Hall of Fame NBA coach Rick Adelman dies at 79

WASHINGTON: Hall of Fame coach Rick Adelman, who spent 29 years on NBA benches and guided the Portland Trail Blazers to two NBA Finals appearances, has died at the age of 79, the National Basketball Coaches Association announced on Monday.

Adelman recorded 1,042 victories across 23 seasons as an NBA head coach, placing him 10th on the league’s all-time wins list. He took Portland to the NBA Finals in 1990, when the Trail Blazers lost to Detroit, and again in 1992, when they were beaten by Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls.

His coaching career also included spells with Golden State, Sacramento, Houston and Minnesota, ending after the 2013-14 season. Before becoming a head coach, Adelman served as an assistant with Portland from 1983 to 1989. He was promoted after Mike Schuler was dismissed in 1989 and went 14-21 as interim coach, leading the Trail Blazers into the playoffs. Although Portland lost in the first round, he was then given the job on a full-time basis.

Adelman’s period in Portland featured two trips to the NBA Finals and a 1991 defeat to the Los Angeles Lakers in the Western Conference finals. First-round playoff exits in 1993 and 1994 were followed by his dismissal. After taking a year away from coaching, he joined Golden State, where he failed to produce a winning season in two years and was fired.

Long Sacramento run

He returned after another season out to take charge of Sacramento, where he spent eight seasons. The Kings reached the playoffs every year under Adelman and made their deepest run in 2002, losing in the Western Conference finals to the Lakers. His contract was not renewed after the 2005-06 season, and Sacramento did not return to the playoffs until 2023.

The Kings paid tribute in a statement on Monday, saying:

"The Sacramento Kings organization is deeply saddened by the passing of Rick Adelman, a beloved coach whose leadership, character, and vision helped define an era of Kings basketball that inspired our city and captivated fans around the world,"

Adelman was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2021. After another year out of the league, he took over at Houston. The Rockets produced a 22-game winning streak in his 2017-18 debut season, described as the third-longest in NBA history. The following season, Houston lost in the second round to the Lakers despite a strong effort from Yao Ming. Was Adelman’s last playoff appearance, before he missed the postseason in two further seasons with Houston and during his final three campaigns with Minnesota from 2011 to 2014.

Player and family ties to the NBA

Adelman’s son David, now coach of the Denver Nuggets, was hired by him as an assistant in 2011. David Adelman later moved on to assistant coaching roles in Orlando for one season and then Denver, where he worked from 2017 until last year and helped the Nuggets win the NBA title in 2023.

Before his coaching career, Rick Adelman played seven NBA seasons as a guard beginning in 1968. He spent two years with the then-San Diego Rockets before moving to Portland in the 1970 expansion draft. He played three seasons for the Trail Blazers and one for Chicago. His final season in 1975 included stints with the Bulls, the expansion New Orleans Jazz and the Kansas City-Omaha Kings, who later became the Sacramento Kings.