was somewhat segregated. You couldn't eat in certain restaurants downtown and things like that.

When you say you couldn't eat in restaurants, what does that mean exactly? What year was that?

Lenny Wilkens: This was in 1960 and '61. All the rookies were staying downtown at the Sheraton hotel, during training camp and one evening we decided we didn't want any more hotel food. There was a place across the street from the hotel, so a bunch of us players -- black and white -- went in. People were standing there looking at us. Roland Todd was a white player on the team. A guy called him over and said, "We can't serve your friends," so we all left. There were a lot of situations like that but it changed by the end of the year. St. Louis opened up, but in certain areas it still existed. My third year in the pros I got married and we lived in an apartment at first.

We decided to buy a house and we bought a home in an area called Moline Acres, and when we moved in, "For Sale" signs went up everywhere. We had a collie, a little puppy, that was poisoned and stuff like that. But, you know, I wasn't going to be intimidated. I was still young. I was young and stupid, you know, but I refused to be intimidated by it. Some people moved out. Some stayed. And then when they got to realize that we were just like them, you know, I became friends with most of them except for one guy who lived next door to us. We had carports then. It was our first house, it was a starter house. And he would get out of his car and I may be out front sometimes and see him. And if I was out there he'd open the door, you know, on the driver's side and he'd back out so he wouldn't have to speak. So there were a lot of things like that. You work your way through it. My thing was to show people that I was as good as they were and that they needed to take the time to know me and not judge me just by the color of my skin.
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What prompted you to become active in the Players Association?

Lenny Wilkens: After I got out of the service I made the All Star team that next year, along with Bob Petit. The game was going to be in Boston. We ran into a lot of snow and we got into Boston kind of late. Bob Petit was the player rep for the Hawks and as we got in the hotel lobby, Tommy Hineson, who was President of the Player's Association, and Bill Russell, and the legal counsel, Larry Fleischer, came up to Petit right away and said, "We've got a problem." We didn't have good benefits. We didn't have a pension plan or anything. Our per diem was like $8 a day. So they said to Petit, "The new commissioner won't see us. They won't give us anything. We need to have a meeting right now." So as we're checking in I'm listening and I decided I'm going to go to my room, and they said, "No, you come with us." So I went.

We went and had an interview with the commissioner, a guy named Walter Kennedy, and so as we're sitting in his suite talking and we say that we're going to strike the All Star game. They had lost their TV contract and this was going to be an opportunity to get it back because this was going to be the first game they were going to televise in maybe a year or two. And the commissioner looks at, you know, Russell and these guys when they say, "We're going to strike the All Star game." And we're sitting -- he's like where you are, and the four of us or five of us are sitting over here. And he looks at everybody, and he looks at me, and I'm the lowest guy on the totem pole in the room. And he says to me -- he comes right up and gets right in my face and says to me, "You mean to tell me you're going to strike the All Star game?" And I was sliding down in my seat and I said, "Yes." But that night we all went into one locker room and told them we weren't going to play unless we got a commitment that we'd have a pension plan. So to make a long story short, they agreed finally, because they were going to lose the TV time if they didn't.
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They other players wanted me to be active. They tried to get star players to be active because they knew owners couldn't threaten them as much. After that I became player rep and eventually became vice-president of the Player's Association. I was in on all the negotiating committees. The team didn't really want to trade me, but it didn't create good relations between me and the coach at times. The coach was upset a few times when we had threatened a strike or something like that.

It must be strange for you to look at your own player's salaries and benefits now, compared to the way things were for you in the early '60s.

Lenny Wilkens: We've come a long way. Of course, you could relate it to almost every business field. We had to stand up and not be intimidated. If I got traded I was going to have to get traded. The Coaches Association went through the same thing. I'm president of the Coaches Association, and we had to get a pension approved. When I got involved with the coaches it was like doing it all over again. But yeah, you look at the salaries today and it's incredible, the change from when I came in as a player.

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