Historical date of the Blazers fire Rick Adelman was named interim head coach by Mike Schuler. Here, 35 years ago, a renowned coach of the Blazers assumed leadership.

On February 18, 1989, a significant organizational shift was made by the Portland Trail Blazers on this day 35 years ago. Following the Blazers’ 25-22 start to Mike third season in charge, the team fired and appointed assistant Rick as the new head coach in an acting capacity

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The anniversary was brought to light on X, formerly known as Twitter, by @, a true Blazers historian and a great account to follow on social media for any fan of the team. Reid English of the Statesman Journal cited a tense relationship between and players as the main cause of his dismissal in one of the newspaper clippings the account shared from that date.

However, firing was the result of poor communication with the players, as well as issues between him and Clyde , the team’s star player, and the team’s ongoing downfall.

“We definitely haven’t been playing up to our potential,”  stated. There was a need to take action.

After taking over for the late Jack Ramsay, the legendary coach of the Portland Trail Blazers,  went 179-159 while serving as the NBA Coach of the Year in 1987.

Naturally, continued to have tremendous success as the Blazers’ coach, leading the team through the 1993–94 campaign. finished more than five seasons with the Blazers with a 291-154 record, which was good enough to tie Ramsay (453 wins) and Terry (402 wins) for third place in the franchise’s history. is most known for having guided the Blazers to two NBA Finals appearances (1990 and 1992).

had a successful career as an NBA head coach, spending time with five different teams. He announced his retirement in 2014, and in 2021, he was admitted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.