Richie Adubato, a long-time NBA and WNBA head coach, died Thursday, his family confirmed. He was 87.
Adubato worked his way up the NBA coaching ranks, serving as an assistant in 13 of his 19 seasons in the league. After a handful of failed head-coaching stint, Adubato moved over to the WNBA, where he experienced immediate success.
After joining the WNBA as the New York Liberty coach in 1999, Adubato led the team to the Finals in two straight seasons. After falling short of the Finals in 2001, Adubato got the team back there in 2002, making the Finals in three of his first four years as the Liberty’s head coach. Despite that success, the Liberty lost all three appearances, two to the Houston Comets and one to the Los Angeles Sparks.
Adubato spent two more seasons with the Liberty before finishing out his coaching career with the Washington Mystics from 2005 to 2007.
After playing college basketball at William Paterson, Adubato got into coaching at the college level. He eventually joined Dick Vitale’s staff with the Detroit Pistons. When Vitale was fired in 1979, Adubato was selected to replace the coach. Adubato went 12-58 the rest of the way, and was not brought back by the team.
Adubato returned to the NBA and spent seven seasons as an assistant before he got another head-coaching opportunity. Adubato spent three-and-a-half years coaching the Dallas Mavericks. After going 42-29 in his first season, Adubato went 52-141 the rest of the way. He was fired in the middle of the 1992-93 NBA season. Adubato spent four more seasons as an assistant around the league before getting one final opportunity in the NBA in 1996-97, when he took over the Orlando Magic following Brian Hill’s dismissal. Adubato went 21-12 and led the team to the playoffs, but was not retained.
Following that dismissal, Adubato spent a few years out of the game before re-emerging with the Liberty. He posted a 100-78 record with the franchise.
The Liberty paid tribute to Adubato in a post on X on Saturday.
Toward the end of his time in the WNBA, Adubato began serving as a radio analyst for the Magic. He served in that position until 2020.