One person enters the Hall of Fame three times! Two fallen legends!

As a generational veteran of the NBA, NBA Chairman Adam Silver immediately issued a statement saying:

"Wilkens represents the most perfect appearance of the NBA, and he is one of the best players. He is also one of the best coaches. His achievements are enough to prove that he is the best spokesperson in the NBA. "

As the No. 6 pick in the first round in 1960, he played for the Hawks, Thunder, Cavaliers, and Trail Blazers in 15 long seasons.

He played a total of 1,077 games during his entire playing period, averaging 16.5 points, 4.7 rebounds and 6.7 assists per game. He was selected to the All-Star 9 times, won 1 All-Star MVP and an assist king. He was elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1989.

In addition, in the 1996-97 season, when the NBA selected the top 50 stars and the top 10 coaches in history, Wilkens became the only person to be selected for both. Later, when the NBA celebrated its 75th anniversary, he was also selected as the league's 75 top stars and the league's top 15 coaches. He is one of the few people in NBA history who can be recognized as both a player and a coach.

Wilkens's playing career was destined to be extraordinary since his student days. As a defender, he led Providence University, which was not a powerful team, to the finals. His outstanding performance allowed him to be selected by the Eagles with the sixth overall pick in the first round of the 1960 draft.

It was not a young year in the draft. The No. 1 pick was Oscar Robertson, and the No. 2 pick was Jerry West. Even though there were numerous talents in his generation, Wilkens still received high enough recognition.

Wilkens played for the Hawks for eight seasons. As a Hawks player, he handed out 3,049 assists and currently ranks fifth in the Hawks' history assist list. In eight years, he helped the team reach the playoffs seven times. The best result was reaching the finals in 1961 before losing to the Celtics (the Hawks were in the Western Conference at the time). He also reached the Western Conference Finals in the other four years.

Wilkens himself was selected to the All-Star five times as a Hawks player. In the 1967-68 season, he averaged 20 points, 5.3 rebounds and 8.3 assists per game, ranking second in the MVP voting, second only to the ancient beast Chamberlain.

But after the highlight season, the Eagles chose to trade him to the new team, the Seattle SuperSonics. Even though he left his hometown, Wilkens still had star skills and led the Sonics to improve their record year by year. Until his last year with the Sonics, in the 1971-72 season, the Sonics had achieved a winning rate of 47 wins and 35 losses, a winning rate of more than 50%.

What is even more surprising is that while playing for the SuperSonics, Wilkens not only served as the team's head coach, but also served as the team's head coach starting from the 1969-70 season. He was both a player and team coach. He can be called the real-life version of [Slam Dunk Master] Kenji Nakato.

Until 1972, Wilkens was traded to the Cavaliers. Two seasons later, he moved to the Trail Blazers. He was still a player and coach. After just one season, he chose to retire, officially ending his playing career and focusing on his position as the Trail Blazers coach, starting his 32-year long coaching career.

In addition to the player-coaching period, in the 1977-78 season, the Sonics regained the position of coach after Wilkens left the Trail Blazers. He immediately led to an outstanding record of 42 wins and 18 losses, overturning the 5 wins and 17 losses of the Sonics at the beginning of the season. They reached the finals all the way before losing to the Washington Bullets. Then the next year, they got a strong revenge and defeated the Bullets to win the championship in one fell swoop.

Thanks to this wave of results, Wilkens' coaching ability was once again recognized. Since then, he has established himself as a coach, and then helped the team jump into the playoffs during the Cavaliers period, and then took charge of the Eagles. From Mookie Blaylock, Kevin Willis, and later Steve Smith, Christian Laettner, and Mutombo, these people are all Wilkens' favorite players.

It was also during his tenure as head coach of the Eagles that Wilkens achieved many career records and was selected as the best head coach in the 1993-94 season. On January 6, 1995, the Hawks defeated the Bullets at home. Wilkens won the 939th win of his coaching career, surpassing the Celtics' red-shirted coach Auerbach to become the coach with the most wins in history.

On March 1, 1996, the Hawks defeated the Cavaliers at home. Wilkenway became the first coach in NBA history to win 1,000 games. He has coached 2,487 games in total, with 1,332 wins and 1,155 losses. Among them, the number of games he coached and the number of losses he coached were both firsts in history. The 1,332 wins was the league record when he retired. It was later surpassed by Nelson and Popovich.

Due to his outstanding performance as a player and coach, Wilkens has been elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame three times, first as a player in 1989, and for the second time as a coach in 1998. In addition, as an assistant coach of the 1992 American Dream Team, in addition to being inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame for the third time in 2010, he was inducted into the U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame in 2009 and the World Basketball Hall of Fame in 2017.

In addition, he also served as the coach of the third American Dream Team at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, leading the team to a complete victory and win the championship.

Borrowing from Xiao Hua's evaluation of Wilkens, this is an excellent spokesperson for a person who can shine in different roles in the NBA. Although it was difficult to compete with the Celtics dynasty as a player, he only won one championship in 1979 as a coach, and he missed the championship in his more than 20 years of coaching career.

But whether he was a player or coaching the SuperSonics, Cavaliers, and Hawks, Wilkens showed his contribution to a team.

Even if he passes away, he is still worthy of being remembered by many basketball people in the future.