Chuck Daly was Daddy Rich

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The news is just too sad to even think about. How can Chuck Daly be gone? It seems like just yesterday when Joe Dumars and Isiah Thomas were wearing those ever so short shorts and winning back to back titles with Chuck Daly keeping everyone happy as the coach.

This story hits home for me after just recovering from cancer myself.

Coach of the Bad Boys and yet a good guy all the time

And his hair was perfect…

And his hair was perfect. Every time I think about Chuck Daly, I think about that old song lyric. Chuck coming down the tunnel, nodding just before going out, and his hair was perfect. Chuck charging down the sidelines, screaming “GIMME A BREAK!” and his hair was perfect. Chuck speeding through a shopping mall, fingering the suits, Chuck grinning through a TV interview, Chuck wearing Armani or Hugo Boss, and his hair — wavy, thick, blown back like a Roman statesman’s — was perfect. It gave him the image of a man in control, always coiffed, always ready.

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Chuck was the perfect coach for all of the strong ego’s on the Detroit Pistons, be it Bill Laimbeer, Mark Aguirre, Rick Mahorn, Vinnie Johnson, or William Bedford, it did not matter, because Chuck knew how to handle them all.

He used that hunger as a motivator. When the Pistons’ effort weakened, he reminded them endorsement deals weren’t offered to losers. He once famously grabbed a phone from the press table and waved it at a lagging Mark Aguirre, yelling, “Mark! It’s the CBA!” He skipped the bromides about teamwork and spirit. He knew success was the reward, and the reward required work.

Chuck worked. He worried. He could worry the smile off a clown. But he worried funny, if you can do that. He was also as good a manager as you’ll ever meet. He could listen to one player moan, another complain, another whine, and ignore all of them equally. He had one weapon: minutes. He used it artfully, and got five disparate personalities to band together to win a championship in 1989, then came back with an altered cast and did it again in 1990.

Maybe it can be summed up by Isiah Thomas and Charles Barkley.

“He was a mentor, a father figure, someone we all looked up to in everything he did. I can’t explain in words how much he gave me as a player and a man. This is an immeasurable loss for the NBA and the entire basketball world.” — Isiah Thomas, Pistons legend who now coaches at Florida International.

“I never understood how a great man, a nice guy coached the Bad Boys.” — Charles Barkley, who played on the Dream Team under Daly.
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Photo source Newscom

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