Daly mail

THE LATE CHUCK DALY was a sweetheart of a guy. Coached in the NBA for 14 seasons. Coached at Penn for six.

No one ever had a bad thing to say about him.

Well, almost no one.

It has come to light that some idiot sent threatening letters to Daly while he was coaching the Detroit Pistons.

The Associated Press obtained - via the Freedom of Information Act - a series of threatening letters sent to the Hall of Fame coach during the 1988-89 season.

That was season that the Pistons - known as the "Bad Boys" - won the first of two straight NBA titles. That season, Cleveland's Mark Price suffered a concussion after being elbowed by Detroit's Rick Mahorn. That season, the Cavs' Brad Daugherty and Pistons' Bill Laimbeer had an on-court fight.

Ah, the good, old days.

And for Daly, it was. Except for some hate mail.

In one, Daly - who died in May - received a one-page handwritten letter, postmarked from Cleveland, that read in part: "God made me realize that YOU, not Laimbeer, Mahorn or any of the others, are the one possessed by [Satan]."

Daly handed that letter over to team officials. They notified NBA security, which in turn, told the team to forward it to the FBI.

What kind of nut writes that kind of letter?

According to the AP, the FBI did an analysis on the handwriting and content, and determined the author probably "had previous psychiatric hospitalizations and/or is currently on outpatient status." The final determination was that the hater did not have "the capacity to carry out any form of planned action."

Then-general manager Jack McCloskey, also a former Penn basketball coach and all-around nice guy, said he also received threats that season.

"I can remember I stopped at a red light, and I had just traded Adrian Dantley [to Dallas for Mark Aguirre in February '89]," said McCloskey, who is now retired. "Two guys stopped next to me, recognized me and just had the finger gun. They did that. But when it all came out in championships, people forget it."

- Tom Mahon

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