Former NBA Detroit Piston Coach Chuck Daly Passes Away at the Age of 78

One of the NBA’s greatest coaches has passed away …

Chuck Daly, the former NBA Detroit Pistons and original 1992 Olympic Dream Team coach has sadly passed away at the age of 78. The Hall of Fame coach who had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer passed away on Saturday morning in Jupiter. FL with his family at his side.

Rest in eternal peace Chuck Daly.

Daily was voted one of the top 10 greatest coaches of the NBA’s first half-century and was a master motivator and an incredible psychologist who was able to take diverse personalities and make them function as a team. Daly’s back to back NBA titles with the Detroit Piston “Bad Boys” was only surpassed by his phenomenal coaching job with the US Olympic Dream Team. Daly knew how to maximize the talent he had and take over a game through tempo.

The will and savvy it took to take the greatest NBA players of the time, Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson and the rest of the Dream Team and egos that followed and create a cohesive team is the things legends are made of.

How great a coach was Chuck Daly, when he coached Dennis Rodman no one knew who Rodman was and Rodman never provided any of the antics that he would later become known for later in his career.

Daly coached the Bad Boys Pistons to three NBA Finals and NBA titles in 1989 and 1990. He is the Pistons all-time winning coach in the regular season (467) and post season (71). He also coached the 1992 Dream Team to a gold medal in the Summer Olympic Games was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 1994.

Former Piston John Salley nicknamed him “Daddy Rich” because of his dapper suits, full head of hair and ability to make players think they were running the show when in actuality they were doing what he wanted.

Dennis Rodman called him “God” and viewed him as a father figure.

Daly left mark on Pistons, Dream Team (ESPN)

“Things change from the regular season into the playoffs,” he added. “The game is more physical. But look at us; if we and the Lakers lined up next to each other five-on-five, position-by-position, we come out on the short end. They’re studs — they make us look like a mongrel team.”

There was the rationale. It was Detroit, brandishing a combative Eastern style, against the superabundantly talented habitués of Rodeo Drive. Due to their rough style, the Pistons came to be known as the “Bad Boys.”