NBA, Olympic coach Chuck Daly dies at 78

[Scurrilous]

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"Chuck Daly, who coached the Dream Team to the Olympic gold medal in 1992 after winning back-to-back NBA championships with the Detroit Pistons, has died. He was 78.

He died Saturday morning in Jupiter, Fla., with his family by his side, the Pistons said. The team announced in March the Hall of Fame coach was being treated for pancreatic cancer.

Daly was renowned for his ability to create harmony out of diverse personalities at all levels of the game, whether they were Ivy Leaguers at Pennsylvania, Dream Teamers Michael Jordan and Charles Barkley, or Pistons as dissimilar as Dennis Rodman and Joe Dumars.

"It's a players' league. They allow you to coach them or they don't," Daly once said. "Once they stop allowing you to coach, you're on your way out."

Daly was voted one of the 10 greatest coaches of the NBA's first half-century in 1996, two years after being inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame. He was the first coach to win both NBA and Olympic titles."

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[LisaM]

1. Sad news for the Pistons. I heard that early this a.m.

They just lost their owner a few weeks ago, too. Thanks for the memories, Chuck! And I don't care what they say, you always were better dressed than Pat Riley.

Too bad he wasn't allowed to coach any of his own players on the Dream Team - the Olympics were so marred by that.

[Awsi Dooger]

2. Daly saved the NBA

It was a garbage defenseless league in the early to mid '80s, before Daly instituted 48 minutes of sustained intensity with the Pistons. It was gorgeous to watch.

I moved to Las Vegas in 1984 and watched at least a half dozen NBA games per night in the sportsbooks. That Bird/Magic era could not have been more fraudulent. It's comical the reputation it maintains to this day. Want an uncontested 10 foot jumper? Be my guest. It was sickening basketball. Many years ago I emphasized that to a few friends and they mocked me. Until I pulled out a tape of an NBA playoff game in that era. Suddenly their jaws dropped. There wasn't a threat of defense until the final two minutes. And even at that point it didn't threaten standard defensive intensity of the Daly teams.

If you want numerical verification, I remember when the average over/under was 218. Once Daly strangled Showtime, the rest of the league realized it had to follow suit, and steadily the average scoring decreased, to the point it reached low 190s. I'll always credit the great Chuck Daly, and not merely for all the under bets I won. :)