First Exclusive Interview with Coach David Adelman | 5/29/25

First Exclusive Interview with Coach David Adelman | 5/29/25

23rd head coach in Nuggets history and I think I’ve seen all 23 of them including yourself. Wow. Welcome to the crowd, man. Thank you. Appreciate it. So, I need to ask being the son of a coach when you first called up dad and said I got the job. What was said on the other side? Uh ultimate calmness. That’s who he is. Uh obviously proud, but also understanding that getting the job is one thing. Doing the job well is another. Uh, so yeah, our conversations are mostly about my kids, family. Uh, if I bring up sports or basketball, you know, he’s more than willing to talk about it. But, uh, no, I I could tell he was proud, but I think it’s also just a thing of I think he was more most proud of just the fact that I handled it well at the end of the season. Uh, you have to stay professional as an interim coach. He went through it, you know, in his career. Uh, so, you know, there was something we had in common there, but he’s always been a great example of how to do this the right way. um you know, you’re not always going to win. Uh but you can, you know, show up every day and be consistent for the guys, for the staff, uh you know, for the organization. Uh so, uh that was cool to have that in common and to have him as a resource obviously is it’s nice to have a Hall of Fame coach as a resource. You think? Yeah. There was a wonderful article in The Athletic about your family, your background, and didn’t realize how extensive of a Hoops family it is. Does everybody have a a playing hoops in your family? Every sister, every brother? at least some kind of experience in it. And I think in a weird way, even if they didn’t, they grew up, you know, in the NBA. So, it’s it’s a you know, my extended family is the same way. Multiple uncles that coach, junior colleges, uh, high school coaches, uh, throughout. Yeah. So, it’s a it’s a team, you know, it’s a team of educators. I always thought that way about my family, uh, you know, my cousins and NBA, college, high school. Uh, it’s just what we’re all drawn to. Uh, so it’s uh it’s a kind of a family tradition, not just my family, but extended family as well. You’re a former ball boy. So am I. Former Ball Boys Unite, right? Uh, how old were you? When did it hit you that I think I might try this coaching thing? That didn’t hit me until I was out of college. Uh, you know, my high school coach talked me into helping him out. Uh, mostly doing camps, things like that. Uh, I was a captain for him when I played. Uh, and he was kind of the one that kept pushing me saying, “I think you can do this. You know, you have the talent to do this.” And it’s easy right now to say, well, you know, I have a voice on the court and I know what I’m doing. Uh then I didn’t. And it’s he’s somebody that really developed my voice, allowed me to have opportunity in a gym of a nationally ranked high school team. Uh and then I fell in love with it there. You know, as I started to get better at it, uh it intrigued me of how how good I could be at this. Uh and so those nine years at that level, uh are very underrated that people don’t understand. You find your voice, you find your the fundamental values that you bring to a higher level. Uh, so, you know, I kind of figured it out over time with him and he gave me the confidence to keep going. Talking to a high school is a little different than talking to Nicole Joic, but at the end of the day, you communicate the point, right? It’s the same thing. Yeah. And I think uh to be honest, uh, what you you’re trying to help somebody out when you’re coaching. And so, even at that level, yes, it’s not a three-time MVP, one of the greatest players of all time. Uh, but you have to be trust that the words you’re saying are going to help this person. And that’s where you develop that as you grow as a coach. And then it makes situations when you’re coaching somebody that good, there’s no stress or anxiety because you trust what you’re saying make sense. Uh but that’s developed over time. That takes time. That takes a lot of work and a lot of trust from other people uh to allow you to develop those skills. And it’s nice to have a, you know, have it culminate into this opportunity. How much do you hate wearing that suit right now? Yeah, it’s not comfortable. Uh I was actually really worried cuz I didn’t try it on before I got here cuz I wore it I think it was last maybe last summer. Anyway, uh when I started to put it on, I was like, “Oh my god, I hope this actually fits.” Uh but yeah, it’s weird. We don’t wear suits anymore, and we used to wear, you know, the 82 game schedule. It’s it’s nice nice break. But no, it’s I don’t mind putting a suit on if it’s going to be for something like this. Yeah, good for you. What kind of player were you, by the way? Uh scrappy, uh small, uh played both guard positions, uh just tried to survive. I learned early on in my life that if I threw the ball to the best player, I’d play more. Uh, which is always