BOSTON – When Rick Carlisle telephoned Rudy Tomjanovich to inform him that he had won the Chuck Daly Lifetime Achievement Award, Tomjanovich was
as surprised as anyone.
“The great thing about this award is it came to me out of the blue,” Tomjanovich said Sunday. “I had no idea I was up for this. I happened to be with my son up in Houston when I got the call and Rick started telling me about it.
“I got emotional. My son kept asking, ‘Are you okay? Are you okay?’ Then, (Carlisle) told me what the award stood for, and finally I hung up and I told (my son), ‘No, everything’s great.’ And then I did cry. The reason is, when something like this happens, I’m not thinking about the championships, I’m not thinking about all the good stuff. I’m thinking about the dark days — the days when I doubted myself.”
The Chuck Daly Lifetime Achievement Award honors the memory of Hall of Fame coach Chuck Daly, who set the standard for integrity, competitive excellence and tireless promotion of NBA basketball.
Tomjanovich coached the Houston Rockets to back-to-back world championships in 1994 and ’95, and posted a career 527-416 won-loss record. Tomjanovich coached the Rockets from 1992-2003, and also coached the Los Angeles Lakers during the 2004-05 season.
In addition, Tomjanovich coached the United States to a gold medal in the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Australia. That was a squad that consisted of current Dallas Mavericks coach Jason Kidd.
Carlisle, who is the president of the National Basketball Coaches Association and also coached the Mavs to the 2011 NBA title, presented the award to Tomjanovich.
“Of all the recipients that we’ve had for this award, I don’t think we’ve ever had someone whose profile was so similar to Chuck Daly’s himself,” Carlisle said. “Both Rudy and Chuck were back-to-back NBA championship winners. They both were Olympic gold medalist coaches.
“Interestingly, Rudy one-upped Chuck a little bit. He has a media cooperation award named after him that was established in 2011. And Rudy told me it used to be the Chuck Daly/Rudy Tomjanovich Award, and somehow it just shifted and now it’s only Rudy. So that’s pretty cool.”
X: @DwainPrice
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