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A Member of 1975 GSW Championship Team Recalls the Greatness of Coach Al Attles
Next year marks the 50th Anniversary of the 1975 Golden State Warriors NBA Championship. Led by coach Al Attles, this team brought the first NBA championship to the Bay Area. A graduate of North Carolina A&T, an HBCU institution, Attles became the NBA’s first full-time African American coach.

By Charles Dudley
Next year marks the 50th Anniversary of the 1975 Golden State Warriors NBA Championship. Led by coach Al Attles, this team brought the first NBA championship to the Bay Area. A graduate of North Carolina A&T, an HBCU institution, Attles became the NBA’s first full-time African American coach.
He also became the first full-time African American head coach in history to win an NBA Championship. On the eve of this 50th anniversary, I would like to share what Coach Attles meant to myself and my teammates.
Al was a force of nature, and it is reflected in his accomplishments during his 50-year career tenure with GSW starting with the 1960-61 season when he was drafted the 39th overall pick by the then Philadelphia Warriors. The Philadelphia Warriors were the only professional team Al has ever been associated with.
He played 11 seasons and coached six playoff teams, including the 1975 champions. In 2014, he was the recipient of the John W. Bunn Lifetime Achievement Award, the Basketball Hall of Fame’s most prestigious honor aside from enshrinement.
There are only seven surviving players from the 1974-75 season. Those no longer with us are: Steve Bracey, Charles Johnson, Phil Smith, Derek Dickey and Bill Bridges. Assistant Coach Joe Roberts, who played an integral part in the team’s success during the 1974-75 season, recently passed away.
The remaining players are this writer, Clifford Ray, George Johnson, Rick Barry, Jamaal Wilkes, Jeff Mullins, and our trainer, Dick D’Doliva. Over time, the gratitude and love for Coach Attles has been deeply felt and to this day is embodied in what is engraved on our Championship rings – “Togetherness.”
Here is what Al meant to all of us. More than a coach, he was a tremendous leader, mentor, innovator and made all 12 of us feel important. On the bench, at practice or on the road and even when the chips were down, Al never swore, never belittled or yelled at any of us in front of each other.
No one ever wanted to disappoint him, everyone accepted their respective roles, and we knew what we had to do to achieve long-term success. That is where the slogan “Strength in Numbers” began for us. He taught us how to set goals and how to achieve them. An honorable man, he never went back on anything he promised.
At the time, we were living in a basketball world that refused to see us, recognize us, or want us to be a part of professional basketball because of the makeup of our team, which consisted of 10 African American players and two white players. In 1975, this was not the norm in the NBA. No matter what was going on outside the arena, Al always kept us focused on the prize. “We win together or we lose together.” Importantly, he created the foundation for our individual successes after our basketball careers had ended.
Al saw something special in all the players on the 1974-75 team. It started with training camp that season in Hawaii and culminated in Game Four of the NBA finals against the Washington Bullets (now Washington Wizards).
Attles also saw something special in Joe Roberts, who became the Warriors first assistant coach. His trust in Roberts paid dividends when he had to take over for Al in Game Four of the NBA Finals.
At the start of the 1975 NBA Playoff Finals, Attles’ team was being vilified by the media as being the worst ever to reach the finals and shouldn’t have been there at all. At a team meeting and Al said to the players “I don’t know if we can beat this team in four straight, but I think we can beat them in five.”
The word was that the Bullets were supposed beat us in four straight games. Everyone heard that prediction, took it to heart and won the first three games. In Game Four, it came down to the wire, but with the belief in togetherness, we beat the Washington Bullets 96-95. In that four-game sweep, the Warriors became only the third team in NBA history to do so. To date, there have only been nine teams to accomplish this.
At the end of the day, this was a basketball team that succeeded against all odds to become NBA World Champions. Never recognized, rarely mentioned, and playing during a racially and socially turbulent time in Oakland and the Bay Area, our 1974-75 Warriors team had no chance to have a successful season were it not for the foundations and strategic brilliance laid out by Al Attles.
His coolness under pressure and confidence in his players resulted in this victory that saved professional basketball in the Bay Area; and his leadership in forming a racially diverse team laid the foundation for how the NBA looks today.
Speaking on behalf of my team and myself, I’m very honored to have been coached under “Mr. Warrior,” Al Attles.
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Oakland Post: Week of February 5 – 11, 2025
The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of February 5 – 11, 2025

