By Ivan Carter
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, February 6, 2007; E05

Seeing Tony Dungy lead the Indianapolis Colts to victory in Super Bowl XLI on Sunday night was particularly sweet for Lenny Wilkens, the legendary former player and coach who currently is a television analyst for Seattle SuperSonics games.

Before last night's game between the Wizards and Sonics at Verizon Center, Wilkens pointed out that Sunday's historic coaching matchup between Dungy and Chicago Bears Coach Lovie Smith came more than 21 years after two African Americans, Washington's K.C. Jones and Golden State's Al Attles, led their teams to the NBA Finals.

Attles's Warriors beat the Bullets in four games, but Jones went on to win two championships as head coach of the Celtics in the 1980s. Wilkens is the winningest head coach in NBA history with 1,332 victories and coached the Sonics to a championship in 1979.

"There's a lot of pride in seeing Tony get it done but it's also a lesson that you can't forget your history," Wilkens said. "The two first Afro-Americans to coach teams to a major championship were K.C. Jones and Al Attles. So, we've been making history all along the way."

Pointing out Wizards Coach Eddie Jordan as an example, Wilkens said he is proud of the progress made by black coaches in the NBA. The league currently has 11 black head coaches.

"There are so many good, young Afro-American coaches and it's like I've always said: All they need is an opportunity," Wilkens said. "We don't want anything else. Just an opportunity."