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Haslem knows Adebayo is coming for his Heat record: ‘He has definitely been letting me know'

Haslem knows Adebayo is coming for his Heat record: ‘He has definitely been letting me know'

Miami Herald07-03-2025

When Bam Adebayo moves up on a list in the Miami Heat's record book or sets a Heat record, he likes to make sure Udonis Haslem knows about it. So it was not a surprise that Adebayo walked into his postgame news conference Monday while speaking to Haslem on a FaceTime call after breaking Rony Seikaly's record for the most double-double performances in franchise history.
'He's been texting me every spot,' Haslem said. 'Every spot he comes up the chain, he texts me.'
Adebayo now has Haslem's record on his radar after recently passing Alonzo Mourning to move into sole possession of second place on the Heat's all-time rebounding list.
Adebayo, 27, enters Friday night's matchup against the Minnesota Timberwolves at Kaseya Center with 4,864 rebounds since being drafted by the Heat in 2017. That puts Adebayo just 927 rebounds behind Haslem's franchise record of 5,791 rebounds in a Heat uniform.
'When I was playing, every time I got one rebound, I used to look at him and say: 'That's another record,'' said Haslem, who retired after 20 NBA seasons at the end of the 2022-2023 season. 'So he has definitely been letting me know that he's creeping up, that he's going to catch me. But my response is, 'Not this year.''
Haslem is right. Adebayo won't break Haslem's record this year.
At Adebayo's current pace (averaging 10 rebounds per game this season), he needs about 93 regular-season games to pass Haslem and become the Heat's all-time leading rebounder. With just 21 games left to play this regular season (including Friday's matchup against the Timberwolves), that could have Adebayo breaking Haslem's record as soon as late next season.
'Bam has been telling me since Day 1 that he was going to break my rebounding record,' Haslem said. 'So that has been the goal, that has been the expectation. So I'm not surprised. But I'm happy for him, man. He's been the work in, he's made himself a hell of a two-way player — not just a defensive guy, but a guy who can score the ball. He's still growing into his own as a leader.'
As the only undrafted player in NBA history to currently be the all-time leading rebounder for a franchise, Haslem won't be happy to lose that title. But the fact that Adebayo is the one on track to take it from him makes it easier.
'If I could pick anybody to break my record, it would be him,' said Haslem, who became a mentor for Adebayo and developed a close friendship with Adebayo during their six seasons as Heat teammates. 'That's not easy to say because being an undrafted kid from Miami, I'm very prideful of the things that I've been able to accomplish. But being that it's Bam, for me that's almost like a nephew or a son in some ways breaking my record. So for me, it's going to be a lot of emotions, but all good things. I love to see people's hard work pay off.'
So, will watching Adebayo become the Heat's all-time leading rebounder one day be bittersweet for Haslem?
'The bitter part, not really,' Haslem said. 'Like I said, I'm very prideful. But it's Bam. He's somebody I've taken a liking to and I've created a relationship with outside of the game of basketball. I know his mom, I know his family. We spend a lot of time together just talking about life and the kind of man that he wants to be and the kind of man that I think he can be and should be, along with the basketball player that I think he's capable of being. So for me, it would be one thing if it was somebody who I didn't have a relationship with. But it's almost like a nephew or a son or a younger brother. So it will still feel like it's in the family. He's cut from the same cloth as me.'
Haslem already has his No. 40 jersey retired by the Heat. Adebayo, who took over as Heat captain when Haslem retired, is also on a path that could result in a Heat jersey retirement ceremony down the road.
Adebayo, who is in his eighth NBA season and is under contract with the Heat through the 2028-29 season when he will be 31 years old, is producing at a pace that would make him one of the greatest Heat players ever if he spends all or most of his career with the organization.
Along with already establishing himself as the Heat's all-time leader for double-doubles and putting himself in position to soon become the Heat's all-time leading rebounder, Adebayo is also on track to finish among the Heat's all-time career leaders in categories like two-point field goals made, free throws made, assists, steals, points and others.
But the next big step for Adebayo to be considered a Heat great is to win his first NBA championship. Adebayo has already helped lead the Heat to three Eastern Conference finals appearances and two NBA Finals appearances during his career, but he has not been able to win an NBA title yet.
'You definitely got to win one and that's what I'm always going to challenge Bam to do is to lead his team to a championship and bring that ring back home,' Haslem said when asked if Adebayo could end up as one of the best Heat players ever. 'But he's right there. He's right on the cusp of being on the Mount Rushmore of Heat players. The only thing he needs to do is cross the championship bridge. I know it keeps him up at night and I know he's working on that. That's the goal. These individual accolades, I'm sure he appreciates it and it's fun for us to go back and forth and have barbershop talk about. But ultimately, he wants to be a champion.'
With Adebayo getting closer to becoming the Heat's all-time leading rebounder, Haslem is already pushing rookie Kel'el Ware to go after Adebayo's eventual team rebounding record.
'I'm already priming the pump because I already told Kel'el: 'Now you go break his record,'' Haslem said. 'This is how it goes. So I already told Kel'el and Bam hasn't even broken my record yet. But I told Kel'el: 'You need to break his record.' Because I know Bam is going to break it and now you're the next man up.'