good advice to everybody out there. Is that the Nuggets philosophy sometimes? It actually is. Yeah, because good things happen. Uh, but no, if you ask the GM of the Warriors, Mike Dunley, uh, I passed him the ball a lot and that kept me on the court. So, uh, yeah, no, I was I was okay, good enough to play a little bit. How did you get your first break to get into the NBA? Uh, my father went to Minnesota. I was the high school head coach. I knew this was his last job and my goal was to go with him and see that through. And so it was going to be a couple years in Minnesota and then go back and coach high school, junior college, division two. Those were my goals. And uh when he retired, he retired early. My mom had health issues and Flip Saunders came in. Uh Flip kept me around for a year. Uh unfortunately, he passed away during that first year, at the end of the first year. and Sam Mitchell uh came in for one year and actually gave me the opportunity to move up in the staff. Uh and so it was like an NBA journey that I thought was only going to be a couple of years, ended up extending. Uh and then obviously Frank Vogle gave me the opportunity in Orlando and all of a sudden you’re really in this thing and you you’ve established yourself in the NBA. Uh so opportunity comes in all different ways. Uh but in this league, it’s about sustaining and staying in the league as long as you can. And I got great advice from older coaches as I went through this. TR done Dunn Denver Nugget. Yeah, absolutely. I’ll never get TR done Dunn telling me uh you know I got demoted at one point I was disappointed and he said just stay on the bus man. If you stay on the bus you never know what’s going to happen. Be trustworthy, be loyal to the people you work with and then opportunities like this can happen. Uh but they can’t happen if you don’t sustain and just stay with it. Uh so yeah, I was lucky to get in but way luckier to stay in. That’s the hard part of this business. That’s the thing, the nomadic nature of being a professional coach at any level. How do you raise a family? I mean, you have two beautiful kids, your wife’s right there. They’ve supported. How tough is that part of it? Yeah, it’s it’s incredibly hard. You know, she’s a single parent during the season. It’s really hard. You’re in, you’re out. Uh, you know, you miss things that other people get to see. Uh, which makes it really tough. I went through it. You know, my mom raised six kids, you know, with my dad as a former player and coach. So, you think about that. He that’s 40 something years in the NBA. Uh so this is not an easy thing. There are sacrifices. People looking at it from the outside in see something that’s really exciting. It it is it’s a great job. It’s unbelievable opportunity. So many positives come with it. Uh but one of the negatives is the sacrifice you have to make. So it’s uh you know everybody’s in it together. That’s how you find success in this thing. Having said that, David Adelman, the assistant, compared to David Adelman, the head coach, two entirely different beasts. When you’re out and about watching your kids games or out eating somewhere, you’re starting to get recognized. How different a process has that been? Yeah, I just found out what live streaming is. Uh so, it’s it’s not very fun. Uh but it’s also an honor. You know, people recognize you because they care about this team. And you know, if that’s something you have to sacrifice uh to be part of something special in the community, that’s that’s okay. And I’ll get used to it as I go. I grew up seeing it. Obviously 2025 is different than, you know, 1995 with cell phones and all those kind of things, but to me it’s more of an honor. Uh, when people recognize you, uh, they want to see the team do well. And if they are fans and they they recognize your face, they’re they’re just reaching out to say good luck, you know, and stuff like that is is totally fine. And, you know, we’ll get used to it as we go through it. Um, you know, but it’s part of the job. So, how hectic and how chaotic was it here on the day of April 9th? Um, how were you alerted? How did you find out that a coaching change was being made and how did you process that? Yeah, uh, Nick, our PR guy, obviously, uh, called, let me know. I had to come down to the arena and see Josh. Obviously did not see that coming. Uh, one thing about this business though you learn early is, you know, figure it out later what you’re feeling. uh in the moment you got to keep going and it’s the team is looking at you for leadership uh the staff is looking at you for leadership and delegation and you don’t have time and we played the next night in Sacramento uh so once I came down got on the team playing pulled the players together wanted to make sure that we talked right away uh because they were having a I mean there’s a lot of feelings there a lot of emotions uh but the bottom line is you have to stay you know even keeled in that moment uh to make sure we gave ourselves the best opportunity to make the playoffs and let the emotions