Lenny Wilkens: Inspirational On and Off the Court

Legendary NBA player and coach, Lenny Wilkens is not only an inspiration for basketball fans across the country, but the youth in the Seattle-area as well.

Through the Lenny Wilkens Foundation, he has raised more than $3 million during the past decade for organizations that provide health care to children.

Just this past January, Lenny Wilkens was awarded the prestigious Sports Citizen award for his numerous efforts of charity work.

In a private interview, Wilkens discussed how when he was young his family had a difficultly with health insurance growing up in New York so he felt like everyone should be entitled to it.

“I think someone needs to open the doors for children and someone needs to encourage them that they can be successful and achieve,” Wilkens said.

During his time in Atlanta, he was a part of the St Joseph’s Home for Boys and in Cleveland he was part of Shoes For Kids.

Then, when he finally came to Seattle, he met with the medical director at the Odessa Brown Children’s Clinic in Seattle and was so impressed that he wanted to help anyway he could.

Naturally, the biggest way was to give funds in order to provide services to everyone.

Wilkens pushed the idea that every little bit counts, even if it’s just 10 cents, because 10 cents could equal $10,000 to those that are less fortunate than others in the community.

One of the biggest events the Lenny Wilkens Foundation puts on is the dinner auction and golf tournament every year in early August.

“We get a lot of people come in; a lot of guys I’ve coached actually come back. We get plenty of sponsors and utilize the money to go to the Foundation. People such as Magic Johnson, Charles Barkley, Wes Williams, Jack Sigma, Fred Brown, and some of the other guys on the championship team come and take part in it,” Wilkens said.

In addition to his foundation and known philanthropy, Wilkens is a hometown legend in the Seattle sports scene, as Wilkens won Seattle’s only NBA Championship with the Sonics in 1979.

On winning the city’s only NBA Championship, Wilkens said, “It feels good. That’s your goal. It’s your goal for every coach. It’s his or her dream.”

Wilkens counts that moment, as well as coaching the Olympic Men’s Basketball team to gold in 1992 and 1996, as his most memorable moments of his coaching career.

“As a player, my most significant achievement was being the 1971 MVP in the East-West All-Star Game,” Wilkens said.

After his legendary playing and coaching career was over, Wilkens got involved with not only his foundation, but also did color commentary of various Pac-12 games, is on several boards including the Institute of Human Neurology and the Board of Trustees at the Seattle Children’s Hospital and has been involved with March of Dimes, and Big Brothers.

In regards to the city of Seattle possibly regaining a NBA team for next season, Wilkens thinks that, “we will get a team here eventually, it might be sooner than later. It will be up to the owners to decide whether to use the Sonics name. They might want to use a different name, but with its rich history, it’s unlikely they wouldn’t use it.”

Wilkens had the chance to meet with Chris Hansen, the main investor looking to bring the Sonics back to Seattle early on in the talks as Wilkens was on the arena committee for the mayor so he had several opportunities to discuss things with Hansen.

“The team [Sonics] has had such a rich history here and it would be beneficial as sports help the area to grow as well. There are jobs for people, people can go to games to feel good; it’s just an outlet for a lot of people,” Wilkens said.

Also, the move would bring players to Seattle and as Wilkens can vouch for, they soon become part of the community and would quickly get involved.

Some advice Wilkens had for young kids growing up would to, “Be accountable for who you are; for what you say and what you do. Don’t be afraid to dream dreams. Don’t be afraid to try and achieve something, no matter how hard it is. If you don’t succeed at first, keep trying and broaden your dreams.”

Wilkens also talked about his childhood and how he wasn’t perfect, he made some mistakes, but he learned from them and he always worked to solved the problem and improve the next time around.

Some kids he says gets too caught up in what others want them to do and cave into peer pressure because they think it’s the “cool” thing to do.

“You know what’s cool to me? Knowing what I experienced. That’s cool,” Wilkens said.

Wilkens challenges this generation to, “not limit yourself. Don’t get discouraged. Think, what can I do to be successful? You’re tomorrows’ doctors, lawyers, and marketing people. The future is yours, don’t be afraid of it, get excited about it.”