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Doyel: After pulling rabbit from Game 1 hat, Tyrese Haliburton disappeared much of Game 2
Doyel: After pulling rabbit from Game 1 hat, Tyrese Haliburton disappeared much of Game 2

Indianapolis Star

timean hour ago

  • Indianapolis Star

Doyel: After pulling rabbit from Game 1 hat, Tyrese Haliburton disappeared much of Game 2

OKLAHOMA CITY – This is the Tyrese Haliburton experience: Sometimes, most of the time, he pulls a rabbit out of a hat. But sometimes, other times, he makes himself disappear. Don't try to understand it, because he doesn't. If he did, you think this would happen? Those first three-plus quarters of the Indiana Pacers' 123-107 loss to Oklahoma City in Game 2 of the 2025 NBA Finals? 'I have to do a better job of figuring out where I can be better,' the Pacers All-Star guard said after the Thunder evened the series at 1-1, with the NBA Finals shifting to Gainbridge Fieldhouse this week for Game 3 and Game 4. Through those first 39 minutes Sunday, Haliburton was all but invisible: five points, three rebounds, five assists, five turnovers. The Thunder led 98-76, and this game was over. Yes, even against the Pacers, who have made the impossible look routine during these playoffs — winning a combination of four games, one in each series, that as a parlay would've had odds of 1 in 17 billion. In those four wins, late-game comebacks against the Bucks, Cavaliers, Knicks and then Thunder in Game 1 on Thursday, Haliburton hit the key shot: game-winners against Milwaukee, Cleveland and Oklahoma City, and a buzzer-beater to force overtime at New York. That's the magic of Haliburton, the way he makes the hardest shots look easy, over and over. In shots to tie the score or take the lead in the final five seconds of these 2025 NBA playoffs, the rest of the league is a combined 3-for-16. Haliburton is 4-for-4. Magical. And it keeps happening. Counting the regular season, in the game's final two minutes on shots to tie or take the lead, Haliburton is 13-for-15. These aren't free throws, but contested field goals against NBA defenses desperate to stop him. And he's 13-for-15? Abracadabra! But every so often, and if there's a trend, it's this — it happens after one of his special games — Haliburton disappears. Poof. But this game Sunday night, Game 2 of these NBA Finals, this was different than the disappearances that have come before. And there haven't been that many disappearances by Haliburton. It's fair to note that. It's also fair to note that, as the unquestioned star of this team, he can't afford to disappear … ever. And most NBA stars don't disappear. Put it like this: After Game 2, when OKC's Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 34 points for his 13th game with at least 30 points in these playoffs — the most since Giannis Antetokounmpo had 13 such games in 2021 – Pacers coach Rick Carlisle noted SGA's metronomic consistency. 'Shai,' Carlisle said, 'you can mark down 34 points before they even get on the plane.' Haliburton, you can't do that. There was Game 2 in the Eastern Conference semifinals against Cleveland, when he had four points and five assists after his buzzer-beater in Game 1. And there was Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Finals against New York, when he had eight points, two rebounds and six assists after his 32-12-and-15 masterpiece of a triple-double in Game 4. Then came Sunday night in OKC, when Haliburton followed his latest game-winner from Game 1 by fizzling for the first 39 minutes as Game 2 got so far away, not even the Pacers could come back. With about 5½ minutes left, Carlisle waved the surrender flag by sending rookie Johnny Furphy to the scorer's table to replace Haliburton. But as I said, this was different from Haliburton's handful of disappearances that came before. Because after the 39-minute mark, with the Pacers down 22, with the game over, Haliburton went from fizzling to sizzling. You can say it doesn't matter, but did you see what OKC coach Mark Daigneault did? Seemed to matter to him. It starts for Haliburton with a baseline floater with 9:30 left. The Pacers are within 20. What does it matter, right? For most of 39 minutes, the Thunder have assigned NBA All-Defensive team ace Luguentz Dort to Haliburton. Dort is a menace, a tenacious physical marvel who goes 6-4, 220 pounds with the quick feet of someone much smaller. And Dort is following Haliburton for most of 94 feet, just getting in his face, his space, being physical and daring officials to blow their whistle on a night the tweets go mostly silent. Twenty-seven seconds later, Haliburton dribbles Dort into a 17-footer. It goes down, and now Haliburton has found something. Next time down he has the ball, hunting the rim, getting a screen and going to the basket for a dunk. Then he dribbles into a 30-footer, a 3-pointer. He has now made