| | Associated Press
ATLANTA -- Discouraged by the worst season of his 27-year
career, Lenny Wilkens walked away willingly from the Atlanta Hawks.
He's not ready to walk away from coaching.
Wilkens, who has won more games than any coach in NBA history, resigned Monday after seven years with the Hawks but made it clear that he's not ready for retirement at age 62.
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Monday, April 24
I'm not shocked that Lenny Wilkens resigned. The fact that the Hawks
did so poorly this year was an influencing factor. It's ironic: Even
though he leads the world in coaching victories, it shows again that you
have to keep winning.
I think the climate in Atlanta was changing for him. There was a lot of
discontent expressed in the media about his work this year. It sounds
like he was pushed out of the job. Atlanta turned out to be a bad
situation for him. There was the misfortune with Isaiah Rider, the
trade for Lorenzen Wright that didn't pan out, and rookie Jason Terry
not living up to expectations.
Wilkens' greatest asset as a coach was his poise, his calm at assessing a
situation, and his ability to get everybody to assume their roles. Until
this year, he was known as a player's coach. All the players loved to
play for him. But this year things just went sour. I could see where he
would want to leave Atlanta, but he had a couple of years left on his
contract.
I think he would entertain offers to coach somewhere else; he's still a
good coach. I interviewed him before one of the Hawks' late-season
games and asked him if he ever needed to step away from coaching, but
he said the team had made a lot of changes and took chances that didn't
work out. But he still felt he had more good years of coaching left. He
also said he still felt challenged by the job and had interest in doing it.
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"I still enjoy coaching," Wilkens told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from his suburban Seattle home. "I want to take some time off and just see what's out there. Hopefully, I will come to some conclusions, but I'm not rushing to do anything."
Wilkens resigned after the Hawks struggled to a 28-54 record,
their worst since moving to Atlanta in 1968 and ending a streak of
seven straight playoff appearances. If he had balked at stepping
down, the whole situation might have turned ugly.
"Everyone agreed this was the right thing to do," said team
president Stan Kasten, who announced the move at a Philips Arena
news conference along with general manager Pete Babcock. "The
talks were mutually amicable. We all reached the same decision."
Wilkens had two years and $10.4 million left on a lucrative
contract extension signed in 1997. The team said it would honor the
contract until Wilkens finds a new job.
"The Hawks were very good to me," he said. "It's just time to
move on."
Atlanta had at least 50 victories in three of his first five
years, then finished second in the Central after battling with
Indiana until the final week of the strike-shortened 1999 season.
But in a bid to shake up a stale franchise and get past the
second round of the playoffs for the first time since moving from
St. Louis, Babcock engineered a deal that sent leading scorer Steve
Smith to the Portland Trail Blazers for Isaiah Rider and Jim
Jackson. The Hawks also traded longtime point guard Mookie Blaylock
and wound up with seven new players on the roster.
Rider's discipline problems were well documented, but the Hawks
wanted to dump Smith's long-term contract and switch to an up-tempo
offense with younger, faster players.
Rider didn't show for the first day of training camp, missed a
practice and skipped a team flight. Finally, after two suspensions
and the threat of another for repeatedly showing up late, he was
waived with 18 games left in a lost season.
Babcock takes responsibility for the Rider trade but continues
to defend it as the right move. In addition to getting at least a
top eight draft pick this year, the Hawks are likely to have more
than $10 million in cap room for 2001.
"I feel a great sense of responsibility for what happens on the
floor," Babcock said. "But I also feel a great deal of
responsibility for what needs to be changed."
Kasten said he has no plans to shake up the front office,
leaving Babcock as the GM despite some questionable moves over the
past decade. Instead, the one to go was Wilkens, who seemed
uncomfortable with the direction of the team prior to the season.
Nevertheless, he refused to characterize himself as the fall
guy.
"Everybody knew it was a risk. We all understood that,"
Wilkens said. "It just didn't work out. It's unfortunate, but
that's the way it goes sometimes."
The players were supportive of Wilkens.
"Lenny didn't make all the decisions here, all the changes,"
All-Star center Dikembe Mutombo said late in the season. "All he
could do was coach who was brought here."
But the organization wasn't happy that Wilkens waited until
March 6 to bench journeyman point guard Bimbo Coles and put rookie Jason Terry into the lineup. Likewise, first-round picks Dion
Glover and Cal Bowdler didn't get any meaningful playing time until
late in the season.
Babcock said he received informal feelers from four or five
potential coaches before Wilkens resigned, and he already had
talked with a couple of candidates Monday before attending the
late-afternoon news conference.
Among those mentioned as potential candidates are college
coaches Tubby Smith of Kentucky, Bob Huggins of Cincinnati and Mike
Jarvis of St. John's; NBA assistants Nate McMillan of Seattle and
Byron Scott of Sacramento; and former NBA great Isiah Thomas, who
owns the Continental Basketball Association and is building a home
in Atlanta.
"We're looking for energy. We looking for someone who can
provide specific direction. We're looking for someone who is
committed to player development. We're looking for someone who can
relate to the players," Babcock said.
Before coming to Atlanta, Wilkens had stints in Cleveland,
Seattle and Portland. His career record is 1,179-981 and he won his
lone NBA championship with the Sonics in 1979.
Wilkens, a nine-time NBA All-Star, and John Wooden are the only people elected to the Hall of Fame as both a player and coach. In 1997, Wilkens was honored as one of the 50 greatest players in NBA history and one of the 10 greatest coaches, the only person on both lists.
He got his 939th victory in early 1995, passing former Boston
Celtics coach Red Auerbach. In 1996, Wilkens coached the U.S.
Olympic team to a gold medal in Atlanta after serving as an
assistant in 1992.
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Lenny Wilkens' coaching record
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