Wilkens: From the Court to the Camera

November 13, 2012, 3:29 pm

When a person is elected into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame it signifies the player has reached a level of excellence unmatched. The Pac-12 Network recognized excellence when hiring Lenny Wilkens as a part of their basketball broadcast team. Wilkens joined John Canzano on The Bald Faced Truth to talk about the new gig.

Lenny Wilkens spoke with John about making the transition from player to coach and also spoke about the challenges of being a player-coach in Seattle.

"It got to be very difficult, in the beginning it wasn't that difficult because I knew who to get the ball to, I knew what offenses we should be running because of the personnel we had but then later on it got tougher because all of a sudden scouting was becoming more sophisticated we had to plan more, we were getting younger players and if you spend time helping them develop then your game suffers. In the beginning it was a novelty but then it got very tough."

Lenny talked with John about developing coaching skills while still being a player in the NBA.

"I got a chance at a very early age to run practices, I had a coach who came in sick a couple of times and I had to run practice and being a point guard I thought that I really understood who wanted the ball, who should have it and who shouldn't have it certain times."

Lenny also spoke with John about the Los Angeles Lakers coaching change and the growing pains of the Portland Trail Blazers.

Click on the link below and listen to the complete interview with Hall of Famer Lenny Wilkens.

Phone Tracking

Do you support the government tracking “private” phone and internet use?

: Absolutely

: No

: I don't care either way

: What are you talking about?