four straight shots and scored nine consecutive points for the Pacers, all in about 90 seconds, but the Pacers still trail by 19 — they can't stop anybody — and when Haliburton misses a 3-pointer it appears as if the spell is over. Here comes Furphy, walking to the scorer's table. Only now, it's about to get silly. Pacers guard T.J. McConnell is driving the baseline, like he does, and looking for a teammate, as he does, and spotting Haliburton behind him. McConnell throws it that way and Haliburton chases down the ball in the corner before launching a running 3-pointer as he heads out of bounds. The shot falls. In about an hour, long after Paycom Center has emptied out, Haliburton will sit down with reporters and talk about some things, mainly how poorly he played, but he dropped in this fascinating little nugget about those 12 points he scored in about five minutes of the fourth quarter. 'When you're down by so much,' he was saying, 'you can choose to just take the game for (the blowout) it is and just be done — or try to continue to learn different things.' Haliburton was learning, and Daigneault was watching. He sees what's happening. This game has been over for some time, but he's already planning for Game 3. He sees Haliburton heating up, getting that confidence that comes when he's having one of those magical nights, and he wants no part of this. Daigneault calls timeout, just to stop the clock. Just so Furphy can come in, and Haliburton can go out. Still think that sizzling stretch, in a blowout loss, doesn't matter? Not so sure. Carlisle wasn't having any discussion about Tyrese Haliburton's first 39 minutes. That's when the game got away from the Pacers, but is that why? Someone asks Carlisle about Haliburton, who 'struggled to get engaged.' Carlisle doesn't want to hear it. 'There's a lot more to the game than just scoring,' he said. 'Everybody's got to do more. It starts with the best players. It starts with, you know, Tyrese and Pascal (Siakam, 15 points) and Myles (Turner, 16 points), and then it goes from there. 'People shouldn't just look at (Haliburton's) points and assists and judge how he played, or judge how any of our guys played just on that. That's just not — that's not how our team is built. I mean, we are an ecosystem that has to function together. We've got to score enough points to win the game, but who gets them and how they get them, not important.' Was he speaking 100% truth, or was Carlisle sending a message to Haliburton — not your fault — as he, like Daigneault earlier in the evening, was looking ahead to Game 3 on Wednesday night? Only Carlisle knows, but everyone was acknowledging this: The Pacers, for the second consecutive game, didn't come out with enough force, attitude, disposition, care — buzzwords for effort, but don't say that word, people get offended! The Pacers trailed by double figures (25-15) in the first quarter of Game 1, and were down 57-45 at halftime, and the same thing basically happened in Game 2: They trailed by double figures early in the second quarter (33-23), and then the game got ugly. The Thunder led 52-29 before halftime, and the Pacers never got closer than 13. 'Another bad first half,' Carlisle said, and no need to wonder if this was 100% truth or message-sending, because it was both. 'Obviously it was a big problem.' Haliburton was ineffective in the first half on both nights. Game 1: Six points, three assists, three turnovers. Game 2: Three points, three assists, two turnovers. 'I think I've had two really poor first halves,' Haliburton said after Game 2. 'I just have to figure out how to be better earlier in games.' Haliburton's game-winner in Game 1 overshadowed a game where he had 14 points and six assists, well below his season averages of 18.6 ppg and 9.2 apg, and his hot fourth quarter in Game 2 allowed him to finish with 17 points on a night where, as I said, it was more fizzle than sizzle: 17 points, three rebounds, six assists and five turnovers, tied for his most through 18 playoff games. 'I had some really dumb turnovers tonight,' Haliburton said. 'They're kind of showing like a soft blitz, sometimes a full blitz. They're giving me different looks.' It can be confusing, especially against a physical and aggressive menace like Lu Dort, but Haliburton seemed to figure something out there in the fourth quarter. It could bode well for the Pacers, who come back to Downtown Indianapolis having stolen homecourt advantage from the heavily favored Thunder thanks to that Game 1 victory. If Haliburton figured something out, and it carries over to Game 3, maybe we get this: Abracadabra! If not, if the poor starts carry over, if the Thunder's overall defensive domination continues, we could get this: Poof. Find IndyStar columnist Gregg Doyel on Threads, or on BlueSky and Twitter at @GreggDoyelStar, or at Subscribe to the free weekly Doyel on Demand newsletter.

