Written by Brendan Bowers | 07 February 2010

According to an FBI report released to the AP recently, following the passing of former Pistons Coach Chuck Daly, there were some nut-jobs in Cleveland sending Daly death threats after his Bad Boys roughed up the Cavaliers during a series of games in 1989.  At the time, Daly was in the midst of winning back-to-back NBA titles as the coach of the Pistons.  This was before he also went on to win Olympic Gold as head coach of the Dream Team, and after former Cavaliers owner Ted Stepien found it necessary to fire him as head coach of the Cavs.  Great call Ted.  According to the report, one of the threats arrived shortly after Mark Price suffered a concussion courtesy of a Rick Mahorn elbow.

Via NBA.com:

"One letter, mailed from Cleveland and postmarked April 24, 1989, arrived about two months after Cavaliers guard Mark Price suffered a concussion following a Rick Mahorn elbow, and three months after Cleveland's Brad Daugherty and Detroit's Bill Laimbeer had an on-court fistfight."

Photo Credit: Cleveland.com 

According to the report, the psychotic Cavs fan included the following details in the threatening letter:

"God made me realize that YOU, not Laimbeer, Mahorn or any of the others are the one possessed by (Satan)," the author wrote in the one-page handwritten letter addressed to "Mr. Chuck Daly." 

Apparently Chuck Daly wasn't too shook up about theses threats though.  He never made any public statements about the threatening letters, and Rick Mahorn as well as Joe Dumars recently said they never heard anything about any of these threats directed towards their coach prior to this report.  Chuck Daly - the Hall of Famer - was 78 when he died last year.  The author of the this particular letter, as well as a series of others he received stating he would "pay dearly," remain unknown. 

Reference: NBA.com

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