Daly A Tough Act to Follow

So is there another Chuck Daly lurking somewhere out there who can come to the rescue of the Sixers?

Well, that might be asking a little too much, considering that Daly, who died today at 78 of pancreatic cancer was not only a Hall of Fame coach, but a pretty decent guy, too. In fact, as Sixers president/general manager Ed Stefanski, who actually played for Daly three decades ago at Penn, has found, out there aren’t many like him.

Which doesn’t mean he shouldn’t keep looking, trying to find a coach who can attempt to bridge the gap that would carry the Sixers from their current state of mediocrity into becoming a team to reckon with. That’s what Daly did once he arrived in Detroit in 1983, taking over a team that had won just 97 games the previous three seasons, hadn’t had a winning season in six years and had won just one playoff series since 1961. <

Instantly, he made the Pistons respectable, winning 49 games his first season, the first climb up the NBA ladder, which would take them to the top five years later. While some may deride Daly for teaching bullying tactics, resulting in the creation of the “Bad Boys,’’ who relished playing a punishing style—bordering on dirty-- that has evolved into the norm through the years, most recognized his true genius.<

Daly was a master of getting the most from his players, who knew how to exploit an opponent’s weakness and how to frustrate them into making mistakes. Not only did his Pistons twice win it all and become a legit contender for the better part of the decade with a lineup featuring Isiah Thomas, Adrian Dantley, Joe Dumars, Bill Laimbeer and a young, somewhat sane Dennis Rodman, he went beyond that. <

In 1992 Daly took what was arguably the greatest collection of players ever assembled—Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Charles Barkley, Karl Malone, Patrick Ewing, John Stockton and David Robinson—among them and took Barcelona by storm. The Olympic “Dream Team’’ did it all in cruising to the gold, with Daly pulling all the right strings.

Having conquered the world, Daly took a step back after that. Following two mediocre seasons with the Nets he left coaching, becoming an expert TV/radio analyst, who was as skilled explaining the game as he was teaching it. But after five years away the coaching bug returned in the lockout shortened season of 1998, where he called the shots in Orlando. The Magic, featuring Penny Hardaway, went 33-17 that season, only to go down in a first-round upset to Allen Iverson and the rest of Larry Brown’s Sixers.
That turned out to be Chuck’s last go-round on an NBA bench.<

Daly would be the first to tell you he didn’t do anything special during his day. The numbers (638-437 over 14 seasons, 75-51 in the post-season) would suggest otherwise. The numbers also don’t say what a good person he was. For all his success, Chuck Daly never talked down to people, never acted as if he were better than them. And never forgot where he came from, a former high school coach from Western, PA, who just happened to catch a break.

So good luck, Ed Stefanski and anyone else trying to decide who’s the best man to coach their team. Whether it turns out to be incumbent Tony DiLeo—whose fate will likely be determined in the next few days—or capable outsiders like Avery Johnson, Eddie Jordan, Mark Jackson or even one-time Sixer Doug Collins, the task before them is enormous.

The kind of task Chuck Daly always thrived at.