The basketball world today lost one of the all-time greats in coach Chuck Daly. The former Pistons Bad Boys and 1992 Olympic Dream Team coach died, aged 78, due to pancreatic cancer.
The Detroit Free Press has a nice tribute article about Daly’s life in and around basketball.
Chuck Daly, the Detroit Pistons coach who led the Bad Boys to the back-to-back NBA titles and was nicknamed Daddy Rich for his snappy dressing style, died this morning. He was 78.
The Pistons said Daly died in Jupiter, Fla., with his family by his side. Funeral arrangements are pending, but the team said services would take place next week in Florida.
An announcement came in March that Daly, who had the most wins in Pistons franchise history, was diagnosed with late-stage pancreatic cancer.
Coaches across the league, as well as many NBA broadcasters, wore “CD” badges upon hearing the announcement of Daly’s ill-health in honour of the great coach who made the Detroit Bad Boys a household name in America.
Daly once referred to himself as a second banana. He never won NBA coach of the year but was inducted in the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1994 and the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame in 1996. In 1997, the Pistons retired the No. 2 jersey to the rafters, in honor of Daly’s two championships.
His NBA coaching record — including one season in Cleveland before coming to Detroit, and two seasons each in New Jersey and Orlando after the Pistons — was 638-437 (.593). His record with the Pistons: 467-271 (.633), plus 71-42 in the playoffs.
The identity still attached to the Pistons franchise was born under Daly’s influence.
His teams played hard. They won with defense. They were physical — so rough and tumble that the nickname Bad Boys quickly stuck.
His legacy across the NBA and basketball in general will not be forgotten any time soon.
