Sports Column

Adelman jumped at offer to lead Rockets

Fair Game

By kerry eggers

The Portland Tribune, Jun 5, 2007, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (16 Reader comments)

There were overtures about coaching jobs with Indiana and Orlando. But when the Houston Rockets beckoned, Rick Adelman didn’t wait long to sign on the dotted line.

“It’s a team that won (52) games this year,” says Adelman, signed last week to a four-year contract as the Rockets’ head coach. “It’s a pretty good situation when you can start with two players like Yao Ming and Tracy McGrady.”

The one-time Portland coach already has gotten a taste of Houston. The day after his hiring, Adelman was special guest at a children’s charity celebrity dinner. In attendance were sports dignitaries such as Rocket owner Leslie Alexander, Nolan Ryan, Jeff Bagwell, Shane Battier, Gifford Nielsen, Larry Dierker, Elvin Bethea, Doug Drabek, Dan Pastorini and ex-Blazer great Clyde Drexler, the latter a friend of Alexander’s who highly recommended Adelman for the job.

On the menu, according to the Houston Chronicle: “Beef tenderloins cooked on the grill; bacon-wrapped, jalapeño-stuffed shrimp, also grilled; red snapper stuffed with jumbo lump crabmeat … and a chocolate cake with chocolate icing, decorated in basketball finery and offering a salute to Adelman.”

“A lot of important people were there,” Adelman says. “It was a big event.”

Adelman is back in Portland for the Thursday graduation of the youngest of his six children – Patrick – from Lake Oswego High. He’ll keep his home here but begin looking for a place in Houston when he returns next week to put together a coaching staff as well as help with preparation for the draft and summer league.

If ex-Blazer aide Elston Turner isn’t hired as Sacramento’s head coach, he’ll become Adelman’s lead assistant with the Rockets.

A major focus for Adelman will be refining a Houston offense that was sporadic last season.

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