He led the Detroit Pistons to their first championship in 14 years, and now he’s earned the award named for the bench boss that led them to back to back titles in 1989 and 1990.
Former Pistons coach Larry Brown, who is viewed as one of the all-time great bench bosses, was honored by being named the recipient of the 2021 Chuck Daly Lifetime Achievement Award. Brown also holds the distinction of being the only coach in history to have won both an NBA and NCAA Championship.
“Larry Brown has achieved coaching success at the highest levels of basketball in a career that began in 1965 as an assistant to Dean Smith at the University of North Carolina,” said Indiana Pacers Head Coach and National Basketball Coaches Association President Rick Carlisle. “Not only is he a Hall of Famer and the only coach to have won an NBA and NCAA Championship, he has won multiple Olympic medals and numerous Coach of the Year Awards. Larry’s ‘Coaching Tree’ is ridiculously wide-ranging and includes close to fifty current or former Head Coaches. Congratulations to Larry on this well-deserved and prestigious recognition.”
“I am honored to receive the Chuck Daly Lifetime Award for multiple reasons,” said Larry Brown. “Chuck Daly was a great coach and a great person whose work and legacy are appropriately celebrated with this award. To be mentioned in the same conversation with the previous recipients is truly humbling. I want to thank all of the Coaches with whom I coached and those I coached against, so many of whom are great competitors and friends. And thanks to the players I had the good fortune to coach. I am very proud of what my teams accomplished. Lastly, I want to thank the NBA Coaches Association and the Selection Committee for this honor.”
Among Brown’s accolades include Brown winning an NBA Championship (Detroit Pistons, 2004), an NCAA National Championship (Kansas, 1988), three ABA Coach of the Year Awards (Carolina Cougars, 1972-73; Denver Nuggets, 1974-75; Denver Nuggets, 1975-76), an NBA Coach of the Year Award (Philadelphia, 2001), an NCAA Coach of the Year Award (Kansas, 1988), a Big Eight Coach of the Year Award (Kansas, 1986), and was a ten-time NBA Coach of the Month.
– – Quotes via NBA.com Link – –
