Flip Saunders
Ex-Detroit Pistons coach Flip Saunders, who chalked up more than 1,000 victories over a 35-year coaching career that included stints with the Minnesota Timberwolves and Washington Wizards, died Sunday of cancer at age 60, ESPN reports.
He coached 17 seasons in the NBA and was trying to rebuild the Minnesota Timberwolves as team president, coach and part owner at the time of his death.
ESPN reported:
Saunders announced in August that he was being treated for Hodgkin's lymphoma. Doctors considered it "very treatable and curable," and Saunders at the time said he planned to remain the Timberwolves' head coach and president of basketball operations. However, he was hospitalized following a setback in September, and it was announced Friday that Saunders would miss the entire 2015-16 season.
He became an NBA coach in 1996 with the Timberwolves, but was fired in 2005. He took over the Pistons the very next year and proceeded to lead them to an eye-popping 64 victories, a franchise record that still stands today.
That team advanced to the Eastern Conference Finals, but was ousted by the Miami Heat. Saunders guided the Pistons to the East Finals the next two years as well, but came up short against the Cavs and Celtics. His career consisted of four different trips to the NBA's final four, but never did he make it to the championship round.
Amazingly, despite the Pistons franchise employing six different head coaches since the departure of Saunders, he remains the last one to lead the team to a playoff victory, that coming in Game 4 vs. Boston in 2008, a full 2,708 days ago.
Saunders is one of just ten NBA coaches in the history of the game to lead both an East and West team to their respective conference finals.
It was as recently as this August that doctors labeled Saunders' cancer as "very treatable," but unfortunately for him and the rest of the basketball world, things took a devastating turn for the worse in the time since.
He leaves behind his wife and four children, one of whom, Ryan, currently serves as an assistant coach for the Timberwolves.
