John Richard Motta (born September 3, 1931)
Coached for: Chicago Bulls (1968–1976), Washington Bullets (1976–1980), Dallas Mavericks (1980–1987, 1994–1996), Sacramento Kings (1990–1991), Denver Nuggets (1996–1997)
Regular season record: 935–1017 (.479), Postseason record: 56–70 (.444), Career: 991–1077
NBA Finals champion (1975), NBA Coach of the Year (1971), 14 playoff appearances in 25 seasons
Dick Motta was the son of a vegetable farmer that grew up during the Great Depression in Midvale, Utah. He attended Utah State University and subsequently served two years in the U.S. Air Force, reaching Lieutenant rank. In the time before his service, he had taught in Grace, Idaho for its junior high school. In 1957, at the age of 26, he was hired to be the head coach of the high school. He almost immediately had himself tested by the mood of the town when he kicked out four players off the team for drinking (apparently, for the next three years, he got his groceries in a different town). In three years, his teams won 20 games twice and in 1959, they won the Class AA championship. To this day, Motta calls it his biggest thrill as a coach. In 1960, he was hired by Weber College (at the time transitioning from a junior college to a four-year program before it eventually became known as Weber State University) in Ogden, Utah. Weber State, a founding member of the Big Sky Conference in 1963, ended up winning the regular season championship in 1965, 1966, and 1968. The Wildcats were invited to the 1968 NCAA tournament (then composed of 23 teams) after winning the Big Sky, with the First Round loss being Motta's last game as a coach. He was soon hired by the Chicago Bulls*, who had let Johnny Kerr depart for the Phoenix Suns (Kerr had led to back-to-back 4th place finishes, which actually was good enough for the playoffs).
Sure, the Bulls finished 5th in 1968, but the Bulls soon went through tremendous improvement, with the 1969-70 season (the first with future Hall of Famer Chet Walker to add to a team with Bob Love and Jerry Sloan) being the first of six straight playoff appearances (the last one in 1975 was the first with the playoff format going from 8 to 10 total teams), with their first 50-win season coming in 1970 that saw Motta win Coach of the Year. They won their first playoff series and reached their first Conference Finals in 1974 and the following year saw them win the Midwest Division for the first time ever. The Bulls lost in the Conference Finals to the Milwaukee Bucks in 1974 and the Golden State Warriors in 1975 (each of whom ended up winning the Finals). In eight seasons, the Bulls were top five in least points allowed per game (with three times being 1st), which made up for an offense that made the top seven in points scored per game once. The 1975-76 team struggled to just 24 wins and in May 1976, Motta was given permission to inquire about the coaching job for the Washington Bullets (recently departed by K.C. Jones*), which he accepted.
Motta had inherited a team that had legends such as Elvin Hayes (a solid presence of 50,000 NBA minutes) and Wes Unseld (the ultimate team player with sore knees) and had made the playoffs every year since 1969 (as started with Unsung HOF candidate Gene Shue) and reached the Finals in 1971 and 1975. The 1976-77 Bullets won the same amount of games as the previous team did with 48 and lost in the same round in the Conference semifinals. In the first 20 games, the Bullets went 13-7 but the team struggled in the middle part, even getting to one game over .500 at 27-26. However, with acquisitions such as backup guard Charles Johnson (who Hayes gave credit as the last key piece), the team stabilized enough to finish 44-38, which actually was the third best in the 11-team Eastern Conference. They defeated the #1 seed Philadelphia 76ers in six games to reach the NBA Finals for the third time in the decade. They met the 47-35 (#4 seed) Seattle SuperSonics in the Finals in (currently) the last Finals where both teams had less than 50 wins. In a 1-2-2-1-1 format that went from May 21 to June 7, the Sonics won two of the first three games, Washington won the only OT game in Game 4 and the Sonics won Game 5 to put the Bullets on the wall. The Bullets routed the Sonics 117-82 to force Game 7. Even with a Hayes foul-out, Unseld and company held firm and managed to win 105-99. No road team won a Finals Game 7 again until 2016. The Bullets were the third team in the 1970s ('75 Warriors, '77 Trail Blazers) to win the championship with less than 50 regular season wins and the last until the 1994-95 Rockets. The .537 winning percentage is the lowest for an NBA champion, perhaps saying more about how good the team really was when it came to the playoffs. The 1978-79 Bullets ended up winning 54 games and were the best of the whole Eastern Conference. They narrowly overcame a 3-1 series deficit to the Spurs to reach the Finals once again. Washington faced Seattle in the Finals once again. They narrowly won Game 1 at home but the Sonics worked their magic this time, winning the next four games in various ways (12 and 10 in Game 2 and 3, an OT win in Game 4, and a four-point win in Game 5) to get their revenge. With an aging roster for 1979-80, the Bullets went 39-43 to finish 6th in the conference. They lost in the First Round in two games to Philadelphia. Motta departed after the season.
