Richard Leonard Adelman (born June 16, 1946) is an American former professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

player and coach. He coached 23 seasons in the

National Basketball Association The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada). The NBA is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Ca ...

(NBA). Adelman served as head coach of the

Portland Trail Blazers The Portland Trail Blazers (colloquially known as the Blazers) are an American professional basketball team based in Portland, Oregon. The Trail Blazers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Northwest Division (N ...

Golden State Warriors The Golden State Warriors are an American professional basketball team based in San Francisco. The Warriors compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Pacific Division of the Western Conference. Founded in 1946 i ...

Sacramento Kings The Sacramento Kings are an American professional basketball team based in Sacramento, California. The Kings compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Pacific Division (NBA), Pacific Division of the Western Confere ...

Houston Rockets The Houston Rockets are an American professional basketball team based in Houston. The Rockets compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Southwest Division (NBA), Southwest Division of the Western Conference (NBA) ...

and

Minnesota Timberwolves The Minnesota Timberwolves (often referred to as the Wolves or T-wolves) are an American professional basketball team based in Minneapolis. The Timberwolves compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Northwest Divisio ...

.Rick Adelman to announce retirement
ESPN.com He was inducted into the

Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame is an American history museum and hall of fame, located at 1000 Hall of Fame Avenue in Springfield, Massachusetts. It serves as basketball's most complete library, in addition to promoting and pres ...

in the class of 2021.

Early life and playing career

Adelman was born in

Lynwood, California Lynwood is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. At the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the city had a total population of 67,265, down from 69,772 at the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census. Lynwood is located nea ...

, the son of Gladys (née Olsen) and Leonard Joseph "L. J." Adelman, who were from North Dakota and worked as teachers and farmers. Adelman began his basketball career in high school at Pius X High School in

Downey, California Downey is a city located in Southeast Los Angeles County, California, United States, southeast of Downtown Los Angeles. It is considered part of the Gateway Cities. The city is the birthplace of the Apollo space program and Taco Bell. It is ...

, then matriculated to collegiate stardom at Loyola University of Los Angeles, now known as

Loyola Marymount University Loyola Marymount University (LMU) is a private Jesuit and Marymount research university in Los Angeles, California. LMU enrolls over 10,000 undergraduate and graduate students, making it the largest Catholic university on the west coast of the ...

. In the

1968 NBA draft The 1968 NBA draft was the 22nd annual draft of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The draft was held on April 3, 1968, and May 8 and 10, 1968, before the 1968–69 season. In this draft, 14 NBA teams took turns selecting amateur U.S. co ...

, he was selected by the

San Diego Rockets The Houston Rockets are an American professional basketball team based in Houston, Texas. The team plays in the Southwest Division of the Western Conference in the National Basketball Association (NBA). The team was established in 1967, and pl ...

(now the Houston Rockets) in the 7th round. He played two seasons in San Diego before being taken by the expansion Trail Blazers in the 1970 expansion draft; he then played three seasons in Portland. He also played for the

Chicago Bulls The Chicago Bulls are an American professional basketball team based in Chicago. The Bulls compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Central Division of the Eastern Conference. The team was founded on January 16 ...

, New Orleans (now Utah) Jazz, and the Kansas City/Omaha (now Sacramento) Kings. He ended his playing career in 1975.

Coaching career

Chemeketa Community College

From 1977 through to 1983, Adelman coached at Chemeketa Community College in

Salem, Oregon Salem ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Oregon, and the county seat of Marion County, Oregon, Marion County. It is located in the center of the Willamette Valley alongside the Willamette River, w ...

Portland Trail Blazers

He was then hired by the

(then coached by Jack Ramsay) as an assistant. When Ramsay was fired and replaced with Mike Schuler in 1986, Adelman was retained; when Schuler was in turn fired during the 1988–89 season, Adelman was promoted to interim coach. After leading the team into the playoffs that year (despite a 39–43 record), Adelman was given the coaching position on a full-time basis in the 1989 off-season. The next three years were quite successful for Adelman and the Trail Blazers; the team went to the

NBA Finals The NBA Finals is the annual championship series of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The Eastern Conference (NBA), Eastern and Western Conference (NBA), Western Conference champions play a best-of-seven series to determine the league ...

