Pickleball tournaments and 3-on-3 basketball showdowns were the main events at the Adelman household. It was a gathering place for spirited competition and camaraderie among Portland Trail Blazer families during the 1980s and ‘90s, when Rick Adelman was still in the early stages of a Hall-of-Fame coaching career.
Erik Spoelstra’s fondest memories, though, are the tours he took of Rick’s home office after everyone tired of pickleball and finished eating lunch.
Stacks of VHS tapes and scouting reports filled the room, documents of a life in basketball. Spoelstra, whose dad worked for the Blazers, held deep admiration for Rick and always wanted to see the latest film he was studying.