Wednesday, 11 December 2024

Jack McClosky

Contest: The US Athletic Hall of Fame - Contributors 2024
Sport(s): Basketball Executive
Statistics: 2 NBA Championships (1989 & 1990)

*48-116 NBA Record
*216-194 NCAA Record
*1 Ivy League Regular Season Championship

*As a coach
Jack McCloskey made it to the NBA for one game in 1953 when he suited up for the Philadelphia Warriors, and three years later, he was employed again in the Keystone State when he was named as Penn’s head coach. After a decade, McClosky went to Wake Forest, and after an overall 216-194, he was back in the NBA as a coach with the Portland Trail Blazers.

McCloskey’s Trail Blazers were not well-manned, and he had a poor record of only 48 wins against 116 losses before he was released. McCloskey joined Jerry West as his assistant head coach in Los Angeles, where after many productive seasons, he expected to obtain West’s job as head coach after he was promoted to general manager. When that didn’t happen, a better offer as the general manager of the Detroit Pistons came up, and it was in Motown where his best period in basketball occurred.

McCloskey became known as "Trader Jack," and he methodically built the bad boy Pistons teams that rumbled their way to two NBA Championships in 1989 and 1990. This was no easy task as the NBA was loaded with super-teams in the Lakers and the rapidly improving Chicago Bulls, but through shrewd drafting and trades that turned out to be lopsided in his favor, the Pistons had their best period in the NBA.

He left the Pistons in 1992 and would later work in the front office for the Minnesota Timberwolves and Toronto Raptors.

We are proud to nominate Jack McClosky for the United States Athletic Hall of Fame.

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