For a man who made sports history and led one of the sport’s biggest underdogs to a stunning championship victory, Al Attles blew his trumpet so softly you could barely hear it. You had to lean in close to hear it at all.

Attles joked about the night in 1963 when he and San Francisco Warriors teammate Wilt Chamberlain combined to score 117 points. It was a joke because Chamberlain was responsible for 100 of those points.

What Attles didn’t say is that his 17 points came on eight field goal attempts and one free throw. He made every one of his shots.

This modesty was typical of Al Attles and he never lost it, no matter what heights he reached.

Attles died on Tuesday, the Warriors announced. He was 87 years old (date of birth 11/7/36). It is quite conceivable that during his final weeks in the hospice he spent every waking moment thinking about the people around him and not a second about himself.

And this man had so much to offer.

Attles grew up in Newark, New Jersey, before leaving the university in 1956 to attend the all-black North Carolina A&T, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in physical education and history and then a master’s degree in curriculum and instruction. He also played basketball so well that he was drafted by the Philadelphia Warriors, selected 39th in the fifth round of the 1960 NBA Draft.

No. At 23, Attles decided he would rather coach than play. Seriously. His plan was to ignore the NBA’s call and become a physical education teacher. The Warriors didn’t let up. Attles reluctantly decided to come to training camp.

“The money was too good,” he told me many years ago. “Almost $6,000 a year.”

Although Attles wasn’t a particularly good shooter, he did everything else well. He could run, pass and rebound exceptionally well for someone who was 6’1″ and weighed 180 pounds. He defended with the zeal of a hungry shark. That, combined with his innate toughness and booming bass voice, made him seem a foot taller and 100 pounds heavier.

Attles was slow to anger, but once his fuse was lit, he was quick to anger. It wasn’t long before word of his self-defense skills spread throughout the league, earning him the nickname “The Destroyer.”

Attles stayed as a player for nine seasons before taking another job in his 10th year. He continued to play for the Warriors but also served as an assistant coach. That lasted one year, because in the 1969-70 season he was named head coach while still an active player. This was less than four years after the Boston Celtics made Bill Russell the NBA’s first black head coach in 1966.

Attles’ most incredible achievement came five years later when, as he put it, a Hall of Famer named Rick Barry and some of the greatest winners of all time “carried” him to a championship.

The 1974-75 Warriors under Attles defeated the Seattle SuperSonics and Chicago Bulls to reach the NBA Finals against the Washington Bullets. Golden State achieved the best record in the Western Conference with 48 wins, while Washington achieved the best record in the league with 60 wins.

The Bullets were heavy favorites, but the relentless Warriors made a stirring comeback to win Game 1 in Washington. They won Game 2 at the Cow Palace, as the Oakland Coliseum Arena, not expecting postseason basketball, had booked the Ice Follies. The Warriors won Game 3 at the Cow Palace, then returned to Washington, where they staged another fourth-quarter comeback to win Game 4 and the series.

In a final series in which two black head coaches were on the field for the first time – the other was KC Jones from Washington – Attles and the Warriors achieved the most surprising final victory in NBA history. And in the 49 years since then, nothing has been as big as this.

Attles attributed his good fortune to having a team that was determined to win. He praised Barry’s leadership, the determination of Charles Johnson and Clifford Ray, as well as George Johnson and Butch Beard, the skills of young players Jamaal Wilkes and Derrek Dickey, the presence of veterans Jeff Mullins and Bill Bridges, assistant coach Joe Roberts and the ownership of Franklin Mieuli.

Everyone except himself.

It would be another 40 years before the Warriors won a championship again, and when that happened in 2015, Attles was still representing the franchise. Whether as a player, coach, general manager or community ambassador, he remained loyal to the nation. A great basketball player, but also a kind and wonderful human being.

Attles spent more than 60 years with the Warriors, making him their most enduring legend. After his No. 16 was retired and worn at Oracle Arena and then Chase Center, Attles often remarked, “Someone must have paid them to put me up there with those guys.” This was nonsense uttered with conviction.

“Those guys” are Nate Thurmond, Tom Meschery, Chris Mullin, Barry and Chamberlain. All except Meschery are in the Naismith Hall of Fame – as is Attles.

Attles was inducted twice. If you let him tell his story, you would never know.