David Adelman’s looking at a short summer, ‘but short summers are good’
David Adelman with children LJ and Lennon after Denver’s victory to clinch NBA title (courtesy Kathy Adelman Naro)
Dreams don’t often come true, especially in sports. David Adelman’s did last week, however, when the Denver Nuggets won its first NBA championship in its 47 years in the league.
Adelman, lead assistant to head coach Michael Malone, experienced what winning the last game of a season is like when the Nuggets eliminated the Miami Heat in five games in the NBA Finals.
Denver ended the series at Ball Arena with a 94-89 win on June 12, setting off a city-wide celebration that had Adelman steeped in gratitude and at a loss for words.
“Extremely humbling,” the Jesuit High grad said this week of becoming an NBA champion. “Never in a million years would I have thought I would experience this feeling of completion. It’s so hard to win it all at this level. I have been really blessed to be around the people I was around the last nine months.”
In the moments after the final horn of Game 5, with confetti flying from the rafters and hugs being exchanged like greeting cards all throughout the arena, Adelman’s thoughts turned first to family.
To his wife, Jenny, and children LJ, nine, and Lennon, seven, who were in the arena.
“But also to my siblings,” David said, first mentioning older brother RJ, a former NBA executive who died in a car accident in 2018.
“And my parents (Rick and Mary Kay), and all the years they put in the league,” David said. “The way I look at it, we all won it this one time.”
Rick Adelman coached 31 years in the NBA, 25 as a head coach, won more than 1,000 games and was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame last year. Rick, however, never won an NBA championship.
“This is the first time you did something I never did,” Rick kidded his son during a phone conversation the following day.
Rick and daughter Kathy Naro were both on hand for Game 2 in Denver, during which Rick was given the Chuck Daly Award for meritorious service by the NBA Coaches Association. NBACA officials reached out to David to let him know they’d like him to be part of the presentation during a second-half timeout.
From left, Rick Carlisle, Rick Adelman, David Adelman and NBACA lawyer David Vogel during presentation to Rick of Chuck Daly Award during Game 2 of the NBA Finals (courtesy Kathy Adelman Naro)
“It turned out to be unexpectedly emotional for me,” David said. “I knew that going out to halfcourt, there would be some feelings. The intensity of the moment got to me. We’re coming off a 10-0 run and there’s a timeout and it’s time. I look over and my father is walking out to be rewarded with a great honor that he deserves — it hit me really hard. I had a hard time keeping it together.
“I saw the sturdiness of him as a person walking out there to accept it, done exactly the way it should be done. Surreal. It was one of those moments in life that seemed like it should be in a reality show, or a Kevin Costner movie.”
Ironically, the Nuggets fell to Miami 111-108 in Game 2, their only loss in the series.
“It figured,” David said with a laugh. “We were 16-1 in the playoffs this year when my family members (from Portland) weren’t there and 0-3 when they were.”
The day after Game 5 featured a championship parade that left Adelman in awe. His wife and children rode on the float along with families of Nuggets’ assistants Ryan Saunders and Popeye Jones.
“One of the coolest things I’ve ever been a part of,” Adelman said. “I didn’t know what to expect. You have 700,000 people looking at you and cheering and yelling and clapping in unison … it was so public. As a team, you’re so tight in the locker room. Everything is kept inside. When you get outside, you see what it meant to everyone else. It’s something I’ll never forget.”
Adelman will also never forget the team’s group of players, led by Nikola Jokic and Jamal Murray.
Nuggets guard Jamal Murray hugs David Adelman’s children, LJ and Lennon, in post-game celebration after winning NBA championship (courtesy Kathy Adelman Naro)
“Our players never relented in preparation,” Adelman said. “My high school coach, Gene Potter, used to tell us, ‘Let the results surprise you. Just do the work.’ The NBA Finals are the same way. Don’t lose focus. Do the best work you can every day and the results will follow.
“Our group this season was that way. It was workmanlike. All the noise from outside never seeped into the locker room. The guys were so locked in. I don’t known if I’ll ever have that feeling again. Jamal and Nikola — in this city, those guys will never be forgotten.”
Adelman, 42, is building his coaching resume. His first head coaching job was from 2006-11 at Lincoln High, where he won three PIL titles and reached the 2009 6A state championship game. He joined his father’s staff at Minnesota as a player development coach for one season (2011-12), then spent four years as full-fledged assistant with the Timberwolves under Adelman, Flip Saunders and Sam Mitchell. David had one season at Orlando under Frank Vogel and now has six seasons under Malone in Denver, giving him a dozen years coaching in the NBA. The Nuggets were 3-1 this season in games in which Adelman served as interim coach when Malone was out with Covid 19.
Through the season, Malone and Nuggets players have touted Adelman as a future head coach in the league.
“DA’s a guy who is gonna be next head coach, because he has that head for a head coach,” Jokic said. “He knows the answers. He reads and reacts.”
“He puts everybody in the right spots,” Murray said during the playoffs. “When it’s time to lock in, he can lock you in. He’ll get on you, and I respect that a lot just because we’re all in it together. I go to him for a lot of the offensive stuff … he’s always given me great input on what we can run and sometimes we have the same ideas. It’s nice to see that what I am feeling in the game he is also seeing from afar. … he definitely should be getting more (coaching) offers.”
During the Western Conference finals, Adelman interviewed with Toronto officials for the Raptors head job. They eventually hired Darko Rajakovic for the position.
“It was a good experience for me,” Adelman said of his first interview for a head job. “It was an honor to be interviewed by a team that won the NBA championship only four years ago.
“I’m not out there pushing my name. If it happens, it happens. The deal is, be good at the job you have, and if an opportunity for the next step up comes along, that’s great.”
A kicker in Adelman’s contract means he is guaranteed for two more seasons with the Nuggets. At his next game at Ball Arena, the team’s home opener next season, he will be part of the championship ring presentation ceremony.
“The ring is going to be really audacious,” David said. “I won’t want to wear it. I’ll probably leave the arena and head straight to a bank vault.”
Adelman will be involved with coaching the Nuggets’ Summer League team in Las Vegas next month. Then he’ll get some vacation time, part of it spent visiting friends and family members in Oregon.
“It’s going to be a short summer, but short summers are good,” he said. “Coach Malone says all the time, ‘If you have a short summer, you’re doing things right.’ ”
► ◄
Readers: what are your thoughts? I would love to hear them in the comments below. On the comments entry screen, only your name is required, your email address and website are optional, and may be left blank.
Follow me on Twitter.
Like me on Facebook.
Find me on Instagram.
Be sure to sign up for my emails.
