Richard Adam Adubato''The Sporting News: 1992-93 Official NBA Register''.

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the Greater St. Louis, ...

: The Sporting News Publishing Co. 1992. (born November 23, 1937) is a former

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

coach in the

National Basketball Association The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United S ...

. He has served as head coach for three NBA teams, the

Detroit Pistons The Detroit Pistons are an American professional basketball team based in Detroit. The Pistons compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Central Division and play their home games at Li ...

, the

Dallas Mavericks The Dallas Mavericks (often referred to as the Mavs) are an American professional basketball team based in Dallas. The Mavericks compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Western Conference (NBA), Western Conferenc ...

, and the

Orlando Magic The Orlando Magic are an American professional basketball team based in Orlando, Florida. The Magic compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference Southeast Division. The franchise was establ ...

. Adubato replaced Brian Hill halfway through the 1996–97 season and guided the Magic to a 21–12 record and made their fourth consecutive playoff appearance. The Magic then nearly upset

Pat Riley Patrick James Riley (born March 20, 1945) is an American professional basketball executive, former coach, and former player in the National Basketball Association (NBA). He has been the team president of the Miami Heat since 1995, and he also se ...

Miami Heat The Miami Heat are an American professional basketball team based in Miami. The Heat compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference (NBA), Eastern Conference Southeast Division (NBA), Southe ...

in the playoffs with the help of spectacular play from

Penny Hardaway Anfernee Deon "Penny" Hardaway (born July 18, 1971) is an American college basketball coach and former professional player who is the head coach of the Memphis Tigers men's basketball team in the American Athletic Conference (AAC). Hardaway pla ...

, but ultimately lost the series 3–2. In 1999, Adubato became head coach for the

New York Liberty The New York Liberty are an American professional basketball team based in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. The Liberty compete in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) as part of the league's Eastern Conference. The team was f ...

of the

Women's National Basketball Association The Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) is an American professional basketball league. It is composed of twelve teams, all based in the United States. The league was founded on April 22, 1996, as the women's counterpart to the Natio ...

, making his WNBA debut on June 10, 1999 when he guided the Liberty to an 87–60 victory over the defending Eastern Conference champion Cleveland Rockers. With the Liberty posting impressive attendance figures for the third straight season,

Madison Square Garden Madison Square Garden, colloquially known as The Garden or by its initials MSG, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in New York City. It is located in Midtown Manhattan between Seventh and Eighth avenues from 31st to 33rd Street, above Pennsylva ...

played host to the first-ever

WNBA All-Star Game The Women's National Basketball Association All-Star Game, commonly referred to as the WNBA All-Star Game, is an annual exhibition basketball game played in the United States between the best players of the Western and Eastern Conference of ...

- a sellout (18,649) - on July 14, 1999. Four Liberty players were selected to the Eastern Conference squad: Rebecca Lobo, Teresa Weatherspoon, Kym Hampton, and Vickie Johnson. With Adubato at the helm, the Liberty posted an overall mark of 18-14 and won its first Eastern Conference title. After defeating Charlotte in the first round of the playoffs, the team faced a rematch with the defending WNBA champion Houston Comets. Despite falling short of the title, the series was pushed to a third game when Weatherspoon made the most famous shot in WNBA history -- a half-court, buzzer-beating shot that won Game 2 before a stunned Houston squad and Compaq Center crowd. Under Adubato, the Liberty went to the finals three out of four seasons and won the Eastern Conference regular-season championship three times. Adubato took over as coach of the

Washington Mystics The Washington Mystics are an American professional basketball team based in Washington, D.C. The Mystics compete in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) as a member club of the league's Eastern Conference. The team was founded pri ...

