Rick Adelman, Longtime NBA Coach and Hall of Famer, Dies at 79

Rick Adelman, the Hall of Fame coach who recorded 1,042 regular-season victories, died Monday, June 1. He was 79. The NBA Coaches Association announced the death in a statement posted on social media.

No cause or location was provided. Adelman compiled his win total over 23 seasons and 1,791 regular-season games, figures that rank 10th and 12th, respectively, in league history. 582. His teams reached the postseason 16 times, and he posted at least 50 victories in 11 seasons.

The Sacramento Kings, for whom Adelman coached eight seasons, issued a statement Monday. “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,” the team said. Adelman guided the Portland Trail Blazers to the NBA Finals in 1990 and 1992.

He later coached the Golden State Warriors, Houston Rockets and Minnesota Timberwolves, directing offenses built around Clyde Drexler, Chris Webber and Yao Ming. He played seven NBA seasons as a 6-foot-1 guard for the San Diego Rockets, Portland Trail Blazers, Chicago Bulls, New Orleans Jazz and Kansas City-Omaha Kings, averaging five assists per game.

After retiring as a player in 1975, he coached six seasons at Chemeketa Community College in Salem, Oregon, before Trail Blazers coach Jack Ramsay hired him as an assistant in 1983.

Adelman was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2021 and received the NBCA Chuck Daly Lifetime Achievement Award in 2023. He is the father of Denver Nuggets head coach David Adelman.