come later when it’s over. Uh, you know, and that sounds, you know, tough or whatever, but that’s what this is. And things change and happen so fast in this business that everybody’s got to stay together. Um, obviously everybody’s feeling a lot of things, me included. Uh, but in the short term, it’s you have a new job, do your job, be professional. Uh, so that’s what we did and obviously, you know, we had success, got ourselves into a good situation. Uh, yeah, but that day was uh, it was heavy, you know, very heavy. Those are people uh that I’ve been around for eight years, Calvin Longer because we had we had time together in Minnesota. And so you feel for them and their families in that moment at the same time, but you know that they know being people that are part of this business that you got to keep going. You got to keep pushing. Uh so yeah, it was a lot of mixed feelings. Uh and I think I’m I’m coming to grips with it now better because the season’s finally over. How do you compartmentalize the loyalty you have for Coach Malone? He brought you here. Yep. To what happened that day and now you’re taking his job. How difficult is that? It’s difficult. Um but like I said, I think we all know that as you move up in this league, you’re taking somebody’s job one way or the other. And I think he what he did here is never going to be forgotten. He’s the greatest coach in the history of this franchise, not even close. uh his leadership ability, the staff that he brought in, uh the ability to develop the players, all those things are incredible positives. And I think it’s you feel mixed feelings because you feel proud that you were a part of it with him and then you feel proud that you made progression as a coach because of him. And so it’s a weird feeling. you think about him and his family and then there’s this flip side of you that goes I can’t thank him enough for for one the opportunity to come here but two to be ready to take this job it’s because of him and so yeah a lot of mixed feelings um but all I can say is he’s the reason I’m sitting here he’s the reason why there’s a banner up there uh so just nothing but an honor to work for him and honestly an honor to take the job the seat that he had and try to keep it at that level that standard that we’ve had for so many years you mentioned about the culture and it’s a players league and you want to make sure you shepherd the players. How do you maintain the culture so we don’t go down that road again, right? What happened then? I think being consistent with who you are every day. You know, I’m not going to be exactly the same as coach. Um, you know, there was a change I think in the attitude of the team and I think that has to continue next year and it’s easy to say, well, that happened because there was change late in the season and there’s going to be natural a natural vibe change because of it. Uh, I think the guys have to challenge themselves to come back that way. And I think for us to keep what we had in that playoff run, their leadership has to take another step. And I think there was a huge narrative about seeing guys in the huddles talking to each other. Yeah. That’s been demanded. And I want to see more of that. This is not my team. This is their team. I’m the coach of a team, but Jamal, Nola, Aaron, Michael, Christian, um, you know, all those guys have to take another step in leadership. And if they do that, I think that maintains the vibe throughout the season. Um, and you can get through those tough times because you feel like it’s not just my voice all the time getting you through. It’s you guys and you have opinions and you have to keep each other going. Be accountable for the man next to you. So, if we can continue that like we had at the end of the season into the playoffs and you saw I I think steps in leadership for our main people, uh, I think that goes a long way into next season. Coach, how do you sit a player down and maintain that relationship, that communication? If they’re not going to be happy not playing. I mean, you have to do that at times. Yeah, you do. And I think if uh if they’re not happy, then they’re not into winning. And you have to sacrifice for the next man, like I said. And uh you know, in the playoffs, you saw that throughout the end of the season was like that. It’s a it’s a delicate balance of, yeah, I understand why you want to be in, but while you’re out, think what you want to think, but you have to support your teammates. you can still be part of winning when you’re not on the court. Uh so, you know, that’s a responsibility of me obviously to maintenance guys and manage the team, but it’s also a mature responsibility of a professional athlete to understand that the the bottom line and the ending goal of any contest you’re in is to win. And the only decision you’re making is not to make people feel good about themselves after that game ends. It’s about trying to score more points than the other team. That’s the only thing that matters. And that comes down to being unselfish. uh being a