Though he was overshadowed by Pat Riley, Phil Jackson and K.C. Jones, one can make a good argument that Chuck Daly was the NBA’s best coach during the 1980s and early 1990s. Daly’s passing Saturday morning saddened all with ties to the NBA, who remember more than just his "bad-boy" Detroit Pistons, his stint as head coach of the U.S. Olympic "Dream Team,"and his penchant for stylish dressing and well-coiffed hair.
What made Daly stand out the most was his ability to take often very different players and mold them into a team. He got the most out of the very difficult Dennis Rodman, helping him blend with the likes of Isiah Thomas, Joe Dumars, Bill Laimbeer and Mark Aguirre into back-to-back NBA champions.
The Pistons first title came against an injury-riddled Los Angeles Lakers team in 1989 but they insured their place in history the following season with a four games to one victory over perhaps an even more talented Portland Trailblazers team. That Portland team was led by Clyde Drexler, Terry Porter and Buck Williams.
Olympic Gold
Daly also helped re-energize team USA when he led arguably the greatest collection of basketball talent in history – Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Charles Barkley and company – to the gold medal in the 1992 Olympics.
Daly had a career record of 638-437 in 13 seasons in the NBA. He led his teams to the playoffs in all but one of those years, going 75-51 in the post-season.
In a prepared statement, NBA commissioner David Stern said "Chuck did much more than coach basketball games. He positively impacted everyone he met, both personally and professionally, and his love of people and the game of basketball helped develop the next generation of coaches."
People Person
Ironically, Daly never won the NBA Coach of the Year award. He joined the NBA as an assistant for Billy Cunningham with the Philadelphia 76ers in 1978. It was perhaps there where he learned to meld various personalities together, as that team included Julius Erving, Darryl Dawkins, George McGinnis and Lloyd "World B." Free.
He earned his first NBA head coaching job with the Cleveland Cavaliers during the 1981-82 season but was fired after the team went 9-32 in the first half of the season. He was named the coach of the Pistons the following year and he led them to nine consecutive winning seasons.
Daly went on to coach the New Jersey Nets and the Orlando Magic before retiring as a head coach at 68 years of age.
Daly played in college at St. Bonaventure and Bloomsburg. After a two-year stint in the military, he was a high school coach for eight seasons in Pennsylvania before becoming an assistant coach at Duke. A strong six years at Duke was followed by a head coaching job at Boston College. He then moved on to coach Penn before later coming to the NBA.
