Rick Adelman announces retirement
MINNEAPOLIS -- Timberwolves coach Rick Adelman has decided to retire after 23 seasons in the NBA. He will continue working for the franchise in a consulting role, the team announced.
Adelman says he'll move back to Portland to spend time with family. Says his grand kids are be there and will keep him busy #Twolves
- Timberwolves PR (@Twolves_PR) April 21, 2014The decision brings to an end to a celebrated coaching career that includes 1,042 victories, eighth on the NBA's career list. Adelman coached Western Conference powers in Portland and Sacramento and also had stops in Golden State and Houston. He just completed the third season of a four-year deal with Minnesota that he signed in 2011. There was a mutual option for the final year of the deal.
"I think it's time for me to step aside," Adelman said. "When I came here, we really tried to see if we could turn some things around and we made some strides. Not as much as we would have liked, but I think it's time for me to step aside and let someone else come in with this group. We're not that far away.
"I really enjoyed my time here. I thank [owner] Glen [Taylor] so much. He's the best owner I've ever been around. Not only as an owner, but as a person and everything. It's been an enjoyable experience, but I'm ready and my wife's ready to move on to another phase. We're looking forward to that."
ESPN.com's Marc Stein reported in March that Minnesota would have Iowa State coach Fred Hoiberg -- a former Wolves player and executive -- and Michigan State coach Tom Izzo (who's close to president Flip Saunders) high on their list of potential successors.
Sources told ESPN.com's Jeff Goodman that Izzo is intrigued by the opening.
The possibility also remains that Saunders -- who is the last coach to take the Wolves to the playoffs, way back in 2004 -- will add coaching to his executive duties. After stints coaching in Detroit and Washington, Saunders returned to the Wolves' organization this past May as president of basketball operations and minority owner.
Also emerging as a target in the search is Billy Donovan. NBA coaching sources told ESPN.com that the Wolves have Donovan prominent in their thoughts as they compile a list of potential successors.
After missing the playoffs for the third straight season, and with a wife who is being treated for seizure disorders, Adelman decided it was time to walk away from one of the most quietly influential coaching careers in NBA history.
"On behalf of the Minnesota Timberwolves, I would like to thank Rick for all he has done for our organization," said Taylor. "Under Rick's leadership, our team has improved each of the past three seasons. It has been a pleasure getting to know Rick and his wife Mary Kay, and I wish them the best in retirement."
The introverted coach never received his due while working below the radar for most of his career, but his impact on the league as an offensive innovator is unquestioned.
"I think every coach in this league has taken some of his concepts," Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau said. "You can see every team has part of his corner series as part of their offense."
Adelman won at least 50 games in a season 11 times in his career, helped to turn around the Trail Blazers in the late 1980s and then built a power in Sacramento 10 years later. He had more modest success with Houston and Minnesota, but walks away with his fingerprints all over the league.
"He's been what I call a lifer," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. "He's been in several different programs, made them all better, done a heck of a job wherever he's gone, has always been underrated and has been a guy that players have really enjoyed playing for. That's who he is."
While with the Kings, Adelman worked with assistant and former Princeton coach Pete Carril to fine-tune his famed "corner" offense, a precision system that maximized the talents of big men Chris Webber, Vlade Divac and Brad Miller, all of whom were gifted passers from the elbow of the lane.
"A lot of people have run the elbow action, but no one's run it like him," Clippers coach Doc Rivers said. "He started doing it in Portland and then in Sac; everywhere he's gone he's won, for the most part. He's one of the better coaches that we've ever had in the league and a lot of people don't realize that. And I think that's too bad. But he's been good for the game. He's brought a lot to the game."
"I've stolen from him, very honestly," Popovich said.
Adelman's career started reluctantly in 1988, when he took over the Trail Blazers after Mike Schuler was fired during the season. The following season, in his first full year as an NBA head coach, Adelman led the Blazers to the NBA Finals, where they lost to the Detroit Pistons.
He had the Blazers back in the Finals in 1992, but they lost to Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls.
Adelman turned the Kings from perennial losers into one of the most entertaining and successful teams in the West from 1998-2004, and the controversial loss to the Los Angeles Lakers in the Western Conference in 2002 haunts him to this day.
"In terms of the impact he's had on the league, you just check out everybody's playbook," said Heat coach Erik Spoelstra, who caught the coaching bug while watching Adelman's Portland teams when he was a college point guard at the University of Portland. "Everybody has at least some version or piece of his offense in their playbook. And most teams call it Sacramento. He was and has been an incredible innovator in this game."
Adelman had a two-year stop in with the Warriors from 1995-97, where he learned hard lessons about sticking to what he believed in and not letting others influence his approach, and that hardened philosophy served him well the rest of his career.
With a Rockets team missing its two biggest stars in Tracy McGrady and Yao Ming, Adelman used 6-foot-6 Chuck Hayes at center and took the heavily favored Lakers to seven games in the Western Conference semifinals in 2009.
His Timberwolves teams suffered a litany of injuries as well, but he still did manage to take a team that had combined for 32 wins in the two years before his hiring and get them to .500 three years later.
Adelman's final season in Minnesota was a frustrating one, with Nikola Pekovic missing 28 games, Chase Budinger never fully healthy after offseason knee surgery and a team that beat the Thunder, Heat, Spurs, Grizzlies, Rockets and Pacers but also lost to the Kings, Magic and Jazz. They still finished 40-42, with nine more victories than last season.
"Coach Adelman is truly one of the greatest coaches in our game's history, and he has helped restore credibility and respectability to the Timberwolves franchise through what he stands for both on and off the court," said Saunders. "He has impacted the NBA with his offensive vision and influenced the philosophies of many coaches in the league."
Now the team heads into a precarious summer, with Saunders needing to find the right coach and make the right personnel moves to convince All-Star power forward Kevin Love, who can opt out of his contract after next season, to stick around for the long haul.
Even as Adelman prepares to ride off into the sunset to spend more time with his beloved wife Mary Kay and eight grandchildren, his influence will remain in the league he called home for 25 years.
Rivers still remembers a particular play Adelman ran when he coached the Kings.
"We copied it and won a game with it in Boston and called it Adelman," Rivers said. "It was great."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
