Indazone
09-28-2007, 12:21 PM
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/bk/bkn/5171486.html
Adelman's life back in sync
Rockets coach says basketball, family make his world go round
To Rick Adelman, it has always been about basketball and family.
Basketball is family. Family is basketball.
There might be other interests — a little golf, maybe an occasional novel. But they never really distract from the thing that matters most.
For a year, Adelman divided that one thing into distinct parts. It was a good a year, but it wasn't the same. It couldn't last. He returned to Portland, spent time with his six children and six grandchildren, and watched the NBA from the sofa and the stands while waiting for the right opportunity to bring him back to the bench.
When the opportunity to coach the Rockets came along, he jumped quickly and put the two most important parts of his life back together.
"They're so involved with basketball, I think the most excited were my kids when they found out about the job," said Adelman, who arrived in Houston on Wednesday to begin final preparations for training camp that begins next week. "There was no one for them to watch last year, no one to root for.
"They've all been involved in the game — playing it, coaching it, working camps. Basketball and my family, it's really what takes up our time. Those are the two areas of my life.
"It fills it up."
• • •
Adelman found his reputation, or the limits of it, amusing in its simplicity. Ask about his interests and you hear about a flowing offense. Ask about personality, you get relationships with players. Hobbies? You get basketball. Style? You get coaching.
He has been an NBA coach for 16 years and a player for seven, but away from the court he left the footprint of a hummingbird.
Clyde Drexler remembers the manner in which Adelman deals with his players.
"Rick is an outstanding coach," said Drexler, who spent 11 seasons with Adelman in Portland. "He's proven. His winning percentage is pretty darn impressive. I can't say enough about him. He's easygoing, a lot like Rudy Tomjanovich with players. He gets the most out of his players. He is truly a players' coach."
Terry Porter, another former player, recalls Adelman's versatility.
"I think when you look at Rick and what he's done, he's taken different teams and made them winners," said Porter, who was Adelman's point guard in Portland and now is an assistant coach at Detroit. "A lot depends on the team itself. Our team in Portland was more of an up-tempo team, and that's what he did. The Sacramento team was overall a more half-court-execution team that did go up and down a little bit.
"I just think that players are going to enjoy playing for him. He's going to give them freedom, but he's also going to make them accountable for things that they have to get done. I don't think he's ever had quite the post presence that he'll have in Houston with Yao (Ming). We had some good centers in Portland, like a (Kevin) Duckworth, who was very solid, averaged 18 points. Then he obviously had Chris (Webber) and Vlade (Divac) in Sac. But I just think they're going to enjoy what he brings. It will be interesting to see how he's going to have those guys play."
Even Geoff Petrie, a teammate and roommate in Portland and Adelman's neighbor and general manager in Sacramento, focuses on basketball when talking about Adelman.
"He's a proven winner," Petrie said. "You're going to get a coach who really understands how to play a free-flowing game. ... His teams are always fun to watch. ... The flip side of that is he gets labeled of not having good defensive teams, but he has had some very good defensive teams at times over the years."
That is all fine for a team looking for a new coach, but now that the Rockets have made their choice, it doesn't reveal much that could not been seen from the stands.
It is not that Adelman was trying to hide in plain sight, obscured by the power and speed of his Trail Blazers teams or the finesse and offensive touch that his Kings displayed.
He is what he appears.
"I think I'm pretty simple," Adelman said. "Obviously, coaching has been my life as far as livelihood. I've been doing it a long time, played a long time. Everything I've done, I've done in basketball."
• • •
Nearly three decades after the Rockets drafted him in the seventh round out of Loyola Marymount, Adelman still is surprised he had a playing career. He played for five teams in seven years — a 6-2 point guard without much of a shot — with a toughness and understanding that helped him hang around and made him an excellent candidate to become a coach.
"I could initiate the offense, pass the ball," Adelman said. "I was amazed I played seven years. When you're looking at players in the NBA and a guy's on a bad team, and they get stats, anybody can do that because I did it. I averaged 13 points one year, and we lost 53 games. I was just a journeyman player. I was a good backup. I was one of those guys right on the bubble.
"I always thought I was going to be a coach, but I thought it would be on the high school level. ... I always wanted to be a coach. I just didn't know how I was going to do it.
"Once I started coaching, I always felt I could do it. I felt I could reach players. I always felt comfortable coaching. Jack Ramsay gave me my first opportunity in the pros. ... We still use a lot of the stuff he used when I was an assistant for him."
Petrie saw that potential at Chemeketa Community College in Salem, Ore., where he joined Adelman's staff as an unpaid assistant.
"I would give him suggestions; they never worked," Petrie said. "His were always better. He committed himself to coaching and learning about it."