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OP-ED: Like Physicians, U.S. Health Institutions Must ‘First, Do No Harm’
Coupled with their lack of government and healthcare-related experience, we are concerned these nominees will significantly undermine public health, increase the number of uninsured people, worsen health outcomes, and exacerbate health disparities. Physicians observe Hippocrates’ maxim to “First Do No Harm,”, and we urge Trump administration officials to do the same. It is critical that the leadership of HHS and its agencies make decisions based on facts, evidence, and science. Misinformation and disinformation must not guide policymaking decisions and undermine evidence-based public health strategies. Spreading these falsehoods also erodes trust in our public institutions.

By Albert L. Brooks MD
Special to The Post
Presidential administrations significantly impact the health and wellbeing of our patients and communities.
Through the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the agencies within it, such as the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and the National Institutes of Health, this new administration will decide how financial resources are allocated, dictate the focus of federal research, and determine how our public health care insurance systems are managed, including the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the Children’s Health Insurance Program, the Vaccines for Children program, Medicare, and Medicaid.
The decisions made over the next four years will impact all Americans but will be felt more acutely by those most underserved and vulnerable.
As physicians, we are greatly concerned by the nominations announced by President Trump to critical healthcare related positions. Many of their previous statements and positions are rooted in misinformation.
Coupled with their lack of government and healthcare-related experience, we are concerned these nominees will significantly undermine public health, increase the number of uninsured people, worsen health outcomes, and exacerbate health disparities. Physicians observe Hippocrates’ maxim to “First Do No Harm,”, and we urge Trump administration officials to do the same.
It is critical that the leadership of HHS and its agencies make decisions based on facts, evidence, and science. Misinformation and disinformation must not guide policymaking decisions and undermine evidence-based public health strategies. Spreading these falsehoods also erodes trust in our public institutions.
Vaccines, in particular, have been a target of disinformation by some HHS nominees. In fact, research continues to confirm that vaccines are safe and effective. Vaccines go through multiple rounds of clinical trials prior to being approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for administration to the public.
Vaccines protect against life-threateningdiseasessuch as measles, polio, tetanus, and meningococcal disease and, when used effectively, have beenshowntoeliminateorsubstantiallyreducediseaseprevalenceand/orseverity.
Because of vaccine mis- and disinformation, there has been a resurgence in vaccine-preventable diseases such as measles and whooping cough, endangering those who are too young or unable to be vaccinated.
Several nominees have spread disinformation alleging that fluoride in public drinking water is harmful. In fact, fluoride in drinking water at the recommended level of 0.7 parts per million, like we have in our EBMUD water, is safe and keeps teeth strong. Because of public health interventions dating back to the 1960s that have resulted in 72.3% of the U.S. population now having access to fluoridated water, there has been a reduction in cavities by about 25% in both children and adults.
We also encourage the next administration to invest in our public health infrastructure. The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the critical role of public health agencies in preventing and responding to health crises in our communities.
Health departments at the state and local levels rely on federal funding support and technical assistance to develop public health response plans, implement public health strategies, and work with on the ground organizations to serve hard to reach communities. Public health agencies are critical for protecting everyone in our communities, regardless of income-level, insurance status, or housing status.
Health officials should also work to protect the significant improvements in insurance coverage that have occurred since the passage of theACAin 2010.According to HHS, the numberofuninsuredAmericansfellfrom48millionin2010to25.6millionin2023.
California has led the way by investing in Medi-Cal and expanding eligibility for enrollment. In fact, it reached its lowest uninsured rate ever in 2022 at 6.2%. Voters affirmed this commitment to expanding and protecting access to care in November by passing Proposition 35, which significantly expanded funding for California’s Medi-Cal program. The administration should advance policies that strengthen the ACA, Medicaid, and Medicare and improve access to affordable health care.
Regardless of the president in power, physicians will always put the best interests of our patients and communities at the forefront. We will continue to be a resource to our patients, providing evidence-based and scientifically proven information and striving to better their lives and our community’s health. We urge the new Trump administration to do the same.
Albert L. Brooks MD is the immediate past president of the Alameda-Contra Costa Medical Association, which represents 6,000 East Bay physicians.
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Oakland Post: Week of January 29 – February 4, 2025
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