Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, February 16, 1991 TAG: 9102160073
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: AUBURN HILLS, MICH. LENGTH: Medium
Daly, who was selected to coach the 1992 men's team, called himself a basketball "lifer" who would have taken the job for nothing.
"I represent the lifers in this business," Daly said Friday. "I kiddingly like to say I've spent my whole life without working."
Of course, Daly has worked - long and hard - and has the last two NBA championships to show for it. But he long has wanted a chance to coach on the international level.
"This country has taken a few lumps in basketball lately," Daly said. "I don't like to lose, even when I'm not involved personally. We invented the game. We taught the Europeans how to play. Now they're to the point where they're playing as well as we are."
Daly, who will not have to relinquish any of his Pistons duties, is the 10th coach of the U.S. Olympic team. Oklahoma State's Hank Iba had the job three times.
The U.S. men's team has won the gold medal eight times. Iba's team got the silver in the 1972 Olympics, and John Thompson's team got a bronze at the 1988 Games.
"John Thompson was handicapped because he didn't have NBA players," Daly said. "John perhaps didn't have the firepower."
That shouldn't be a problem at Barcelona because the U.S. team will be using NBA players for the first time in Olympic competition.
Daly, 60, has the longest tenure of any active NBA coach. He got his first look at the kind of Olympic team he might have when he coached the East Conference team in the NBA All-Star game last season.
"I was impressed with the All-Star team last year, how in just half an hour of practice these guys were already getting into the flow of what we wanted to do," Daly said. "Players at that level will put winning ahead of everything else."
Daly said he will reacquaint himself with international rules, which vary slightly from the game as it's played in the United States.
"It's like a college coach coming to the NBA," Daly said. "There are some variations. But I have coached against international teams when I was at the college level."
The players on the 1992 team will be selected by a committee, in which Daly will have input. Since they will be mostly NBA players, they won't have to compete for a spot on the team like players of past Olympic teams, all of whom were amateurs. There are expected to be perhaps two or three collegians on the 1992 squad.
Kentucky athletic director C.M. Newton, chairman of USA Basketball, said the players probably would be notified early in 1992 so that NBA players could clear their personal schedules and be available for the summer Olympics.
The competition in Barcelona will consist of 12 teams that must qualify before competing in the Olympics. The U.S. team will play in a qualification tournament of the Americas, to be held in the United States.
"It's a tremendous challenge," Daly said. "There's a lot more to this than just winning games."
Daly will have three assistants - one from the NBA and two from the college ranks.
Daly has a nine-year NBA record of 413-252. He is only the 20th NBA coach to earn 400 victories and his 67 percent winning percentage (62-31) in playoffs is highest among active NBA coaches.
by CNB