Doyel: After pulling rabbit from Game 1 hat, Tyrese Haliburton disappeared much of Game 2
Doyel: After pulling rabbit from Game 1 hat, Tyrese Haliburton disappeared much of Game 2

Indianapolis Star

timean hour ago

  • Indianapolis Star

Doyel: After pulling rabbit from Game 1 hat, Tyrese Haliburton disappeared much of Game 2

OKLAHOMA CITY – This is the Tyrese Haliburton experience: Sometimes, most of the time, he pulls a rabbit out of a hat. But sometimes, other times, he makes himself disappear. Don't try to understand it, because he doesn't. If he did, you think this would happen? Those first three-plus quarters of the Indiana Pacers' 123-107 loss to Oklahoma City in Game 2 of the 2025 NBA Finals? 'I have to do a better job of figuring out where I can be better,' the Pacers All-Star guard said after the Thunder evened the series at 1-1, with the NBA Finals shifting to Gainbridge Fieldhouse this week for Game 3 and Game 4. Through those first 39 minutes Sunday, Haliburton was all but invisible: five points, three rebounds, five assists, five turnovers. The Thunder led 98-76, and this game was over. Yes, even against the Pacers, who have made the impossible look routine during these playoffs — winning a combination of four games, one in each series, that as a parlay would've had odds of 1 in 17 billion. In those four wins, late-game comebacks against the Bucks, Cavaliers, Knicks and then Thunder in Game 1 on Thursday, Haliburton hit the key shot: game-winners against Milwaukee, Cleveland and Oklahoma City, and a buzzer-beater to force overtime at New York. That's the magic of Haliburton, the way he makes the hardest shots look easy, over and over. In shots to tie the score or take the lead in the final five seconds of these 2025 NBA playoffs, the rest of the league is a combined 3-for-16. Haliburton is 4-for-4. Magical. And it keeps happening. Counting the regular season, in the game's final two minutes on shots to tie or take the lead, Haliburton is 13-for-15. These aren't free throws, but contested field goals against NBA defenses desperate to stop him. And he's 13-for-15? Abracadabra! But every so often, and if there's a trend, it's this — it happens after one of his special games — Haliburton disappears. Poof. But this game Sunday night, Game 2 of these NBA Finals, this was different than the disappearances that have come before. And there haven't been that many disappearances by Haliburton. It's fair to note that. It's also fair to note that, as the unquestioned star of this team, he can't afford to disappear … ever. And most NBA stars don't disappear. Put it like this: After Game 2, when OKC's Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 34 points for his 13th game with at least 30 points in these playoffs — the most since Giannis Antetokounmpo had 13 such games in 2021 – Pacers coach Rick Carlisle noted SGA's metronomic consistency. 'Shai,' Carlisle said, 'you can mark down 34 points before they even get on the plane.' Haliburton, you can't do that. There was Game 2 in the Eastern Conference semifinals against Cleveland, when he had four points and five assists after his buzzer-beater in Game 1. And there was Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Finals against New York, when he had eight points, two rebounds and six assists after his 32-12-and-15 masterpiece of a triple-double in Game 4. Then came Sunday night in OKC, when Haliburton followed his latest game-winner from Game 1 by fizzling for the first 39 minutes as Game 2 got so far away, not even the Pacers could come back. With about 5½ minutes left, Carlisle waved the surrender flag by sending rookie Johnny Furphy to the scorer's table to replace Haliburton. But as I said, this was different from Haliburton's handful of disappearances that came before. Because after the 39-minute mark, with the Pacers down 22, with the game over, Haliburton went from fizzling to sizzling. You can say it doesn't matter, but did you see what OKC coach Mark Daigneault did? Seemed to matter to him. It starts for Haliburton with a baseline floater with 9:30 left. The Pacers are within 20. What does it matter, right? For most of 39 minutes, the Thunder have assigned NBA All-Defensive team ace Luguentz Dort to Haliburton. Dort is a menace, a tenacious physical marvel who goes 6-4, 220 pounds with the quick feet of someone much smaller. And Dort is following Haliburton for most of 94 feet, just getting in his face, his space, being physical and daring officials to blow their whistle on a night the tweets go mostly silent. Twenty-seven seconds later, Haliburton dribbles Dort into a 17-footer. It goes down, and now Haliburton has found something. Next time down he has the ball, hunting the rim, getting a screen and going to the basket for a dunk. Then he dribbles into a 30-footer, a 3-pointer. He has now made four straight shots and