Lenny Wilkens, former Seattle Supersonics Hall of Fame basketball player and coach, has become part of this town's psyche.

The NBA icon and east side resident will reveal some insights from ball-handling to life-handling when he speaks at the Tibbetts United Methodist Church in West Seattle Jan. 11, an engagement encouraged by his long-time West Seattle pal and Tibbetts parishioner Howard Bogie.

Wilkens was born to an Irish-American mother, who was the fourth of 21 siblings, an African-American father who died when Lenny was five, and another father and mentor, Tom Manyon, the firm priest who helped keep young Lenny on track.

How was growing up in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood an interracial family decades before civil rights?

"When you're poor all you look at is how to make the next dollar," he said. "Race, religion, was tolerated when you're all in the same boat. That's just how it was."

He added that his mother's mother was tough and the community respected her, and her 21 kids. In one regard his neighborhood did disappoint, when his beloved team moved out west.

"I was a baseball player before basketball, and baseball was everything in Brooklyn with the Dodgers. I was in college when they left, my home team."

At Tibbetts he might tell how he shot against the league's goliath, 7-foot, 1-inch Wilt Chamberlain. "Quickly," he said while having coffee with Bogie, a former colleague who helped him snag a summer job in 1968 with the Seattle Parks and Recreation department. Wilkens continued, "I'd see Chamberlain in a crouch and then I'd shoot the hook. He didn't see it coming." And his most challenging defensive player in the league? I had the hardest time defending Oscar Robertson. No one could stop him, but I sure could try."

This unshakeable respect blended with that competitive tiger in his tank offers a peak into the window of his on and off-court success, and generosity. He has raised more than $2 million for the Odessa Brown Childrens Clinic via the Lenny Wilkens Foundation. Some proceeds come from his popular Golf Classic. Wilkens said, "At Tibbetts Church I will speak on motivation, leadership, the people (who become) very interested in your life, and how you get to be who you are."

An avid reader, Wilkens continued, "I am interested in the insight you can't read about. Life is a gift from God. We as humans have to make the best of it. It's a journey, and I've had a long one." He said his journey has been a challenge and feels that, albeit a successful sports star, his experience is relatable to others. "Work is work. My dad died when I was 5, so I had a job at 7 delivering groceries." He recalled making a delivery to his athletic role model, Jackie Robinson. "I worked in a laundry, as a supermarket bagger and just before college at Montgomery Wards. I was an ROTC second lieutenant in College. That was my first experience managing people.

"My mom went to church every day, and I am a testament that prayer works. She prayed for all of us. Coaching is about consistency. Players can relate to that. If you're jumping all over the place it doesn't work. (Players) need to understand their role. You have to set the precedent at the beginning, like with your kids. You don't start to tell your 15 year-old what to do. It's too late. I couldn't care less how much these players make. If we want to be successful this is how that has to be."

Lenny Wilkens' talk is open to the public:

Tibbetts United Methodist Church, 10 a.m.

3940 41st Ave. S.W.

Seattle, WA 98116

932-7777