Chuck Daly dead at 78

Saturday, May 9, 2009 at 8:15 pm

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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.

Before Daly, “The Pistons’ legacy was two men deep,” Free Press sports writer Charlie Vincent wrote in 1996. “Bob Lanier had played here. And Dave Bing.”

That changed in May 1983 when the Pistons hired Daly to coach a team that had never posted back-to-back winning seasons.

He stayed nine seasons, making the playoffs each year. His team posted five straight seasons with 50 or more victories and went to the Eastern Conference finals each year from 1987 to 1991.

They won the NBA titles in 1989 and 1990. In ’89, with Finals MVP Joe Dumars leading the way, they swept a Los Angeles Lakers team that went 11-0 in its first three playoffs rounds. They returned to the Finals in 1990, beating the Portland Trail Blazers in five games.

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.