In July 1980, Motta was hired as the first ever head coach of the Dallas Mavericks. The team (with Norm Sonju as GM) had a bad first year (as one does when people such as Kiki Vandeweghe refuse to play for them), going 15-67, but at least Brad Davis (a free agent found in December) shined enough to be a regular on the team for years to come. Mark Aguirre and Rolando Blackman got drafted the following year and the team gradually rose in wins, managing to go from 15 to 28 (1981-82) to 38 (1982-83) to 43 wins in 1983-84 and reach the playoffs. They reached the playoffs four straight times from 1984 to 1987 and in Motta's last neat season, the 1986-87 team won the Midwest Division title with 55 wins, but playoff success eluded the team, which never made it to the Conference Finals. He resigned unexpectedly in May in 1987 and was out of the NBA until January 1990, when he was lured out of "retirement" to coach the Sacramento Kings, who were 7-21 at the time. With players such as a busted Ralph Sampson and Danny Ainge, the (historically terrible*) Kings finished 23-59. The 1990-91 team, aided with having four first-round picks, proceeded to go 25-57 and went 1-40 on the road. The 1991-92 saw the team at 7-18 when he told a radio station he planned to resign at the end of the year...the Kings fired him that same day, which happened to be Christmas Eve. The Mavs brought him as an unpaid consultant in the middle of the disasterous 1993-94 season (13 wins) and hired him as coach for 1994. He went 36-46 and 26-56 before being re-assigned as a consultant. He coached one more season as a coach with Denver after being hired in November 1996 to replace Bernie Bickerstaff's 4-9 team. They went 21-61 in what was Motta's last ride. For a number of years, Motta ran a bed and breakfast with his wife. The only recognition Motta has received is the Chuck Daly Lifetime Achievement Award in 2015, where the National Basketball Coaches Association gives an award for a coach's longtime life in basketball.
With practices that Motta described once as "PRE-CIS-ION" that relied on instincts and sets he called "automatics" to give players the convenience to pass and the freedom to execute the plays, Motta's teams won 900 games. Fourteen coaches have 900 wins, and all but Rick Carlisle and Motta are in the Hall of Fame with the induction of Doc Rivers in 2026. Now, there might be a rib about inducting a coach with a sub .500 record. I present Exhibit A as the perfect counterpoint, where I compare Motta to one Hall of Fame member with 900 wins and one title. Dick Motta did not believe he would make the Basketball Hall of Fame in his lifetime because of the "very political" election process, one that you have to remember is so "transparent" that you don't even get to know the voting totals. The weird expansiveness of the Hall in trying to be a comprehensive Hall has achieved the dubious goal of ignoring a 90-year-old coach with over 900 wins for people such as Mike D'Antoni. In the past 15 years, Dick Motta was a finalist in 2011, 2012...and 2026. But even though people like Jerry Colangelo wouldn't know a Hall of Famer when they see one, this Unsung Hall can. Enjoy this one picture of clear and obvious proof of how good Dick Motta was compared to a Hall of Fame member.
For those curious, Fitch (who like Motta had a winning record with two of the five teams he coached) has just one edge: he appeared in the Conference Finals five times while Motta appeared four times. Other than that, I rest my case.
On behalf of the Unsung Hall of Fame, it is my privilege to welcome Dick Motta to the Hall.
N O T E S
Photo credit: File:Dick Motta 1971.JPG - Wikimedia Commons
*Phil Johnson, who was a player on the Grace team, was an assistant coach to Motta at Weber before succeeding Motta as head coach. In 1975, as coach of the Kansas City Kings, he won the NBA Coach of the Year award.
*Speaking of the lackadaisical consistency of the Hall of Fame: K. C. Jones won two NBA championships and 552 games as a head coach, which is more than the 341 games won by Bill Russell, the only other African American coach to have won multiple NBA championships...but Jones isn't in the Hall as a coach, only as a player while Russell is for both.
*The Kings are the only franchise you could say has failed in four straight places: Cincinnati, Kansas City, Omaha (yes, they played games in both places), and Sacramento. Four Hall of Fame coaches coached there in the past 48 years with Cotton Fitzsimmons, Bill Russell, Rick Adelman, and George Karl and not even they could make the team anything. They may very well be cursed for daring to win a title in Rochester of all places.
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