Jeff Bzdelik
Bzdelik in 2013.
|
|
| Houston Rockets | |
|---|---|
| Position | Lead Assistant coach |
| League | NBA |
| Personal information | |
| Born |
December 1, 1952 Mount Prospect, Illinois |
| Nationality | American |
| Career information | |
| College | UIC (1975–1977) |
| Coaching career | 1978–present |
| Career history | |
| As coach: | |
| 1978–1980 | Davidson (asst.) |
| 1980–1986 | Northwestern (asst.) |
| 1986–1988 | UMBC |
| 1988–1994 | Washington Bullets (asst.) |
| 1994–1995 | New York Knicks (scout) |
| 1995–2001 | Miami Heat (asst.) |
| 2001–2002 | Denver Nuggets (scout) |
| 2002–2004 | Denver Nuggets |
| 2005–2007 | Air Force |
| 2007–2010 | Colorado |
| 2010–2014 | Wake Forest |
| 2014–2016 | Memphis Grizzlies (assistant) |
| 2016–present | Houston Rockets (assistant) |
Jeffrey Joseph Bzdelik (born December 1, 1952) is an American basketball coach who is associate head coach of the Houston Rockets of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He was head coach of the Denver Nuggets in the NBA for slightly over two seasons, from 2002 until he was fired near the end of 2004.
Bzdelik earned four varsity letters while playing basketball at the University of Illinois-Chicago, and was named team MVP in ’75-76. He also spent six years in the Army National Guard.
Bzdelik began his coaching career in 1978 as an assistant at Davidson College in North Carolina. He moved to Northwestern University in 1980, where he spent six seasons as an assistant, helping the Wildcats to their first NIT appearance in school history. He then took the head coaching position at the University of Maryland-Baltimore County for two years.
Washington Bullets coach Wes Unseld hired Bzdelik as an assistant in 1988. He stayed there until Unseld resigned in 1994. He then took a scouting position with Pat Riley and the New York Knicks before moving with Riley to the Miami Heat the next season as an assistant coach and advance scout. In 1997, Sports Illustrated named Bzdelik the NBA's best advance scout. In 2000, USA Today named him one of the NBA's top five assistants.
Bzdelik was hired in 2001 by the Denver Nuggets to be their East Coast scout. He was promoted to assistant coach in July 2002 and impressed team management by going 6-0 in the Rocky Mountain Revue summer league and motivating the team's young players. He was named the head coach of the Nuggets on August 21, 2002. The team struggled in his first year, winning just 17 games. They bounced back in his second season to finish with 43 wins, reaching the postseason for the first time since 1995 before losing in the first round to eventual Western Conference finalist Minnesota. The Nuggets improved their win total by 26 games – the most ever by a team that won less than 20 games the year before and at the time the sixth-best single-season improvement in NBA history. His club also became the first in the history of the NBA to go from less than 20 wins to the playoffs the next year (since going to an 82-game schedule in 1976).
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