1990 Important events of 1990 include the Reunification of Germany and the unification of Yemen, the formal beginning of the Human Genome Project (finished in 2003), the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope, the separation of Namibia from South ...

and

1992 1992 was designated as International Space Year by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 – Boutros Boutros-Ghali of Egypt replaces Javier Pérez de Cuéllar of Peru as United Nations Secretary-General. * January 6 ** The Republ ...

(losing to the

Detroit Pistons The Detroit Pistons are an American professional basketball team based in Detroit. The Pistons compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Central Division (NBA), Central Division of the Eastern Conference (NBA), East ...

and the

respectively) and went to the Western Conference finals in 1991 (losing to the

Los Angeles Lakers The Los Angeles Lakers are an American professional basketball team based in Los Angeles. The Lakers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Pacific Division (NBA), Pacific Division of the Western Conference (NBA ...

). Adelman spent two more years with the team, but was dismissed after the 1993–1994 season.

Golden State Warriors

After a year's absence from the sidelines, Adelman was hired as the head coach of the

, May 19, 1995, fresh off the heels of an injury-riddled 26-win season prior to his hiring. He was unable to have a winning season in two years there, with his first season seeing the team win just ten of their last 28 games on their way to a 36–46 record. The following season saw them finish last in the division with 30 wins. On April 28, 1997, Adelman and his assistants were fired, with Adelman stating his feeling that it seemed inevitable by February.

Sacramento Kings

Sitting out a season once again, Adelman was hired by the

in 1998. Under Adelman's guidance, the Kings were one of the most successful teams in the Western Conference, qualifying for the playoffs every year of his Sacramento career, making him the first Kings coach to lead the team to consecutive playoff appearances since the 1979-1981 teams. During the Kings' 2000 playoff run, they met

Phil Jackson Philip Douglas Jackson (born September 17, 1945) is an American former professional basketball player, coach, and executive in the National Basketball Association (NBA). Jackson is a 13-time NBA champion, having won two as a player and 11 as ...

's Los Angeles Lakers. Adelman questioned Jackson's motivational techniques when it was learned that Jackson compared Adelman to

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the lea ...

. In 2002, the Kings made a serious run for the NBA Finals. After clinching the first seed in the competitive Western Conference, the Kings blazed through the opening two rounds but lost to the Lakers in the Western Conference finals. Despite the relative success in playoff appearances, Adelman did not get along with the Maloof brothers. In 2006, Adelman (in the final year of his contract) led the Kings to the

playoffs The playoffs, play-offs, postseason or finals of a sports league are a competition played after the regular season by the top competitors to determine the league champion or a similar accolade. Depending on the league, the playoffs may be eithe ...

. Despite the team struggling early in the regular season, the Kings rebounded and qualified for the playoffs as the #8 seed. Although competitive, they were defeated in six games by the defending champion

San Antonio Spurs The San Antonio Spurs are an American professional basketball team based in San Antonio. The Spurs compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Southwest Division (NBA), Southwest Division of the Western Conference (NBA ...

. Adelman's contract with the Kings expired at the end of the 2005–2006 season. On May 9, it was reported by the ''

Sacramento Bee ''The Sacramento Bee'' is a daily newspaper published in Sacramento, California, in the United States. Since its foundation in 1857, ''The Bee'' has become the largest newspaper in Sacramento, the fifth largest newspaper in California, and the 2 ...

'' that his contract would not be renewed. The Kings did not reach the playoffs again until 2023, nearly 17 years later. Adelman remains the only coach in the Sacramento era to reach the playoffs more than once during his respective tenure with the team.

Houston Rockets

The Houston Rockets brought in Adelman as their new head coach five days after the dismissal of

Jeff Van Gundy Jeffrey William Van Gundy (born January 19, 1962) is an American basketball coach and former commentator who is currently the lead assistant coach for the Los Angeles Clippers. Van Gundy previously served as head coach of the New York Knicks and ...

on May 18, 2007. Van Gundy had taken the Rockets to three playoff appearances in four years with no series victories. In his first season as head coach, Adelman guided the Rockets to a 22-game winning streak from January through March 2008, the third-longest winning streak in NBA history. However, they lost in the first round in six games. In the 2009 season, the Rockets finished fifth in the West with a 53–29 record. They entered the playoffs without their star shooting guard,

Tracy McGrady Tracy Lamar McGrady Jr. (born May 24, 1979), nicknamed T-Mac, is an American former professional basketball player, best known for his career in the National Basketball Association (NBA). McGrady is a seven-time NBA All-Star, seven-time All-N ...

