Chuck Daly, Pistons Coach, Dies at 78

[Frank Booth]

Source: NY Times

Chuck Daly, who coached the Detroit Pistons’ Bad Boy teams to two consecutive N.B.A. championships, then coached the Olympic Dream Team to a gold medal at the 1992 Barcelona Games, died Saturday in Jupiter, Fla. He was 78. Daly’s death was announced by the Pistons. In March, they said he was being treated for pancreatic cancer.

When Daly became the Pistons’ coach in 1983, the franchise had never won an N.B.A. championship since entering the league in 1948, representing Fort Wayne, Ind. In his nine seasons with Detroit, Daly’s teams made the playoffs every time. His Pistons swept the Los Angeles Lakers in the 1989 N.B.A. finals, then beat out the Portland Trail Blazers in a five-game final the following year.

Daly was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass., in 1994. When the N.B.A. celebrated its 50th anniversary in 1997, he was named one of the 10 greatest coaches in league history in balloting by the news media. The Pistons retired No. 2 that year to commemorate his consecutive N.B.A. titles.

Daly’s Pistons featured scoring and flash in the backcourt, with Isiah Thomas, Joe Dumars and Vinnie Johnson, and muscle up front, with Bill Laimbeer, Rick Mahorn, Dennis Rodman, John Salley, Mark Aguirre and James Edwards.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/10/sports/basketball/10daly.html?hp

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Sad news. I always hated those Bad Boys teams -- mostly because they were so good and annoying. They had a great coach.
Rest in peace, Chuck Daly.