Frank Hamblen, Phil Jackson’s Assistant in Title Runs, Dies at 70
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Version 0 of 1. Frank Hamblen, an assistant coach who helped Phil Jackson win seven N.B.A. championships during his dynasty years as head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers and Chicago Bulls, died on Saturday near his home in the suburbs of San Diego. He was 70. His former wife, Uta Hamblen, said he died after a heart attack. An assistant coach in the National Basketball Association and the American Basketball Association for four decades, Hamblen joined Jackson in Chicago in 1996, prompting the Bulls superstar Michael Jordan to promise Hamblen the success that had eluded him as a coach. “Frank’s a guy who has never experienced winning in the N.B.A.,” Jordan told The New York Times that November. “I told him at the beginning of the season, ‘Frank, we’re going to get you a ring.’ ” Jordan, who averaged 29.6 points per game that season, and the rest of the Bulls, including Scottie Pippen and Dennis Rodman, delivered. Hamblen stayed with the Bulls for two of its six title runs under Jackson. With Jackson retiring after the 1997-98 campaign, Hamblen stayed on in Chicago for another season. But when Jackson came out of retirement to coach the Lakers in 1999, Hamblen rejoined him in Los Angeles. The Lakers won the next three consecutive N.B.A. championships with stars like Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal. When Jackson walked away from basketball again before the 2005-6 season, Rudy Tomjanovich became the Lakers’ head coach and Hamblen stayed on as his assistant. And when Tomjanovich stepped down in midseason for health reasons in 2006, Hamblen took the reins as the Lakers went 10-29 down the stretch. He stayed on again as an assistant after Jackson returned as head coach for the 2006-7 campaign. Hamblen then helped the team win back-to-back championships, beginning in 2008-9. He retired when Jackson left the Lakers, this time for good, in 2011. Frank Allen Hamblen was born on April 16, 1947, in Terre Haute, Ind. He played basketball for Syracuse University, as forward and guard, and was named captain in his senior year. He graduated in 1969 and went straight into the N.B.A., becoming a scout for the San Diego Rockets (now the Houston Rockets). He coached for the Denver Rockets in the A.B.A. (now the Nuggets in the N.B.A.) and, back in the N.B.A., for Houston, the Kansas City Kings (now in Sacramento) and the Milwaukee Bucks. Hamblen became the Bucks’ head coach after Del Harris resigned in 1991 and led the team to a disappointing 23-42 record before being replaced by Mike Dunleavy the next season. He married Uta Schroeder in 2001, and they divorced in 2013. He is survived by a sister, Susan Mardis. |