CLEVELAND — Invoice Fitch, who guided the Boston Celtics to certainly one of their championships throughout a Corridor of Fame teaching profession spanning three a long time, has died. He was 89.
A two-time NBA coach of the 12 months, Fitch died Wednesday in Lake Conroe, Texas. Fitch’s daughter, Marcy Ann Coville, advised Indiana Pacers coach Rick Carlisle her father was surrounded by household. The reason for demise was not instantly identified.
Fitch coached for 25 seasons within the NBA, beginning with the growth Cleveland Cavaliers in 1970. He was Larry Chook’s first professional coach with Boston in 1979, received a title with the Celtics in 1981 and hung out with Houston, New Jersey and the Los Angeles Clippers.
Whereas he had his biggest success in Boston, Fitch could also be finest remembered for his early seasons with the Cavs.
He helped develop a younger staff that received simply 15 video games in its first season earlier than making the playoffs in 1976 and stunning the Washington Bullets in what grew to become often known as the “Miracle of Richfield.”
Fitch was chosen coach of the 12 months that season.
“Coach Fitch earned the love and respect of his Cavaliers gamers as he embedded a excessive normal of accountability and a perception system that he felt was a mirrored image of the staff’s motto as a ‘group of daring, fearless males, whose life’s pact was by no means give up, it doesn't matter what the percentages,’ one thing that continues to be significantly valued by these he coached and labored with on and off the courtroom,” the Cavs mentioned in an announcement.
“Coach Fitch was an excellent pal and trusted mentor and instructor to so many throughout your entire basketball neighborhood, whereas his impression on the sport, and the lives of these he touched, spanned a number of generations. He grew to become a life-long pal to many members of the Cavaliers group.”
Fitch was employed by Crimson Auerbach and the Celtics in 1979, the identical 12 months Chook arrived in Boston, which was coming off the 2 worst seasons within the famed franchise’s historical past. The Celtics went 61-21 in Fitch’s first season and received the championship the next 12 months by beating the Rockets in six video games.
“Fitch’s deep data of the sport, toughness, and dry wit made him an ideal match for Boston and the Celtics,” the staff mentioned in an announcement. “Fitch had already constructed a status as a turnaround artist, and his means to get the perfect out of his gamers paid instant dividends as Fitch orchestrated what was on the time the perfect turnaround in NBA historical past, vaulting to a 61-21 file.”
Fitch went 242-86 in his 4 seasons in Boston.
He went from there to Houston for 5 seasons (1983-88), taking the Rockets to the Finals in 1986 with a staff powered by Hakeem Olajuwon and Ralph Sampson.
Fitch joined the Nets in 1989 and took a younger staff that received simply 17 video games in his first season to 40 victories and a playoff berth in his third 12 months.
He wrapped up his teaching odyssey with the woebegone Clippers, main them to the playoffs in his third season earlier than retiring in 1998.
Fitch, who had a 944-1106 file, was elected to the Nationwide Basketball Corridor of Fame in 2019.
Born in Davenport, Iowa, Fitch coached at his alma mater, Coe School, earlier than stops at Minnesota, Bowling Inexperienced and North Dakota, the place he noticed promise in a younger ahead named Phil Jackson, who went on to win 10 NBA titles as a coach.
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