Former Kings trainer recalls Rick Adelman’s decency, humor and pain of his exit
Pete Youngman has a story to tell about his friend, Rick Adelman, and it is one that cannot be found in an NBA box score or game report.
Youngman was with Adelman during their eight seasons with the Sacramento Kings. Adelman was the head coach and Youngman the team athletic trainer planted right next to the boss on the bench. If a player went down, Youngman was there to immediately assist, including tracking game details.
“I always sat next to Rick, his go-to, and I’d have a notepad charting timeouts and fouls,” Youngman said this week in reflecting on the life and legacy of the Hall of Fame coach whom he called a Hall of Fame person. “Rick would ask, ‘How many timeouts to do we have?’ or, ‘How many fouls is that on Mike Bibby?’ I loved doing that.”
Adelman died at age 79, the team announced earlier this week.
Youngman said he appreciated Adelman for how he treated staffers and players and how he valued everyone, especially family and friends. Youngman and Adelman were as close as family.
“Rick was very private, and family was No. 1, more than basketball,” Youngman said. “I have a story that I haven’t told many people. My dad (Pete) passed away from stomach cancer during the 2002 Western Conference Finals against the Lakers. I called a travel agent to get a flight home (to New York), and was told that the flight was already taken care of.
“Rick got me first-class tickets to Rochester and back to Sacramento. I didn’t know. That was Rick.”
There’s more to this story.
“What was even more special,” Youngman continued, the emotion heavy in his voice, “is during that playoff run, my dad was in a bad way. A couple of times after a win, I’d get on the phone with dad, who was in hospice, on our way to the airport for a flight, and Rick would take the phone and talk to dad about the game.
“Dad was a big fan, a huge basketball fan who loved Bill Russell of the Celtics. Dad loved the big man who could pass, and he liked Vlade Divac’s game, and Chris Webber and Brad Miller. So Rick would take the phone and just talk basketball with dad. That memory is so special to me. That just gets me to even talk about it.”
Youngman paused and added, “It showed how important family was to Rick — anyone’s family. He cared about everybody. I mean, the man would share his playoff bonus money with me and others on the training staff. He gave everybody a little bump. Just the way he was.”
Youngman said Adelman was misunderstood and mischaracterized as something of a grump without personality. Not so, Youngman said.
Adelman could be witty and funny. Though Adelman grew up in an era of the loud, barking coach and the NBA had its share of them when he played and throughout his coaching tenure, he never became one.
Youngman would update Adelman daily on players who slowed by injury and who would be available for practice.
“One day, I was wearing all black, and Rick said, ‘Here comes the Grim Reaper! How are you going to (mess) with my practice today?’” Youngman recalled. “He had a great sense of humor.”
Youngman said Adelman’s bond with players started with how he treated them.
“In my eight years working with Rick, I can count on one hand with fingers left over how many times he yelled or raised his voice at halftime or postgame,” Youngman said. “He was so level, smooth. Total class. The players loved that about him.”
Adelman’s painful Kings exit
It was 20 years ago when Adelman savored his last bit of glory with the Kings. After Kevin Martin made a buzzer-beating layup to beat the San Antonio Spurs in Game 3 of an opening-round series, Adelman was beaming during his postgame news conference.
Later, while walking back to the media room to type a story, I spotted Adelman in the back tunnel of Arco Arena. He waved me over and introduced me to the nine people with him, all of them family, including wife Mary Kay.
We had Oregon roots, Adelman and me, and after practices, we talked every so often about high school and college coaching in the state, of which his kids were deeply involved.
“You never know when this all ends, and that’s why they’re all here,” Adelman said that night, flanked by family.
Adelman was pained by his Kings exit. The Kings owners then were the Maloof family, including hands-on brothers Joe and Gavin. While Adelman was still under contract, the Maloofs openly courted former Los Angeles Lakers coach Phil Jackson when he pondered a return to the NBA.
The Maloofs soured on Adelman because he wasn’t their hire — and he wasn’t their sort of personality. The Maloofs wanted a coach who would go to the mall to schmooze with season ticket holders.
“That wasn’t Rick,” Youngman said. “The Maloofs let him go because he wasn’t a media darling. He wasn’t kissing babies at the grocery store. Rick was a man who loved his family and won basketball games. The Kings have never been the same since Rick left, except for one season a few years ago under coach Mike Brown. Everything else has been terrible.”
Adelman phoned me after he wasn’t extended by the Maloofs and asked, “would it be self-serving if I had a press conference?” Not at all. He asked that I spread the word because the Kings certainly weren’t going to. Adelman held a farewell media session inside the Kings practice facility, the only remnant left standing from the Arco Arena era.
Adelman was upbeat, insisting, “Everything will turn out OK.” Mary Kay didn’t look OK. She held back tears.
Adelman went on to coach the Houston Rockets and Minnesota Timberwolves. He stepped down following the 2014 season to spend more time with Mary Kay and family in Oregon.
After Adelman’s last game with the Kings, the playoff series against the Spurs in 2006, he waved to Mary Kay in the stands. He did that after his final game with the Rockets and Timberwolves.
Adelman was always centered by family. In 1993, Mary Kay’s sister was killed in an automobile accident, leaving behind two young children. Rick and Mary Kay adopted them. One Adelman son, R.J. Adelman was a longtime Kings scout who worked with other NBA teams. He was tragically killed in 2018 while walking across the street in downtown Houston, struck by an 80-year-old woman in a minivan. Another son, David, is the coach of the Denver Nuggets.
Adelman mentioned R.J. during his Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame induction speech in 2021. He also mentioned scores of Kings players and others who meant so much to him, including Youngman. Adelman in his speech called Mary Kay his wife of 51 years “and my best friend.”
Youngman last saw Adelman two years ago in Oregon. They embraced and shared stories. Youngman is still in the athletic training business, having worked in different states at different levels of professional basketball. He still has a home in Sacramento, and he said that he will forever cherish his time with Adelman.
And he shared one last bit of grievance.
“Rick was a big part of the greatest period of Sacramento Kings basketball,” Youngman said. “Without question, this man was the greatest coach in the history of the franchise. What bothers me still is the Maloofs or (current ownership) never honored Rick with a special night. How easy would that have been? Let the fans celebrate him one more time.”