The Portland Trail Blazers family got sad news this week upon the passing of legendary head coach Rick Adelman at the age of 79. Adelman coached the Blazers between 1988 and 1994, assigned to the post after six years as an assistant under coaches Jack Ramsay and Mike Schuler. He compiled a 445-291 regular-season record, making him the third-winningest coach in franchise history by volume of victories, best ever by winning percentage. He also had more playoffs wins and a better playoffs winning percentage than
any other Blazers coach before or since.
Losing the revered figure prompted this question in the Blazer’s Edge Mailbag:
Dave,
You haven’t written anything about Rick Adleman yet. You usually talk about the death of prominent figures. Is there a reason you haven’t shared thoughts about Rick? I don’t want to push but I don’t want to miss it either.
Stuart
Yes, there’s kind of a reason. This is one I had to sit with for a while. I didn’t know Coach Adelman personally. He was such a huge figure in the early years of my Blazers fandom that he felt almost like family, in that odd sense of being acquainted with (and invested in) what a public figure does. I needed a few days to process the news. It’s the same feeling of loss or mortality as returning to your high school after several years and realizing that none of the teachers are there anymore. That has way more to do with me than Rick, but you get the idea.
For a fuller retrospective of how Coach Adelman was important to the team and franchise, you can find our recap of his contributions here. For now, I’m just going to share some stream-of-consciousness impressions.
I think that part of Adelman’s gift was that he seemed so approachable, relatable, almost fatherly. He was competent, straightforward, yet somehow comforting. As I said, I never knew him personally, but people he interacted with inevitably described him as a stand-up guy. The enduring impression is “dad teaching you how to drive”. He’s going to be tough, stern, maybe even loud sometimes, but this dude is looking out for you and has a vested interest in your success. Whatever he does is for a purpose, a reason that goes far beyond his own ego or self-interest. Adelman wasn’t just a human being, but a really decent one. That’s not always true in the NBA, even among coaches with experience and wisdom.
Adelman’s players seemed to respond to his approach. Ramsay was a system guy, set in his ways and bounded by his own success. He wasn’t wrong in his approach…demonstrably and absolutely correct, in fact. But his game was tuned to a past era, one which his players and the game overflowed. Schuler was a meticulous, detail-oriented taskmaster, the parochial school nun with a yardstick in her hand. He was also correct in his way—a Coach of the Year winner—but too restrictive and authoritarian for his charges.
Adelman came in with a different approach. He coached in a player-centric style. Every head coach makes noise about maximizing the gifts of his players. Adelman actually did it. He looked at Clyde Drexler and Jerome Kersey and opened up the floor. He gave Drexler and Terry Porter permission to create. After trying to instill in Kevin Duckworth the fundamentals of a large-bodied, seven-foot pivot, Adelman allowed him to drift to the midrange and shoot face-up shots. He adapted veteran Danny Ainge into the fold while nurturing the unique talents of Cliff Robinson into three different positions…a development all but unheard of in that era.
The criticisms leveled against Adelman were clear. “He just rolls the ball out and lets the players take control. He doesn’t coach defense, just wild offense.” The results bely those claims. Reaching the NBA Finals in 1990 and 1992 with a 63-win season sandwiched in between speaks for itself, but the Trail Blazers didn’t just win games under Rick. They played amazing basketball. During those three peak seasons they ranked 3rd or 4th in the entire NBA…in defense. They were first or second in rebounding, top ten in assists, and kept their turnovers under control despite a fast-paced, court-reading style. The Top-10 offense they were so famous for was almost an afterthought. So much for criticism.
The critiques came heavy not because Adelman was bad at his job, but because he was ahead of his time. Put the ball in the hands of scorers, let them create and read, set picks on- and off-ball to free up passing opportunities, charge hard and take every fastbreak opportunity you can get, don’t worry about taking outside shots if the look is open, and help each other on defense with interchangeable parts…every bit of this makes you go, “DUH!” in 2026. 95% of NBA teams play exactly this way nowadays. Adelman was in the first wave of what would become new-millennium basketball. The fact that he did it 36 years ago, with a team that was otherwise mediocre—and then did it again successfully with the Sacramento Kings—speaks volumes about his coaching ability. The fairly-quiet, decent-and-solid guy whom everyone thought was just getting along ended up helping to change the league.
He never said it with words. He didn’t have to. By performance alone, Rick Adelman’s teams did exactly what the best Portland Trail Blazers standouts have always done: stare the higher-profile neighbors right in the eye and show them where they can stuff it.
Now circle back to where we started. By all accounts, we’re talking about an amazing human being, one who also stepped up and helped revolutionize the culture of his team and the tenor of the sport. Literally what more could you ask?
Others will tell, and have told, better and more personal stories: family, friends, people who knew him and worked with him. But from the perspective of someone who experienced the public side of Rick Adelman, he was simply one of the best examples of what we’re supposed to be about in this world, in our work, and in our communities. He was a part of so many amazing moments that made Portland players, and their fans, everything they could be. That’s an amazing legacy, something to be grateful for and live up to. That’s how I’ll remember Rick Adelman, with gratitude and admiration.
Thanks for the question! You can always send yours to blazersub@gmail.com and we’ll try to answer as many as possible!
