RIP Al Attles

From fifth round pick to spending 60+ years with the Warriors as a player, coach, executive and goodwill ambassador. Coached the team to the 1975 NBA title, including a sweep of the Bullets in the finals. Then there was the night he combined for 117 points with Wilt Chamberlain (ok, so Wilt had 100).

May be paywalled.

 

Cliff Notes version from Warriors.

 

Sad. I have friends who lived across the street from him in the Oakland hills. RIP, sir.

 

Man, the 1975 Warriors were the right team at the right time. Rick Barry, Silk Wilkes and a bunch of above average players who knew their roles and played way over their heads in the playoffs. Seemed like Oakland couldn't lose for championships then -- between the A's, Raiders and Warriors. A golden era for a city that's had it's share of tough times.

RIP, Al.

 

Al Attles of course the pride of Noork via Weequahic High School (pronounced WEEK-wake), along with future GW hoops coach, the late Gerry Gimelstob. My dad was a Weequahic grad.

 

The 1975 NBA Finals may go down as one of the oddest ever. The Bullets were overwhelming favorites. The Warriors lost their home court because an ice show had been booked into the Coliseum, so they played at the Cow Palace. The Bullets opted to play Game 1 at home, then coughed up home court. So flustered were the Bullets after going down 3-0, they sent Mile Riordan out in Game 4 with one mission: Harass Rick Barry. About halfway through the first quarter, Attles had enough and, after a brutal foul, charged the court to protect Barry. Richie Powers gave Attles the boot, but he came up with a great game plan while watching on TV.

 

He WAS the Warriors for most of my life. Player, coach, executive. Once said "Hey" to me on the way to the locker room at halftime of a game when he was coach. My friends were SO impressed. Glad he was around for the team's return to greatness and that the team made sure he was a part of it.

 

That Finals is the first one I remember watching on television as a child. It was my heyday for the NBA. Celtics-Suns followed, then the Blazers, then discovered my favorite childhood player ... some guy from Illinois Wesleyan named Jack Sikma.
Sure, the 1980s were fun, then somewhere along the way lost interest, probably due to hockey.
Rambling here but that mid-to-late 1970s really influenced me.
To Mr. Attles, RIP. May you rest as the Ultimate Warrior.

 

The amazing thing, from a broadcasting angle, was that Bill King did PBP for both the Raiders AND Warriors (and later the A's), while the Warriors were simulcast on radio and TV some nights, mostly west coast road games. He was a notorious ref baiter and sitting right courtside, would yell his displeasure on air. I believe he got a technical foul call once because the ref had had enough.

I can't remember which UHF station carried them -- 36, 44 or 50 -- but the broadcasts were primitive, even by 1970s standards. He'd prop a camera up and do a one-man standup pregame courtside, then do the same thing at the half and after the game. I can't remember whether it was Seattle or Portland where the fan poured a pitcher of beer on King's head during one of his live shots. Suddenly King disappeared from camera view for several minutes. At some point, he finally returned, his trademark handlebar moustache and beard completely soaked, muttering about security and poor sportsmanship.

I have his biography but haven't finished it.

He was a massive Oakland homer, but he was excellent at what he did, unlike the incredible huckster Monte Moore, who was Charlie Finley's shill and clubhouse snoop.

 

The only station I remember Mr. King on was KTVU. Early days of the superstations, of which KTVU was trying to become, I guess.
I'm an early-teen in Missouri getting WTCG (WTBS), WOR, WGN and KTVU!
Man, it was awesome ... though my school grades suffered.

 

I remember Sports Illustrated did a feature on King. He was the PBP for the Warriors and the Raiders, had a lot of other intellectual interests and lived on a boat in San Francisco Bay. I remember saying that would be a life I would want to lead.