John Kundla, a member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and one of the top coaches in NBA history, died Sunday afternoon in Minneapolis.
Kundla, who was the oldest surviving Hall of Fame member of the four major sports, was 101.
“John was an excellent coach,” said former Minneapolis Lakers guard Whitey Skoog, who played for Kundla for six seasons. “What I appreciated most, and the other ballplayers did too, was his willingness to put himself out there to help each ballplayer improve.”
Kundla was elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1995 — three years after a story in USA Today said that he was deserving of membership in the Hall, but he was “all but forgotten.