Adelman was 141-39 in six seasons at Chemeketa before he was hired by Ramsay as a Trail Blazers assistant. He was kept on the staff in Portland by Mike Shuler, whom he replaced as the interim coach to finish the 1988-89 season.
"From his years at Chemeketa, I knew he could coach," Ramsay said. "He has a great sense, especially for the offense. He had a great feel for what would work, what wouldn't, how to organize a team, establish a very good rapport with players. That followed him everywhere he went. Players like playing for Rick.
"He's a competitive guy. He'll be a competitive person as long as he lives. He appears to be kind of laid-back. He's not going to back down from things that he believes in. The appearance he's soft in how he deals with players is not accurate. He's not a volatile guy, but he's going to get players to play the game the way he wants."
After 5 1/2 seasons as an assistant coach and 16 years as a head coach, that has not changed.
"He's one of the best coaches out there, as far as those who haven't won a ring," Drexler said. "And he's still hungry."
• • •
The timing of the Rockets ' coaching vacancy was ideal. Adelman said he needed a season away from coaching and the time to spend with his children — Kathy, Laura, Caitlin, R.J., David and Patrick. Adelman and his wife, Mary Kay, adopted Caitlin and Patrick 14 years ago when Adelman's sister-in-law died in a car crash.
"I was ready to sit out the year," Adelman said. "I got to the point in Sacramento I was worn down with everything that happened. We moved back from Sacramento to Portland. I had a great year. I had two kids coaching, the others working there, and one playing. We had a good year getting to know them, getting to know the grandkids.
"Plus, I thought I needed to step away. It wasn't that strange because we were so busy with everything else. But I found when the jobs started opening back up that I got excited about it. Your energy level goes up. You get excited.
"I was pretty comfortable, not doing anything and observing. I was surprised when it did come up. The more I thought about it, the more I wanted to do it. I'm 60 years old, and I want to do it one more time. Right now is the time for me to do this. When you get an opportunity like this, it was perfect."
The timing was right, he said, for all the right reasons — family and basketball. This will be the Adelmans' first empty-nest year, and the Rockets, with a veteran team, wanted an experienced coach. Adelman needed a team ready to compete for more.
"It's a really good opportunity to have a really good team and have a shot," he said. "Everybody wants to win a championship. I think this is a great opportunity for me.
"My wife will be coming; they're all going to be coming. It's different, but I think it will be fun. Our lives will be full."
Adelman's life back in sync
Rockets coach says basketball, family make his world go round
To Rick Adelman, it has always been about basketball and family.
Basketball is family. Family is basketball.
There might be other interests — a little golf, maybe an occasional novel. But they never really distract from the thing that matters most.
For a year, Adelman divided that one thing into distinct parts. It was a good a year, but it wasn't the same. It couldn't last. He returned to Portland, spent time with his six children and six grandchildren, and watched the NBA from the sofa and the stands while waiting for the right opportunity to bring him back to the bench.
When the opportunity to coach the Rockets came along, he jumped quickly and put the two most important parts of his life back together.
"They're so involved with basketball, I think the most excited were my kids when they found out about the job," said Adelman, who arrived in Houston on Wednesday to begin final preparations for training camp that begins next week. "There was no one for them to watch last year, no one to root for.
"They've all been involved in the game — playing it, coaching it, working camps. Basketball and my family, it's really what takes up our time. Those are the two areas of my life.
"It fills it up."
• • •
Adelman found his reputation, or the limits of it, amusing in its simplicity. Ask about his interests and you hear about a flowing offense. Ask about personality, you get relationships with players. Hobbies? You get basketball. Style? You get coaching.
He has been an NBA coach for 16 years and a player for seven, but away from the court he left the footprint of a hummingbird.
Clyde Drexler remembers the manner in which Adelman deals with his players.
"Rick is an outstanding coach," said Drexler, who spent 11 seasons with Adelman in Portland. "He's proven. His winning percentage is pretty darn impressive. I can't say enough about him. He's easygoing, a lot like Rudy Tomjanovich with players. He gets the most out of his players. He is truly a players' coach."
Terry Porter, another former player, recalls Adelman's versatility.
"I think when you look at Rick and what he's done, he's taken different teams and made them winners," said Porter, who was Adelman's point guard in Portland and now is an assistant coach at Detroit. "A lot depends on the team itself. Our team in Portland was more of an up-tempo team, and that's what he did. The Sacramento team was overall a more half-court-execution team that did go up and down a little bit.
"I just think that players are going to enjoy playing for him. He's going to give them freedom, but he's also going to make them accountable for things that they have to get done. I don't think he's ever had quite the post presence that he'll have in Houston with Yao (Ming). We had some good centers in Portland, like a (Kevin) Duckworth, who was very solid, averaged 18 points. Then he obviously had Chris (Webber) and Vlade (Divac) in Sac. But I just think they're going to enjoy what he brings. It will be interesting to see how he's going to have those guys play."
