That season, on December 1, Embry totaled a career high 39 points scored in a 114-109 loss to the Los Angeles Lakers.

[5] However, the team was never able to surpass the Boston Celtics of Red Auerbach and Bill Russell, or the Philadelphia 76ers with Wilt Chamberlain in their quest for an NBA title.

Embry played crucial reserve minutes for Russell and aided that team's surprising 1967–68 NBA title run.

Embry later became an assistant manager for the Bucks, keeping an eye for former Royals teammates he could lure to the rising contender.

His remarkable teaming with then-named Lew Alcindor quickly produced an NBA title, with Embry by then rising into Milwaukee's front office.

In 2004, Embry was hired to be the senior basketball advisor to Rob Babcock, the rookie general manager for the Toronto Raptors.

He has been a founder and CEO of his own businesses, and member of numerous nonprofit and corporate boards of directors, including Kohl's, Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, Centerior Energy and Ohio Casualty Insurance.

[3] He is the author of an autobiography The Inside Game: Race, Power and Politics in the NBA (University of Akron Press, 2004), with Mary Schmitt Boyer of the Cleveland Plain Dealer.

In recognition of his career both on the court and in the front office, he was inducted into the Naismith Hall of Fame as a contributor to the sport in 1999.

A portion of US Route 40 in front of Tecumseh High School near Springfield, Ohio was named in Wayne Embry's honor.

[12] Private donations funded the creation of the statue and a Wayne Embry Scholarship, which will support Miami varsity men’s basketball student-athletes.