Jack McCloskey, Architect of Detroit Pistons’ ‘Bad Boys’ Teams, Dies at 91
General Manager Jack McCloskey, right, signing Isiah Thomas,
the Pistons’ first-round draft choice, to a contract in 1981.
Credit...Mary Schroeder/Detroit Free Press
By Daniel E. Slotnik
June 2, 2017
Jack McCloskey, whose canny decisions and steady leadership as general manager of the Detroit Pistons paved the way for their first two National Basketball Association championships, in 1989 and ’90, died on Thursday in Savannah, Ga. He was 91.
His death, at a hospice care facility near his home in Savannah, was caused by complications of Alzheimer’s disease, his wife, Leslie, said.
When Mr. McCloskey joined the Pistons in December 1979, the team was on its way to the worst record in the N.B.A., at 16-66. The franchise was also on its 19th coach since it had joined the league as the Fort Wayne Pistons from Indiana in 1948. The Pistons had not played in the finals since 1956.
Mr. McCloskey was hired to turn the team around, and the effort took years. He drafted the future Hall of Fame players Dennis Rodman, Joe Dumars and Isiah Thomas, who later became the head coach and the team president of the Knicks.
Mr. McCloskey also engineered a string of trades, earning the nickname Trader Jack after acquiring the rugged center Bill Laimbeer, power forward Rick Mahorn, the 7-foot-1 center James Edwards and the dependable sixth man Vinnie Johnson.
Fans were furious when he traded Adrian Dantley, a six-time All-Star forward, to the Dallas Mavericks for Mark Aguirre, a forward and a three-time All-Star — until the Pistons won the championship the next season.
After three losing seasons under Coach Scotty Robertson, Mr. McCloskey replaced him in 1983 with Chuck Daly, a future Hall of Famer. Under Mr. McCloskey and Daly, the Pistons became a sharp-elbowed team nicknamed the Bad Boys. They were known for an implacable defense that wore down dominant 1980s teams like Larry Bird’s Boston Celtics and Magic Johnson’s Los Angeles Lakers, as well as the ascendant Chicago Bulls led by Michael Jordan.
Under Mr. McCloskey, Detroit made the playoffs nine times in a row, the Eastern Conference finals five consecutive seasons and the N.B.A. finals three straight years. In 1988, the Pistons made the finals for the first time in decades before losing to the Lakers, four games to three.
But the next year, the Pistons had the best regular-season record in the N.B.A., at 63-19, then went 15-2 in the playoffs. This time they swept the Lakers (Johnson was injured during the series) to win the first championship in franchise history.
Thomas, the small but dominant point guard whom Mr. McCloskey drafted in 1981, praised his general manager in the locker room after the game.
“There’s the man who deserves a lot of the credit for this championship,” Thomas told The New York Times as Mr. McCloskey was showered with Champagne. “He slowly put us together. He picked the players and the coach and made all the moves.”
The Pistons repeated as champions the next season, defeating the Portland Trail Blazers in five games. But Detroit flagged after that the next two years in the playoffs, losing to the Bulls in the Eastern Conference finals and then to Patrick Ewing’s Knicks in the first round.
Shortly after Tom Wilson was appointed president of the Pistons in 1992, Daly resigned and Mr. McCloskey moved to the Minnesota Timberwolves, who were in desperate need of better front-office management.
“I’ve been here a long time, perhaps too long,” Mr. McCloskey told The Associated Press that May. He worked with the Timberwolves until 1995, during which time they never had a winning record.
John William McCloskey was born in Mahanoy City, Pa., a coal mining town, on Sept. 19, 1925. His mother, the former Beulah Spade, was a homemaker; his father, Eddie, was a miner.
Mr. McCloskey lettered in baseball, football and basketball in high school, then played football at the University of Pittsburgh before serving in the Navy at Okinawa during World War II.
After the war he finished his education at the University of Pennsylvania, where he continued to play three varsity sports. After graduating he played one game with the Philadelphia Warriors of the N.B.A. before becoming a high school basketball coach.
Mr. McCloskey became the head basketball coach at Penn in the mid-1950s and stayed there until he took over Wake Forest’s program in 1966. In 1972 he became the head coach of the Trail Blazers, compiling a 48-116 record over the next two seasons before resigning in 1974.
He was an assistant for the Lakers under Coach Jerry West before joining the Pistons. After leaving Minnesota, he was a consultant for the Toronto Raptors.
His marriage of 28 years to Anita Morales ended in divorce. He married Leslie Gray in 1977. Besides his wife, he is survived by six children from his first marriage, his sons, Michael, Steve, Roman and John, and his daughters, Robin and Molly McCloskey; a stepson, Ryan Gray; a stepdaughter, Lisa Haugen; 14 grandchildren; and seven great-grandchildren.
Correction: June 9, 2017
An earlier version of this obituary misstated the length of Mr. McCloskey’s marriage to Anita Morales. They were married for 28 years, not 27.
A version of this article appears in print on June 4, 2017, Section A, Page 20 of the New York edition with the headline: Jack McCloskey, 91, Architect of Pistons’ ‘Bad Boys’ Teams.
Commenti
Posta un commento