scored nine consecutive points for the Pacers, all in about 90 seconds, but the Pacers still trail by 19 — they can't stop anybody — and when Haliburton misses a 3-pointer it appears as if the spell is over. Here comes Furphy, walking to the scorer's table. Only now, it's about to get silly. Pacers guard T.J. McConnell is driving the baseline, like he does, and looking for a teammate, as he does, and spotting Haliburton behind him. McConnell throws it that way and Haliburton chases down the ball in the corner before launching a running 3-pointer as he heads out of bounds. The shot falls. In about an hour, long after Paycom Center has emptied out, Haliburton will sit down with reporters and talk about some things, mainly how poorly he played, but he dropped in this fascinating little nugget about those 12 points he scored in about five minutes of the fourth quarter. 'When you're down by so much,' he was saying, 'you can choose to just take the game for (the blowout) it is and just be done — or try to continue to learn different things.' Haliburton was learning, and Daigneault was watching. He sees what's happening. This game has been over for some time, but he's already planning for Game 3. He sees Haliburton heating up, getting that confidence that comes when he's having one of those magical nights, and he wants no part of this. Daigneault calls timeout, just to stop the clock. Just so Furphy can come in, and Haliburton can go out. Still think that sizzling stretch, in a blowout loss, doesn't matter? Not so sure. Carlisle wasn't having any discussion about Tyrese Haliburton's first 39 minutes. That's when the game got away from the Pacers, but is that why? Someone asks Carlisle about Haliburton, who 'struggled to get engaged.' Carlisle doesn't want to hear it. 'There's a lot more to the game than just scoring,' he said. 'Everybody's got to do more. It starts with the best players. It starts with, you know, Tyrese and Pascal (Siakam, 15 points) and Myles (Turner, 16 points), and then it goes from there. 'People shouldn't just look at (Haliburton's) points and assists and judge how he played, or judge how any of our guys played just on that. That's just not — that's not how our team is built. I mean, we are an ecosystem that has to function together. We've got to score enough points to win the game, but who gets them and how they get them, not important.' Was he speaking 100% truth, or was Carlisle sending a message to Haliburton — not your fault — as he, like Daigneault earlier in the evening, was looking ahead to Game 3 on Wednesday night? Only Carlisle knows, but everyone was acknowledging this: The Pacers, for the second consecutive game, didn't come out with enough force, attitude, disposition, care — buzzwords for effort, but don't say that word, people get offended! The Pacers trailed by double figures (25-15) in the first quarter of Game 1, and were down 57-45 at halftime, and the same thing basically happened in Game 2: They trailed by double figures early in the second quarter (33-23), and then the game got ugly. The Thunder led 52-29 before halftime, and the Pacers never got closer than 13. 'Another bad first half,' Carlisle said, and no need to wonder if this was 100% truth or message-sending, because it was both. 'Obviously it was a big problem.' Haliburton was ineffective in the first half on both nights. Game 1: Six points, three assists, three turnovers. Game 2: Three points, three assists, two turnovers. 'I think I've had two really poor first halves,' Haliburton said after Game 2. 'I just have to figure out how to be better earlier in games.' Haliburton's game-winner in Game 1 overshadowed a game where he had 14 points and six assists, well below his season averages of 18.6 ppg and 9.2 apg, and his hot fourth quarter in Game 2 allowed him to finish with 17 points on a night where, as I said, it was more fizzle than sizzle: 17 points, three rebounds, six assists and five turnovers, tied for his most through 18 playoff games. 'I had some really dumb turnovers tonight,' Haliburton said. 'They're kind of showing like a soft blitz, sometimes a full blitz. They're giving me different looks.' It can be confusing, especially against a physical and aggressive menace like Lu Dort, but Haliburton seemed to figure something out there in the fourth quarter. It could bode well for the Pacers, who come back to Downtown Indianapolis having stolen homecourt advantage from the heavily favored Thunder thanks to that Game 1 victory. If Haliburton figured something out, and it carries over to Game 3, maybe we get this: Abracadabra! If not, if the poor starts carry over, if the Thunder's overall defensive domination continues, we could get this: Poof. Find IndyStar columnist Gregg Doyel on Threads, or on BlueSky and Twitter at @GreggDoyelStar, or at Subscribe to the free weekly Doyel on Demand newsletter.

