I never knew Chuck Daly. But after reading tales about him the past two days, I feel like I know the man who led the Detroit Pistons and Dream Team to glory. Daly passed away on Saturday morning after fighting pancreatic cancer. He was 78.

Now Daly lives on through the stories being told across the league....

Bud Shaw, The Plain Dealer: Daly's Stint With Cavaliers In Early '80s Was No Holiday

Daly was 51, no kid. Having interviewed for more than a few NBA head coaching jobs, Daly had made up his mind that he'd take the next open job.  Just his luck, it was the woeful Cavaliers…

Daly won two titles in Detroit. He was the good guy behind the Bad Boys. Critics believe he compromised his principles and allowed his team to conduct legalized assault on the opposition. Daly said it was the only way that team could win. continue reading....

Drew Sharp, Detroit Free Press: Daly Found Style Best Suited For The Pistons

"Nothing easy" were the two words Daly always left his players with after they broke the time-out huddle. It meant surrender nothing near the basket. If that meant knocking Michael Jordan on his butt, "Hey, that's why it's called the playoffs" Daly would casually retort. continue reading....

Bob Ryan, The Boston Globe: Unique Path Was Tailored To Fit Daly

When it came time to select a coach to take charge of a wonderful collection of basketball players known as the "Dream Team," Chuck Daly was the obvious choice, in part because he was a sound, accomplished coach with two championship rings, and, in ever larger measure, because he had the perfect temperament to deal with the egos attached to the biggest basketball stars in the world. No one had more appropriately bad hearing than Chuck Daly. continue reading....

Jack McCallum, Sports Illustrated: Remembering Chuch Daly

His genius was in giving players a lot of rope but always letting them know that someone was holding it at the other end. Chuck sweated only the big stuff, never the small stuff. Most of the obituaries will concentrate on his clothes, his hair and his good looks, all those things that contributed to that "Daddy Rich" nickname he picked up along the way. continue reading....

Michael Wilbon, The Washington Post: Daly's Ability to Coach The Greats Made Him One

Daly was widely quoted yesterday as saying: "It's a players' league. They allow you to coach them or they don't. Once they stop allowing you to coach, you're on your way out." The best players in the world, whether they played for the Pistons or the Dream Team, never stopped allowing Daly to coach them, which was the secret to their success . . . and his. continue reading....

Mitch Albom, Detroit Free Press: Daddy Rich, A Regular Guy, Was Coaching Royalty

He wasn’t a former NBA or college star. He actually worked real jobs before becoming a coach: a dishwasher, a bouncer, a grunt in a lime pit, slapping leather hides. He knew there was a bottom as well as a top, and he would tell me that we’re all just a snap away from going back, here then gone. I think he coached that way, with a shadow behind him, the shadow of normalcy. continue reading....

pic via: freep.com

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