The Warriors were one win away from completing the greatest NBA Finals upset in basketball history when Mike Riordan tried to tackle Rick Barry.
Barry, Golden State’s star player, couldn’t believe that the Washington Bullets guard climbed his back as he dribbled to his left. Standing on the baseline, he was irate.
But before Barry could defend himself, his coach sprinted off the bench to confront Riordan and his Washington teammate, Wes Unseld. Alvin Attles, knowing he couldn’t let his best player get ejected from the clinching game, took on the confrontation head-on so Barry didn’t have to.
For years, Attles was known as “The Destroyer” because of his hard-nosed play with the Warriors. But really, he was something different.
“He really was kind of like a protector,” Barry told this news organization in a phone interview Wednesday. “He was a very peaceful guy, a very caring individual. But he also was incredibly tough.”
Attles got ejected in Game 4, but the Warriors, like they did so often that postseason, came back to win and sweep Washington for the 1975 championship. It was the pinnacle of the Warriors organization on the West Coast to that point, and as with so many of the greatest moments of the franchise, Attles was at the center of it — putting his team in front of himself.
“I think Al had a personality of goodness on and off the court,” said longtime Warriors broadcaster Jim Barnett, who played for Attles for three seasons.
“And I think he lived a life that was respectable on and off the court. Never cheated anyone, never cheated the fans by not giving your best at all times. And never cheating life by taking shortcuts and falling into things that aren’t ethical. He was a very ethical man. He did that on the court and off the court in his private life. He lived an ethical life, and I think that carried through to a lot of us and gave us a lot of lessons.”
Attles died on Tuesday at age 87 surrounded by family. He had suffered with dementia for the past several years, which cut into his duties as Warriors Legend and Community Ambassador. But for 64 years, as a player, coach, general manager, executive and Legend, the Hall of Famer represented the Warriors like no person has any NBA franchise.
“The original Warrior: Mr. Warrior,” Golden State head coach Steve Kerr said in a video after Attles’ passing. “One man who was employed by the same franchise for over 60 years – unprecedented in sports. Al was really the figurehead of this organization.”
In an Instagram story, Steph Curry echoed Kerr, saying Attles, “was a pioneer of professionalism, courage, competitiveness and blazed his own trail every step of the way.”
Attles is one of six Warriors with his jersey number hanging in the Chase Center rafters. On the night his teammate, Wilt Chamberlain, made history by scoring 100 points, he added 17 while going a perfect 8-for-8 from the field. Attles was with the Warriors for six decades in a league that is seven decades old, and his 557 wins as a coach remains a franchise record.
Barry first met Attles when he was a rookie in 1965. They were roommates, and as Barry remembers it, they grew close despite not always sharing the same living preferences. Attles liked turning the thermostat up, Barry recalls. He forced Barry to watch his television programs with him – shows Barry couldn’t stand.
“I always tell everyone that I give great credit to Al Attles for giving me the incentive for playing exceptionally well my rookie year, so I would be in a position to negotiate a single room the next year,” Barry said.
Barry did just that, winning Rookie of the Year by averaging 25.7 points and 10.6 rebounds per game as Attles’ roommate. Barry earned himself a single living arrangement and led the league in scoring the next year before leaving for the ABA.
When Barry returned to the NBA, Attles was coaching the Warriors. With Barry and Nate Thurmond leading the charge, Attles became the second Black head coach in NBA history to win an NBA championship in 1975. The Bullets had the best record in the league, but the Warriors swept them in a stunning upset that will be the subject of a 2025 documentary that’s in its “final stages,” Barry said.
“I just wish Al could still be around to have seen it,” Barry said.
Attles coached that 1975 team, and his other clubs from 1970-1983, as a taskmaster and mentor. He was no-nonsense, but also had a sense of humor. Barnett, the legendary broadcaster, said his head coach was a “big influence” on him and his career.
“I learned about teamwork, for sure,” Barnett said. “I kicked around a lot because I wasn’t a player like Rick Barry or Nate Thurmond, obviously. So I had a lot of different coaches and a lot of different teammates. Al had a way of unifying a team to play six, seven, eight men and making you feel important. If you were the 11th man on the team, he was inclusive. He made everybody feel a part of the team and made everyone feel important, whatever their contribution was, it was that we were a team.”
Attles stayed involved with the Warriors organization and continued making everyone feel like a team — in meetings and dinners with team executives, at games and in community appearances. One of the first things Kerr did when he got hired was invite Attles to speak with the team. Forty years after the 1975 championship, Attles rode through downtown Oakland with his wife, Wilhelmina, with the 2015 champion Warriors.
Attles remained active in the Bay Area as a Warriors legend and community ambassador, and so did his family. Wilhelmina famously taught Juan Toscano-Anderson in elementary school and gifted him an invitation to Warriors Basketball Camp, kick-starting what became a successful career that peaked with the Warriors from 2019-2022.
Barnett called Attles a “terrific coach and a terrific man.” In recent years, as Attles was sick, Barnett got occasional lunch with his son, Al Attles III and visited his former head coach a couple times. Barry also spent some quality time with Attles recently.
“He knew who I was,” Barry said, “And in fact his first question to me was, ‘How’s your jump shot?’ I started laughing and said, ‘Al, I’m too old to have a jump shot, I can’t jump anymore.’”
The Bay Area sports community has lost Willie Mays, Orlando Cepeda, and now Attles this year. As Curry put it in his Instagram story, Attles’ DNA is all over this organization.”
“It’s not about me,” Attles said in an old interview included in the Warriors’ tribute video to him. “It’s about my grandchildren, my children, and all young people who can look up and say, ‘You know, maybe one day I’ll be able to do that.’”
