Former Pistons, U.S. Olympic coach Chuck Daly dies at 78

AUBURN HILLS, Mich. (AP) — Chuck Daly, who coached the original Dream Team to the Olympic gold medal in 1992 after winning back-to-back NBA championships with the Detroit Pistons, died at age 78 Saturday morning, the Pistons said.

He 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."

The Pistons announced in March that the Hall of Fame coach had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and was undergoing treatment.

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 an NBA title and Olympic gold.

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/basketball/2009-05-09-chuck-daly-obit_N.htm?csp=YahooModule_Sports

 

Thats a shame, a very talented leader and successful coach, I more or less loathe the NBA, I do know that coach Daly had a knack for the task.
Honestly I am surprised it has had more coverage here, maybe there has been plenty but I am just not seeing it.

 

Being a long time Boston Celtics fan... Larry Bird being my favorite old school player... I hated the Pistons because they and the Lakers were the Celtics arch rivals.

All the said Daly was one hell of a coach & his teams often performed way above their true talent level. That's good coaching.

Now he may be in a little trouble up in heaven for perfecting "THE HARD FOUL DOWN THE LANE"!

But he won't get thrown out for it. He was a good man... rest in peace coach.