Even Geoff Petrie, a teammate and roommate in Portland and Adelman's neighbor and general manager in Sacramento, focuses on basketball when talking about Adelman.
"He's a proven winner," Petrie said. "You're going to get a coach who really understands how to play a free-flowing game. ... His teams are always fun to watch. ... The flip side of that is he gets labeled of not having good defensive teams, but he has had some very good defensive teams at times over the years."
That is all fine for a team looking for a new coach, but now that the Rockets have made their choice, it doesn't reveal much that could not been seen from the stands.
It is not that Adelman was trying to hide in plain sight, obscured by the power and speed of his Trail Blazers teams or the finesse and offensive touch that his Kings displayed.
He is what he appears.
"I think I'm pretty simple," Adelman said. "Obviously, coaching has been my life as far as livelihood. I've been doing it a long time, played a long time. Everything I've done, I've done in basketball."
• • •
Nearly three decades after the Rockets drafted him in the seventh round out of Loyola Marymount, Adelman still is surprised he had a playing career. He played for five teams in seven years — a 6-2 point guard without much of a shot — with a toughness and understanding that helped him hang around and made him an excellent candidate to become a coach.
"I could initiate the offense, pass the ball," Adelman said. "I was amazed I played seven years. When you're looking at players in the NBA and a guy's on a bad team, and they get stats, anybody can do that because I did it. I averaged 13 points one year, and we lost 53 games. I was just a journeyman player. I was a good backup. I was one of those guys right on the bubble.
"I always thought I was going to be a coach, but I thought it would be on the high school level. ... I always wanted to be a coach. I just didn't know how I was going to do it.
"Once I started coaching, I always felt I could do it. I felt I could reach players. I always felt comfortable coaching. Jack Ramsay gave me my first opportunity in the pros. ... We still use a lot of the stuff he used when I was an assistant for him."
Petrie saw that potential at Chemeketa Community College in Salem, Ore., where he joined Adelman's staff as an unpaid assistant.
"I would give him suggestions; they never worked," Petrie said. "His were always better. He committed himself to coaching and learning about it."
Adelman was 141-39 in six seasons at Chemeketa before he was hired by Ramsay as a Trail Blazers assistant. He was kept on the staff in Portland by Mike Shuler, whom he replaced as the interim coach to finish the 1988-89 season.
"From his years at Chemeketa, I knew he could coach," Ramsay said. "He has a great sense, especially for the offense. He had a great feel for what would work, what wouldn't, how to organize a team, establish a very good rapport with players. That followed him everywhere he went. Players like playing for Rick.
"He's a competitive guy. He'll be a competitive person as long as he lives. He appears to be kind of laid-back. He's not going to back down from things that he believes in. The appearance he's soft in how he deals with players is not accurate. He's not a volatile guy, but he's going to get players to play the game the way he wants."
After 5 1/2 seasons as an assistant coach and 16 years as a head coach, that has not changed.
"He's one of the best coaches out there, as far as those who haven't won a ring," Drexler said. "And he's still hungry."
• • •
The timing of the Rockets ' coaching vacancy was ideal. Adelman said he needed a season away from coaching and the time to spend with his children — Kathy, Laura, Caitlin, R.J., David and Patrick. Adelman and his wife, Mary Kay, adopted Caitlin and Patrick 14 years ago when Adelman's sister-in-law died in a car crash.
"I was ready to sit out the year," Adelman said. "I got to the point in Sacramento I was worn down with everything that happened. We moved back from Sacramento to Portland. I had a great year. I had two kids coaching, the others working there, and one playing. We had a good year getting to know them, getting to know the grandkids.
"Plus, I thought I needed to step away. It wasn't that strange because we were so busy with everything else. But I found when the jobs started opening back up that I got excited about it. Your energy level goes up. You get excited.
"I was pretty comfortable, not doing anything and observing. I was surprised when it did come up. The more I thought about it, the more I wanted to do it. I'm 60 years old, and I want to do it one more time. Right now is the time for me to do this. When you get an opportunity like this, it was perfect."
The timing was right, he said, for all the right reasons — family and basketball. This will be the Adelmans' first empty-nest year, and the Rockets, with a veteran team, wanted an experienced coach. Adelman needed a team ready to compete for more.
"It's a really good opportunity to have a really good team and have a shot," he said. "Everybody wants to win a championship. I think this is a great opportunity for me.
"My wife will be coming; they're all going to be coming. It's different, but I think it will be fun. Our lives will be full."