Thank you, Al Attles. Your legacy will live on.

OAKLAND, Calif. – “Sit next to me, son.”

I will all the time miss the words of Mr. Alvin Attles.

I’ve been an enormous basketball fan since I used to be a child, growing up about 40 miles from Oracle Arena in San Jose. One of my childhood heroes was former Golden State Warriors star Sleepy Floyd. My father took me to see Warriors center Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s final game at Oracle in 1989, and I also saw Michael Jordan and Dominque Wilkins of their prime as an adolescent. And it’s inevitable that as a basketball fan, with the Warriors in your backyard, especially as an African-American, you’re conversant in the story of “The Wrecker,” Alvin Attles.

Attles was the NBA’s longest-tenured worker, working with the Golden State Warriors franchise from 1960 until his death Tuesday at age 87 at his Oakland Hills home after a protracted illness. The former star point guard for historically black North Carolina A&T joined the Philadelphia Warriors as a fifth-round pick in 1960. Attles was a star point guard for 11 seasons with the Warriors, became the franchise’s first black coach and general manager and served as a community ambassador.

Attles and then-Washington Bullets head coach K.C. Jones became the primary black head coaches to face one another within the NBA Finals in 1975. Attles also became the second black coach to steer an NBA team to a title in 1975 and coached for 13 seasons. Attles still holds the Warriors record for wins as a coach (557).

“How did I end up being with the Warriors for 60 years? As I like to say, they never caught up with me,” Attles told The Undefeated from his home in 2019. “But seriously, I used to be very fortunate that every little thing was in the correct place at the correct time. There were another guys that I’d say deserved it, but for some reason they couldn’t stay. I played with some great players. I coached some great players. And I just happened to be in the correct place.

“I wasn’t the type of guy who made a lot of noise, I didn’t cause any trouble, I never got in trouble with anyone. I just came to play, and then those were the players they wanted. They didn’t want guys who made a lot of noise or anything like that.”

Attles scored 17 points for the Philadelphia Warriors when his close friend and teammate Wilt Chamberlain scored an NBA-record 100 points against the New York Knicks in Hershey, Pennsylvania, on March 2, 1962. Like Chamberlain, Attles is within the Basketball Hall of Fame. In 2014, he received the John R. Bunn Lifetime Achievement Award and was named a co-inductee in 2019.

One of the things Attles was particularly happy with was his friendship with Chamberlain and the chance to play with him within the legendary game through which he scored 100 points.

“When Wilt scored 100 points, the announcer would go over the bullhorn, ‘That’s 80. … That’s 82,’” Attles told me in 2019. “And when he got near 100, not only were we concerned, but the blokes who kept the team’s scoresheet would are available and say, ‘You know, Wilt … we’re close.’ But Wilt never said, ‘Give me the ball.’ But we said, ‘Give him the ball.’

“The Knicks tried to stop him. Everybody tried to stop him. But when he did all that, they knew, hey, you can’t stop him. The only way to stop him is to keep him out of the game. Wilt Chamberlain and I once scored 117 points together. That’s a fact.”

In 2009, I moved back home to the San Francisco Bay Area to cover the NBA for Yahoo! Sports. Living in Oakland, it was only natural that I’d cover plenty of Warriors and Sacramento Kings games. Golden State happened to have a rookie named Stephen Curry. But on the time, I used to be more thrilled to see Attles sitting in press row at every Warriors home game.

I made it some extent to pay tribute to Attles at every game I attended at Oracle Arena in the course of the 2009-10 season and beyond, simply stopping to say, “How are you, Mr. Attles?” Often, his son, Alvin Attles Jr., or his grandson would sit next to him while watching the Warriors. But there have been games when he sat alone. And on those occasions when he did, he would bless me by saying, “Hey, come sit next to me, son.”

It was a fantastic honor and joy to sit down next to the coach each time. I’m sure Warriors Vice President of Communications Raymond Ridder was slightly annoyed that I left my coveted press seat empty, but he also understood the importance of sitting next to Mr. Attles. When the Warriors played, I asked the coach about black NBA pioneers like Earl Lloyd, Nat “Sweetwater” Clifton and Chuck Cooper, about twiddling with Chamberlain and playing against Bill Russell, what it meant to be certainly one of the primary black NBA coaches and general managers, about coaching Rick Barry and more. When I asked concerning the Warriors back then, it was all the time positive feedback from Attles. He never said a foul word about anyone or the team.

Ultimately, those beautiful moments led to a friendship with Coach and his family. I got to spend quality time with Coach outside the sector. And his family trusted me to refer to him about his legacy while he struggled with health issues at home or at his beloved Buttercup Grill in Jack London Square in Oakland. And for that, I thank Coach and the Attles family. There aren’t many things I’ve encountered in my 25 seasons of NBA coverage which have been more meaningful than quality time with Mr. Attles.

After the 2018-19 season, the Warriors moved across the Bay Bridge to San Francisco. Fortunately, the Warriors didn’t put Mr. Attles in a close-quarters seat that was removed from where the media currently resides. But as his health issues mounted, seeing him at games in recent times has been rare. His No. 16 jersey still hangs from the ceiling at Chase Center, making its presence known at Warriors games.

While Mr. Attles’ days on this earth are over, his legacy with the Warriors, the NBA, the Basketball Hall of Fame, the Bay Area and basketball lives on perpetually. Thank you, Coach.

“I could never wrap my head around how many points I was scoring,” Attles told The Undefeated in 2019. “I used to be all the time excited about whether I used to be doing the correct thing. Where was I going? Whether it was in highschool, whether it was in college, whether it was after college with the Warriors, I actually cared about doing the correct thing for other people.

“My legacy? Just do what I think is right. That’s all I do.”