Thursday, 21 November 2024

Rudy Tomjanovich

Contest: The US Athletic Hall of Fame - Coaches 2024
Embed from Getty Images
Sport(s): Basketball
Statistics: 2 NBA Championships (1994 & 1995)
1 Olympic Gold Medal (2000)
1 FIBA World Cup Bronze Medal (1998)
527-416 NBA Record
Member of the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame

*5 NBA All-Star Games (1974, 1975, 1976, 1977 & 1979)
*Number retired by the Houston Rockets
*Number retired by the University of Michigan

*As a player
Rudy Tomjanovich was an excellent basketball player, who had he not been punched in the face (a blow that derailed his career), could have been inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame. Tomjanovich came back but was never the same. As fate would have it, he would achieve bigger fame and success as a coach.

Retiring as a player in 1981, Tomjanovich stayed with the team he played for (Houston) as a scout before becoming an assistant coach for ten years. Tomjanovich was promoted to head coach in 1992, where in his first year, he became the first coach to take a team from the lottery to the division crown. The Rockets won the NBA Championship under "Rudy T" in 1994 and 1995. Tomjanovich's teams never won a title after, but he always made the best of the talents he had. Bladder cancer forced him to resign in 2003, though he did make a brief comeback with the Los Angeles Lakers as their head coach, which lasted only 41 games before he left due to mental and physical exhaustion.

Tomjanovich may not have entered the Basketball Hall of Fame as a player, but he did as a coach in 2020.

We are proud to nominate Rudy Tomjanovich for the United States Athletic Hall of Fame.

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