professional athlete and professional teammate and that’ll be, you know, that’s going to be demanded like it was in the playoffs. It’ll be demanded next year as well. When you took the reigns and you coached all the way through both game sevens, was there one moment most nervous moment you had? Did you have any one of those where you’re like, “Oh jeez, this hit me.” You know, I I didn’t feel nervous during the games. I think the preparation part is the nerve-wracking part because you you’re thinking about every scenario that could or couldn’t happen. And when you get done talking to the team, whether it’s a walkthrough before a game seven or a game five or whatever it is, you leave the court going, “God, I really wish I would have gone through this or that.” But you can’t go through everything. So, there is an anxiety to I wish I would have covered that. But ingame, you know, I think once you’re out there, it’s you feel like you’ve prepped for this, you know, and so this is just now we’re just on stage and we’re playing and you’re obviously managing the game as best you can, but the games are the fun part and those games are absolutely incredible. uh you know the two game sevens. Obviously the other one went the wrong way for us, but the fact that you’re in them and the energy of them and you look back at a series and realize all the the chapters of that series to get to that point. Uh to me it’s one of the coolest things about being a professional sport, especially team sports where they’re seven game series. It’s just a it’s such a journey each individual series. So it was an honor to coach them. We saw some crazy stuff in those two series. What’s the one years from now when you go back and think about your first playoff fora? What’s the one moment that comes to mind? Aaron Gordon dunking the ball in LA. Yeah. And also sitting next to Nicole on the bench thinking that it wasn’t good, you know. Did you really think that? Oh, yeah. And I I was I literally was sitting next to Nicole asked which block he wanted the ball for the first time out, you know, off the jump ball. Um I didn’t realize he had the Hawkeye technology from the top. And once we saw the clip from a different angle, it was good. Uh but just the emotions that fourth quarter up 20. Uh they come back take the lead. uh they played incredible in that quarter and then to just to have the chance to win the game then obviously Aaron who was kind of the hero of the whole playoffs uh to have that moment for him and on top of that for Aaron just the year that he had uh you know off the court it was so cool to see him have success and and nobody deserves it more than Aaron. I thought one of the most intriguing things you said upstairs, you know, you’re going to hire some people. I don’t know how many of the current staff you’ll bring back. You you’ll make those judgment calls, but you’re not in this to make best friends. You’re not in this to have everybody agree with you. Is is it’s healthy for someone to disagree and debate some topics, is it? Yeah, I think so. And I think it’s important to bridge the gap when you’re an assistant like I was for Coach Malone. It’s there’s times to just agree and keep it moving. And there’s times to come with a very strong opinion about something that you’re seeing because you’re seeing it from a different lens. And your conversations with players are different than the head coaches sometimes. And I think you have to have people come in and challenge your creative energy. You know, and I’ve been in this for a long time. And sometimes when you’re in it for a long time, you have your standards of things you’ve seen work. Uh but the game is always changing. It’s always evolving. And you know, you can evolve as a coach with different personalities, you know, in that room when you’re preparing for a season. So, like I said, it’s it’s not about who’s been here and trying to show I’m going to do something different. It’s about taking another step for this team. How how are we going to evolve as a team and how are we evolving with the NBA changing the way that it is? So, it’s a it’s a challenge. Um it’s not fun. Uh there’s lots of people that I’m really close to. Uh but we have to, you know, open up our minds a little bit, make sure that the staff that comes in next year gives these guys a fresh feeling. That’s important. And sometimes that means you need new ideas. Do you think you have to have an old vet on the bench or no? Coach, you know, if it’s the right person, you know, I don’t think you just do something to do it. I I think I said that in the press conference. Narratives are narratives, but what’s right is what’s right. And if if it feels right and there’s somebody out there that’s been through it and been around it, you know, I can go that way. I will say that one of the first questions you asked me, it’s nice to have a guy that won a thousand games that I can call. So, if I don’t have a veteran coach on the bench, I definitely have one on speed dial. That’s a great point, Dad. Um, when when you look at the