04/24/24
May 09, 2009
Former NBA Coach Chuck Daly Dies: Chuck Daly, the coach who led the Detroit Pistons to back-to-back NBA Championships and led the first USA Olympics "dream team" in basketball, died Saturday morning after fighting pancreatic cancer. He was 78. Daly's Pistons made the playoffs in all nine seasons he coached the team, reaching the Eastern Conference finals in five straight years. At a ceremony to honor Daly, former player Rick Mahon summed up his importance to the franchise in six words: "Without you, there wouldn't be us."
posted by rcade to basketball at 09:10 AM - 6 comments
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posted by tommybiden at 10:34 AM on May 09, 2009
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posted by THX-1138 at 01:52 PM on May 09, 2009
NBA Championship coach, Michael Jordan and LA Lakers tormentor, and Olympics coaching champion. Not a bad record at all.
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posted by Newbie Walker at 05:05 PM on May 09, 2009
I greatly admired him. He played a big role in changing the league to an intensely defense-first mindset.
But after a while, I do admit that I got tired of watching 78-76 ballgames because what he became successful with evolved into a style of play that just wasn't pretty or fun to watch. I missed the 108-104 type of games.
People talk about what a masterful job Phil Jackson is able to do with a roster of personalities. I think Coach Daly is the guy that showed how you could get that done.
posted by beaverboard at 07:48 PM on May 09, 2009
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posted by BornIcon at 12:28 PM on May 11, 2009
He's also the only coach with an NBA title, a gold medal and is in the hall of fame. I'm not much on the NBA anymore, but those Bad Boys teams had me glued to the TV during their entire run. Us fans always had a hushed reverence for Chuck Daly.