Basketball Hall of Famer Rick Adelman, one of the winningest coaches in NBA history and the father of Denver Nuggets head coach David Adelman, has died at the age of 79.
The National Basketball Coaches Association announced Adelman’s death on Monday. A cause of death was not immediately released.
Over a coaching career that spanned more than two decades, Adelman built a reputation as one of the NBA’s most respected minds. He finished with 1,042 career victories, ranking 10th on the league’s all-time wins list. Among coaches with at least 1,000 wins, only Pat Riley, Gregg Popovich, Jerry Sloan, and George Karl coached more games while maintaining a higher winning percentage.
Adelman led the Portland Trail Blazers to two NBA Finals appearances and also served as head coach of the Sacramento Kings, Houston Rockets, Minnesota Timberwolves, and Golden State Warriors.
“Adelman will be remembered not only as a coach and a player, but also as a mentor to so many in the basketball community,” the National Basketball Coaches Association said in a statement. The organization honored him with its Chuck Daly Lifetime Achievement Award in 2023.
When presenting that award, Indiana Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle praised Adelman’s impact on the game.
“Rick Adelman’s NBA coaching career has been highlighted by innovation, integrity and excellence,” Carlisle said. “His teams always played to their strengths, and Rick always found subtle ways to reinvent NBA basketball to help his players thrive. His quiet, unassuming nature belies his impact as one of the great NBA coaches of all time.”
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NBA Commissioner Adam Silver also paid tribute, calling Adelman “a brilliant strategist and teacher of the game, and an even better person.”
The Sacramento Kings, where Adelman enjoyed some of the most successful years of his coaching career, remembered him as a leader who left a lasting mark on the franchise.
“Will be remembered for the way he inspired those around him — with humility, integrity, kindness, and an unwavering belief in the power of teamwork,” the team said.
Before becoming a coaching legend, Adelman spent seven seasons in the NBA as a point guard from 1969 to 1975, playing for five different teams. Coaching was not originally part of a grand plan. Adelman once believed he would end up at the high school level before beginning his coaching journey at Chemeketa Community College in Salem, Oregon.
“We had great success there,” Adelman said during his Basketball Hall of Fame induction speech. “The one thing I did not realize is Jack Ramsay was following my team.”
Ramsay, then the coach of the Trail Blazers, later brought Adelman onto his staff. After serving as an assistant under Ramsay and later Mike Schuler, Adelman was promoted to interim head coach during the 1988-89 season.
“We had a team that was ready to win,” Adelman said in 2021.
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Portland owner Paul Allen retained him for the following season, and the move quickly paid off. Led by stars Clyde Drexler, Terry Porter, Jerome Kersey, and Buck Williams, the Trail Blazers won 59 games and advanced to the NBA Finals in 1990 before falling to Detroit. Portland returned to the Finals again in 1992, this time losing to Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls.
Adelman later spent two seasons with Golden State before taking over in Sacramento, where he guided the Kings to eight consecutive winning seasons. His Kings teams featured fan favorites and stars including Vlade Divac, Peja Stojaković, Mike Bibby, Chris Webber, Jason Williams, Bobby Jackson, and current Kings head coach Doug Christie.
Throughout his coaching career, Adelman helped shape the careers of hundreds of players. In total, 210 players appeared in at least one NBA game under his leadership.
Miami Heat veteran Kyle Lowry reflected on Adelman’s influence after learning of his passing.
“He actually challenged me and poured into trusting me,” Lowry said Monday night. “That was important for me. He didn’t have to. He could have done everything else, he could have played other players, but he believed in me. … He just trusted his players. He just wanted to win. And if it wasn’t for him, I don’t know what career I would have. It’s a sad day.”
For generations of players, coaches and fans, Rick Adelman will be remembered as one of the NBA’s most accomplished and respected figures, a coach whose success was matched by the admiration he earned throughout the basketball world.
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