players, three of them showed up for this press conference. I thought that was pretty cool. A lot of them supported your hiring. When when you think of what a player describes as you as a coach, how do you think that description goes? If I ask a player on this team, what kind of coach is it? What do you think they’re saying, man? It would matter which player, that’s for sure. Uh, no, I would I would say a consistent energy. Uh, I probably look more laid-back than I actually am behind closed doors. Uh that’s the funny thing about all this is that you you’re talking about staffing and people say we got to hire people that are different than your personality, but people actually don’t know your personality behind this, you know, behind the scenes. Uh so yeah, I I think I’m pretty intense. Um probably way over the top when it comes to efficiency. I don’t like things to be dragged out. I think players like that. Uh but for that to be successful, efficiency comes, you know, with prepared coaching and prepared players. And I think those guys like that. And I think they see it as a positive, especially when you have a veteran team like we do. These are not kids. These are grown men now. Uh so, you know, I think they appreciated that. Uh but, you know, I can’t define myself. I think they could answer that question better because I feel like uh it’s it’s an open-ended question for each individual person. You said you have to provide some ideas for these guys to take home in the offseason and get them excited. Give me what does that mean? Give me an example of that. I think summer is more individual. I mean, I think it’s more about how can we get better as individual players. Uh but you know, it’s not just the basketball part. Yes, the skill set stuff’s important, but we have guys that have to get a lot stronger uh to, you know, prepare for the playoffs, playing big games in the regular season. Uh so given those those expectations now, I think the team stuff comes later. You get to the end of the summer and now you’re talking to guys about schematically things we’re going to do different. So it’s in their mind when they get to training camp. But each individ individual guy is different. They had a different season last year than they did the year before andor they’re new to us. Uh so it’s my responsibility to make sure that they have an expectation going forward so they can work towards a goal uh you know coming back in September in training camp. All right, a couple more. You’ve talked about how you spend your free time watching television with your kids. What are other things other hobbies to allow you to unwind away from hoops? Yeah, I mean we go to the mountains in Oregon uh and just hang out up there. I’m a terrible golfer but I play like how bad are you? Uh I used to be okay. I I’m I don’t I couldn’t even tell you right now. I I mean I haven’t swung the club since last summer. So, I got a money game tomorrow if you want to come play. Yeah, I don’t I don’t think I’m going to do that. Yeah, but I definitely need to go hit balls. Uh I do like golfing and honestly just hanging out and getting away from this is probably what I would say is most important. Um seeing friends back home that uh could care less what this job is. Um you know, just breaking away from this is something we like to do. And then the kids, you know, they’re busy with sports and all those things. So that their their hobbies and what they’re doing kind of, you know, takes over your life and you kind of follow that instead. But, uh, no, it’s it’s nice to check out from this. It’s healthy. It allows you to come back with a clear mind and mentally, you know, bring what you have to bring to this to be successful. I know your kids play sports. Do you coach them up at home, too, or do you stay away as much as you can? Uh, when I do, it’s gone sideways a few times. So, it’s we’re Yeah. got to be careful with that. Um, no. They’re both having success with it. They’re enjoying it, and that’s all that really matters. Like, there’s no reason to do anything if you don’t enjoy it. It doesn’t matter what your dad does or your family is is known to do. You have to do things that you like doing. Um, you know, my son really likes Fortnite. I know that. So, it’s uh Yeah, you got to do what you like doing. Um, but then there’s got to be a balance at some point. Any classic phrases that your dad used to tell you that you still carry with you today that you use? Uh, life’s tough when you’re having fun, tougher when you’re not. That I’ve always thought that’s so true. Uh, yeah. That’s everything has another side to it. Uh everything positive, there is a a negative. You know, it’s not to talk yin-yang stuff, but it’s true. And I think when you think that way, it keeps you balanced. Um and that’s that goes a long way, especially in this business.

Hear from Head Coach David Adelman in his first exclusive sit down interview with Vic Lombardi.

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First Exclusive Interview with Coach David Adelman | 5/29/25