It’s a very sad day as news broke today that Hall of Fame coach Rick Adelman passed away today at the age of 79. He is survived by his wife Mary Kay, children Kathy, RJ, Laura, David, Caitlin and Patrick as well as twelve grandchildren.
Coach Rick Adelman will always hold a special place in the hearts of Sacramento Kings fans as the greatest coach not just in Sacramento-era history, but franchise history. In his eight seasons as head coach, he made the playoffs in every single season, coaching a style of basketball that was known as “the greatest show on court”. In his eight seasons as head coach of the Kings, Adelman’s teams posted a record of 395-229, a win-loss percentage of 63.3%. That’s both the highest number of wins and winning percentage in franchise history.
Coach Adelman had a fantastic career elsewhere as well, and while he never won an NBA Championship, few coaches saw as much consistent success as he did. Coach Adelman won 1,042 games over his 23 year Head Coaching Career, good enough for 10th all time. He was rightfully elected to the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 2021.
It’s a shame that there’s no current tribute to Coach Adelman at Golden 1 Center, and if it were up to me his name would have been up in the rafters years ago. Hopefully that’s something that can one day be rectified, because there might only be a handful of people who have meant more to basketball in Sacramento than Rick Adelman. I’ll always feel blessed to have had the experience of witnessing the type of basketball that Coach Adelman and his staff brought to Sacramento.
Rest in Peace, Coach.
As I was digesting the news of Rick Adelman’s passing, it donned on me that my Dad and I actually were at Rick’s first game back in Sac since he had left. He was hired by the Rockets and in a December 2007 game, they were visiting the Kings and my Dad and I got tickets from my Uncle to go. We had actually seen the Rockets earlier twice earlier that year, and this was the second time we were seeing Yao Ming in person too.
During the player introductions, when Rick’s name got announced, he got a standing ovation from the fans that honestly could’ve gone on for much longer than it did. There’s actually a clip of it on YouTube:
Here’s a couple photos I took from the game. If you squint hard you can see Rick sitting on the bench in the upper left corner.
The Kings actually won that game, and the most memorable moment was Yao Ming following out and then getting ejected for throwing a towel across the court.
RIP to the greatest Sacramento Kings coach ever. As Rob said in the last thread, you will be missed, but not forgotten. No one has ever come close to his success, and his name more than deserves to be hanging in the rafters. Best wishes to his family.
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