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MINNEAPOLIS, Sept. 28 (UPI) -- Rick Adelman officially became the Minnesota Timberwolves' coach Wednesday. While the 65-year-old coach and the struggling NBA club had reached agreement in principle about two weeks ago, the deal wasn't sealed until now.
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Adelman has a 945-616 career record as a head coach for Portland, Sacramento, Golden State and Houston. His teams have made the playoffs 16 times and reached the NBA finals twice.
In Minnesota, he will work to build a successful team around young all-star forward Brian Love.
"I'm eager to start another chapter in my coaching career with the Minnesota Timberwolves," Adelman said. "We have a good nucleus of young players that I feel can grow together and win. I'm looking forward to the challenge of building a playoff team here in Minnesota."
He has his work cut out for him. The T-Wolves haven't made the playoffs since the 2003-04 season under Flip Saunders. They had a winning record the next season but since then, Dwane Casey, Randy Wittman, Kevin McHale and Kurt Rambis have all failed to accomplish that feat.
David Kahn, the team's president of basketball operations, said he is happy to get a coach of Adelman's stature.
"Rick has proven time and again that he is one of the top coaches in basketball -- one of the top coaches in the history of our sport," Kahn said. We are excited to have him as the leader of our young and talented team."