, but left the Mystics on June 1, 2007, reportedly upset over his team's 0–4 start to the season, a number of recent transactions, and his contract status. During his NBA coaching career, Adubato replaced

Dick Vitale Richard John Vitale (; born June 9, 1939), also known as "Dickie V", is an American basketball sportscaster. A former head coach in the college and professional ranks, he is well known for his 41-year tenure as a college basketball broadcaster fo ...

as head coach of the

after 12 games of the 1979–80 season. He later was head coach of the

for 264 games between 1989 and 1992. Adubato currently serves as the radio color analyst for the

. Adubato has also been an assistant NBA coach for the

Cleveland Cavaliers The Cleveland Cavaliers (often referred to as the Cavs) are an American professional basketball team based in Cleveland. The Cavaliers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference (NBA), Ea ...

New York Knicks The New York Knickerbockers, shortened and more commonly referred to as the New York Knicks, are an American professional basketball team based in the New York City borough of Manhattan. The Knicks compete in the National Basketball Associat ...

, and

and an NBA scout for the

Atlanta Hawks The Atlanta Hawks are an American professional basketball team based in Atlanta. The Hawks compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference (NBA), Eastern Conference Southeast Division (NBA), Sou ...

Head coaching record

NBA

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Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at th ...

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Dallas Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...

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First Round First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1). First or 1st may also refer to: *World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement Arts and media Music * 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and reco ...

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Orlando Orlando () is a city in the U.S. state of Florida and is the county seat of Orange County. In Central Florida, it is the center of the Orlando metropolitan area, which had a population of 2,509,831, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures rele ...

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, -class="sortbottom" , align="left" , Career , , , 367, , 127, , 240, , , , , , 8, , 2, , 6, , .250, ,

WNBA

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WNBA Finals The WNBA Finals are the championship series of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) and the conclusion of the league's postseason each fall. The series was named the WNBA Championship until 2002. Starting 2016 Verizon is the officia ...

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2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

, 32, , 20, , 12, , .625, , align="center" , 1st in East, , 7, , 4, , 3, , .571 , align="center" , Lost in

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2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a Participants in ...

, 32, , 21, , 11, , .656, , align="center" , 2nd in East, , 6, , 3, , 3, , .500 , align="center" , Lost in Conf. Finals , - , align="left" , New York , align="left" ,

2002 File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...

, 32, , 18, , 14, , .563, , align="center" , 1st in East, , 8, , 4, , 4, , .500 , align="center" , Lost in

, - , align="left" , New York , align="left" , 2003 , 34, , 16, , 18, , .471, , align="center" , 6th in East, , –, , –, , –, , – , align="center" , Missed Playoffs , - , align="left" , New York , align="left" , 2004 , 16, , 7, , 9, , .438, , align="center" , (fired), , –, , –, , –, , – , align="center" , – , - , align="left" ,

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

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2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...

, 34, , 16, , 18, , .471, , align="center" , 5th in East, , –, , –, , –, , – , align="center" , Missed Playoffs , - , align="left" ,

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2006 File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, votes to declare ...

, 34, , 18, , 16, , .529, , align="center" , 4th in East, , 2, , 0, , 2, , .000 , align="center" , Lost in

, - , align="left" ,

, align="left" , 2007 , 4, , 0, , 4, , .000, , align="center" , (resigned), , –, , –, , –, , – , align="center" , – , -class="sortbottom" , align="left" , Career , , , 250, , 134, , 116, , .536, , , , 29, , 14, , 15, , .483, ,

References

External links

NBA career stats as a head coach
at Basketball-Reference

at Basketball-Reference
WNBA.com biography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Adubato, Richie 1937 births Living people American men's basketball coaches American women's basketball coaches Atlanta Hawks assistant coaches Basketball coaches from New Jersey Cleveland Cavaliers assistant coaches Dallas Mavericks assistant coaches Dallas Mavericks head coaches Detroit Pistons assistant coaches Detroit Pistons head coaches New York Knicks assistant coaches New York Liberty head coaches Orlando Magic assistant coaches Orlando Magic head coaches People from Irvington, New Jersey Sportspeople from Essex County, New Jersey Upsala Vikings men's basketball coaches Washington Mystics head coaches William Paterson University alumni