Lenny Wilkens Interview (page: 6 / 7) Basketball Hall of Fame	Print Interview

What were your favorite books growing up? Do you remember one that had a particular influence on you?

Lenny Wilkens: I don't know that I had a favorite growing up, because I read newspapers more than I read books. Halfway through college I started to get really interested in reading. I especially remember reading two books on Winston Churchill, Alone and The Last Lion. I was always impressed with him. Then I began to read historical novels, and books on the Kennedys, on Lyndon Johnson, whoever was in office. I read all about Truman who I thought was a great, great president.

I've read all of James Michener's books. I read all of Herman Wouk's books and Tom Clancy's books. There may be a few of those I haven't read, but I enjoy reading. Sometimes it's just an escape, but I also like to read about great leaders, about how they conducted their lives, and what helped them make decisions.

You've taken a leadership role throughout your life, in high school and college, in the military, as a player and as a coach. Did you ever feel destined to be a leader?

Lenny Wilkens: I always seemed to be the person everybody turned to, or I was pushed into it and I didn't seem to mind. As time went on, I was always in those areas and, in fact, I liked the idea of it, being a leader. Even in my basketball career, being a point guard, I was the guy who ran the show. I was always referred to as a coach on the floor. I figured I needed to do these things.

You were a player/coach for while. How did that come about?

Lenny Wilkens: When the St. Louis Hawks franchise was sold to Atlanta, we had a contract problem and I wouldn't sign, and then I got traded to Seattle and I played in Seattle. I was there for one year when at the next year they fired the coach just before we started training camp. We had a general manager by the name of Dick Bertlieb who asked me and my wife to come over for dinner, and I had known him socially. And when dinner was over, we got to talking and he wanted me to be a player/coach, and I told him he was crazy. I mean I did not want to do it, but he was persistent. We talked about it for a few days and he kept saying that I could do it; that if we brought someone in new with so short a time period he wouldn't know the team like I knew it and all these kind of things. And then he reiterated like I was always like a coach on the floor anyway. So finally I decided I'd try it to see, and I felt that I had nothing to lose. He wasn't going to get rid of me so I would try it and I did it in Seattle for three years. The first year was sort of a novelty. The second year I became a little more serious about it. The third year we had a real good record. I mean, I felt I made some decisions as a coach that helped us win.
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By then, the guy who hired me was gone and we had a new general manager. He wanted me to do one or the other, so I said, "Fine, I'll play, because you don't play me enough for that aggravation." I felt I had a couple of years left to play. Eventually I got traded to Cleveland, so I played there for two years. I came back to Portland and was offered a job there. They got my playing rights and I wound up being a player/coach again, but just for one year. I realized then that my career was turning. I had to do more teaching, more explaining. I had to spend more time doing these other things. and I knew that would affect my playing. It was time anyway. I had played 15 years so it was time to retire and I went straight into coaching.

Was it hard to give up the playing?

Lenny Wilkens: No, I was ready. I think I could have probably played another year, but 15 years is a long time play. I was really fortunate I didn't have too many injuries. It was time to move on. Being a player/coach, especially those first three years with Seattle, sort of whetted my appetite. I did some things in some games that let me know that I can do this, and maybe be pretty good at it.

You had a great year with Seattle in '79.

Lenny Wilkens: I had worked for CBS the year before. I left basketball for a year and did commentary, so I saw all the teams play. I knew who had all the talent and so forth. I had a two year contract with CBS, and after the first year, I was at a dinner and the owner of the Seattle SuperSonics, a guy named Sam Schulman, followed me around all night talking to me about coming to work for them as their director of player personnel or general manager. Finally I said, "We'll talk about it another time." I didn't want to talk about it because we were at a social function, but he just wouldn't stop, so finally I agreed.

They had had a terrible year. They had a lot of unrest on the team, so I took the job as director of player personnel. I helped engineer a lot of trades for them because I had seen all the players. I helped bring in Marvin Webster, Paul Silas and Willy Wise. I brought in John Johnson and Wally Walker.

We put together a pretty good team but they got off to a bad start. They were losing games left and right. The owner was upset. He wanted to fire the coach and I said, "You hired him. You've got to give him a chance." When it got to 5-16 he said, "That's it," and he wanted to fire the guy. They were in Denver at the time and I couldn't get to Denver so I said, "Wait until they get to Kansas City and I'll go do what you want." They lost the game in Denver and the writers were saying they were the worst team in basketball. It was awful.

So I went to Kansas City and I relieved the coach of his duties and explained to him, and he understood. Then I talked to the team and I told them that I couldn't change a whole lot tonight but I had some ideas, and I had great confidence that they were better than their record. That night, because of the change, we started out up by 17. We were playing great, but we almost lost the game. We won by one point. We go to Boston and had two days off, so I tried to simplify some things.

I changed the starting line up, and I explained to the players why I wanted these other guys coming off the bench, because of how they could help us, and we won the next ten games. Everybody's confidence goes sky high. We shocked everybody, and we get to the finals that year. We lost, but the next year we came back and won the championship. There are certain basic things that you have to do in any business. I thought communication was very important.

Players have to understand what their roles are, how they fit in, you know. I think that you have to learn to communicate with people, and I think that respect is a two-way street. If you want it, you've got to give it. I felt like if you show someone how to have success, they want more of it. You know? So find ways to help people. I felt if you put yourself on a pedestal as a coach and if you're not reachable, touchable, how can you communicate then? So these are things I believed in, and so I tried to implement those things with the guys. I tried to be consistent, so they always knew where I was coming from and what I stood for. I wasn't going to say one thing and do another thing. And so, I felt that these principles really worked, and they bought into them, and we became a very good team.
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Coach Mike Krzyzewski told us something similar. He said you have to let the player know you believe they can win, and that's really quite different than telling them, "You guys screwed up, you're worthless."

Lenny Wilkens: Yes. That's negative.

There was a book that came out and I thought was a terrible, terrible book. Winning Through Intimidation or something like that. Intimidation doesn't last very long. All right? So what you have to do is build confidence in people. Show people how to have success and then you can push their expectations up. At least, like you say, I let my players know I believe that they could achieve this and I set goals for them. Now, I set individual goals. I set team goals. I set intermediate goals, so that as soon as we achieve this one we can move to the next one. And so, yes, I have high expectations of them. I let them know that I believe that they can succeed, and I'm going to be there to help them.
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