Daly Named Coach of ’92 Olympic Squad : Basketball: The Pistons’ boss will guide the U.S. team, which for the first time will include NBA players.

Chuck Daly, who guided the Detroit Pistons to consecutive NBA championships, today was named coach of the 1992 Olympic men’s basketball team.

Kentucky athletic director C. M. Newton, chairman of the USA Basketball Games Committee, made the announcement at a news conference.

“This is an exciting and historic day for Olympic basketball,” Newton said. “I’ve known Chuck for a long time. He’s representative of the coaching establishment in this country, all the way back to the high school level. He knows the game and he wanted the job.”

The 1992 Olympics will be the first in which NBA players will be allowed to participate. The U.S. team is expected to have at least nine NBA players and perhaps three college players. Daly will have a hand, but not the final say in that process.

“Whoever they select, the talent will be there,” Daly said.

Daly virtually guaranteed a gold medal for the United States team, which has not fared well in recent years in international competition. John Thompson of Georgetown coached the 1988 team to a bronze medal at the Seoul Olympics.

“Knowing the players, with their ability, they’ll have some fun with it,” Daly said. “But they’ll want the gold medal, too.

“I wouldn’t expect they could lose. We wouldn’t even think of anything but winning.”

Daly, 60, will not have to give up any of his Pistons’ duties. He won NBA championships the past two seasons with a team that didn’t appear to be as talented as the teams he defeated.

Daly, who has the longest tenure of any active NBA coach, has succeeded where others have failed in the league because he has managed to walk a precarious tightrope, exerting enough pressure to maintain control and discipline while allowing players like Isiah Thomas, Mark Aguirre, Bill Laimbeer and Joe Dumars the freedom to play their game and bask in the glory.

He understands it’s a players’ game, but they play by Daly’s rules because he knows how to deal with egos.

“I think the players selected for the Olympic team will accept coaching because they’ll want to win,” Daly said. “But you have to remember how great these players are and bend your game plan to their talents, too.”

Daly said he would reaquaint himself with international rules, which vary slightly from the game as it’s played in the United States.

“It’s like a college coach coming to the NBA,” Daly said. “There are some variations. But I coached against international teams when I was at the college level.”

Daly began his coaching career at Duke, where he was an assistant from 1963-69.

He was head coach at Boston College from 1969-71 seasons, guiding the Eagles to a 26-26 record.

Daly coached at Penn from 1971-77, leading the Quakers to four Ivy League titles and a 125-38 record.

He then left the college ranks to become an assistant to Billy Cunningham with the Philadelphia 76ers for four seasons. He became head coach of the Pistons in May, 1983, after a brief stint as coach of the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Daly has a nine-year NBA record of 413-252. He is only the 20th NBA coach to earn 400 victories, and he has a .667 winning percentage in the playoffs, the best among active coaches.