, due to an injury. Despite this loss, the Rockets defeated the

in six games to advance to the Western Conference Semifinals for the first time since 1997. Although they would lose the series to the

, they also proved their resilience by taking the series to seven games despite the loss of star center

Yao Ming Yao Ming ( zh, c=姚明; born September 12, 1980) is a Chinese basketball executive and former professional player. He played for the Shanghai Sharks of the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) and the Houston Rockets of the National Baske ...

in Game 3 of that series. Adelman won his 800th career game, 13th among coaches in NBA history, on March 24, 2008, against the Sacramento Kings. On April 18, 2011, the

Houston Chronicle The ''Houston Chronicle'' is the largest daily newspaper in Houston, Houston, Texas, United States. it is the third-largest newspaper by Sunday circulation in the United States, behind only ''The New York Times'' and the ''Los Angeles Times''. ...

reported that the Rockets would not give Adelman a new contract; Adelman and the team parted ways after four seasons and two playoff appearances.

Minnesota Timberwolves

On September 13, 2011, the

confirmed the hiring of Adelman as their new coach.Proven winner takes challenge
Star Tribune. On April 6, 2013, Adelman won his 1,000th career game with a victory over the

, becoming just the eighth coach in NBA history ever to do so. On April 21, 2014, Adelman announced his retirement from coaching in the NBA. It was also announced that he would stay with the Timberwolves as a consultant. Adelman ranks ninth in terms of games coached and games won. He went 79–78 (.503) in playoff games and advanced to the NBA Finals twice, both times with the Portland Trail Blazers in 1990 and 1992 where they lost to the

and

Career playing statistics

NBA

Source

Regular season

Playoffs

Head coaching record

, - , style="text-align:left;", Portland , style="text-align:left;", , 35, , 14, , 21, , .400, , style="text-align:center;", 5th in Pacific, , 3, , 0, , 3, , .000 , style="text-align:center;", Lost in

First Round First most commonly refers to: * First, the ordinal form of the number 1 First or 1st may also refer to: Acronyms * Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-Centimeters, an astronomical survey carried out by the Very Large Array * Far Infrared a ...

, - , style="text-align:left;", Portland , style="text-align:left;", , 82, , 59, , 23, , .720, , style="text-align:center;", 2nd in Pacific, , 21, , 12, , 9, , .571 , style="text-align:center;", Lost in

, - , style="text-align:left;", Portland , style="text-align:left;", , 82, , 63, , 19, , .768, , style="text-align:center;", 1st in Pacific, , 16, , 9, , 7, , .563 , style="text-align:center;", Lost in Conf. Finals , - , style="text-align:left;", Portland , style="text-align:left;", , 82, , 57, , 25, , .695, , style="text-align:center;", 1st in Pacific, , 21, , 13, , 8, , .619 , style="text-align:center;", Lost in

, - , style="text-align:left;", Portland , style="text-align:left;", , 82, , 51, , 31, , .622, , style="text-align:center;", 3rd in Pacific, , 4, , 1, , 3, , .250 , style="text-align:center;", Lost in

, - , style="text-align:left;", Portland , style="text-align:left;", , 82, , 47, , 35, , .573, , style="text-align:center;", 4th in Pacific, , 4, , 1, , 3, , .250 , style="text-align:center;", Lost in

, - , style="text-align:left;", Golden State , style="text-align:left;", , 82, , 36, , 46, , .439, , style="text-align:center;", 6th in Pacific, , —, , —, , —, , — , style="text-align:center;", Missed Playoffs , - , style="text-align:left;", Golden State , style="text-align:left;", , 82, , 30, , 52, , .366, , style="text-align:center;", 7th in Pacific, , —, , —, , —, , — , style="text-align:center;", Missed Playoffs , - , style="text-align:left;",

Sacramento Sacramento ( or ; ; ) is the capital city of the U.S. state of California and the seat of Sacramento County. Located at the confluence of the Sacramento and American Rivers in Northern California's Sacramento Valley, Sacramento's 2020 p ...

, style="text-align:left;", , 50, , 27, , 23, , .540, , style="text-align:center;", 3rd in Pacific, , 5, , 2, , 3, , .400 , style="text-align:center;", Lost in