| rdfs:comment | - Passed at age 78 in 2009 in Jupiter, Fla. The Pistons announced in March 2009 that the Hall of Fame coach had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and was undergoing treatment. He was renowned for his ability to create harmony out of diverse personalities at all levels of the game, whether they were Ivy Leaguers at Pennsylvania, Dream Teamers Michael Jordan and Charles Barkley, or Pistons as dissimilar as Dennis Rodman and Joe Dumars. "It's a players' league. They allow you to coach them or they don't," Mr. Daly once said. "Once they stop allowing you to coach, you're on your way out."
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| abstract | - Passed at age 78 in 2009 in Jupiter, Fla. The Pistons announced in March 2009 that the Hall of Fame coach had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and was undergoing treatment. He was renowned for his ability to create harmony out of diverse personalities at all levels of the game, whether they were Ivy Leaguers at Pennsylvania, Dream Teamers Michael Jordan and Charles Barkley, or Pistons as dissimilar as Dennis Rodman and Joe Dumars. "It's a players' league. They allow you to coach them or they don't," Mr. Daly once said. "Once they stop allowing you to coach, you're on your way out." Mr. Daly was voted one of the 10 greatest coaches of the NBA's first half-century in 1996, two years after being inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame. He was the first coach to win both an NBA title and Olympic gold. Mr. Daly grew up in Kane, McKean County, about 130 miles northeast of Pittsburgh, where he was a star athlete at Kane High School. He played basketball and graduated from Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania before going into the Army. It was after his discharge from the military that he accepted his first head coaching position -- at Punxsutawney High School. Mr. Daly coached there from 1955-62.
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