Hall of Famer Don Nelson selected as this year's winner of Chuck Daly Lifetime Achievement Award

timean hour ago

Hall of Famer Don Nelson selected as this year's winner of Chuck Daly Lifetime Achievement Award

OKLAHOMA CITY -- Don Nelson has been invited to the NBA Finals countless times in recent years, always declining those opportunities. This time, his peers found a way to ensure he couldn't say no. Nelson — a Basketball Hall of Famer and three-time NBA coach of the year — was announced Sunday as this year's recipient of the Chuck Daly Lifetime Achievement Award, presented by the National Basketball Coaches Association. It will be formally given out Sunday night, about an hour before Game 2 of the NBA Finals between the Indiana Pacers and Oklahoma City Thunder. 'History has already reflected Don Nelson's staggering contributions as a cutting-edge innovator and visionary of the NBA game,' said Pacers coach and NBCA President Rick Carlisle. 'Back in the '80s and '90s, he made teams adjust to historic pace, liberal 3-point shooting, inverted offense, and disruptive defensive schemes. All this while establishing himself as one of the most compelling personalities in all of professional sports.' Nelson, 85, retired in 2010 as the NBA's career coaching wins leader with 1,335, just ahead of Lenny Wilkens' 1,332. Nelson kept that top spot for nearly 12 years before now-retired San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich passed him in March 2022. Popovich is part of the committee that selects the Daly award winners. 'One of my best friends in my life," Nelson said of Popovich. "So, I'm really, really proud to be here and to share this award. I made the Hall of Fame in 2012 and this is certainly as important to me as that award was.' Nelson is one of only two coaches in NBA history to have at least 250 wins with three franchises. He got to that mark with Milwaukee, Dallas and Golden State, and also coached New York briefly in his career. Nelson and Daly were close friends. They went head-to-head 41 times as coaches: Nelson's teams went 21-20 in those games. 'Chuck was an absolute genius in all facets of the game and life,' Nelson said. 'I'm glad I had the opportunity to coach against him, learn from him, and benefit from his knowledge. To say that I'm deeply touched to receive an award that bears his name would be an understatement. This is special.' Nelson took teams to the playoffs 18 times as a coach and won five championships as a player with the Boston Celtics. He started coaching in 1976 and what became known as 'Nellie Ball' soon created a buzz with him being generally credited for introducing what is now known as the point forward. His up-tempo offensive ways were probably best on display with Golden State in the 'Run TMC' era featuring Tim Hardaway, Mitch Richmond and Chris Mullin. But his defensive schemes — including cross-matching and even writing the rules on illegal defense at the league's request, he said — should be remembered as well, Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said. 'I do appreciate the fact that he seemed boundless in terms of what he was willing to do, and he wasn't really relying on what was conventional,' Daigneault said. 'So, I have unbelievable respect for him.' The award is in Daly's memory and celebrates his 'integrity, competitive excellence, and tireless promotion of NBA basketball.' Prior recipients are Rudy Tomjanovich (2024), Rick Adelman (2023), Mike Fratello (2022), Larry Brown (2021), Del Harris (2020), Frank Layden (2019), Doug Moe (2018), Al Attles and Hubie Brown (2017), K.C. Jones and Jerry Sloan (2016), Dick Motta (2015), Bernie Bickerstaff (2014), Bill Fitch (2013), Pat Riley (2012), Lenny Wilkens (2011), Jack Ramsay and Tex Winter (2010) and Tommy Heinsohn (2009).

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