With three games left in the regular season, David Adelman was asked to take the helm. The firing of Michael Malone, an uncalled-for event that landed the Hall of Fame coach’s son the head coaching job for the Nuggets. Yes, it was luck, and Adelman made the most of it. However, such accidental incidents have dictated Adelman’s life since childhood. Rather, one such time helped the doctors realize a major medical disease within him.

As the son of Rick Adelman, the Nuggets’ interim head coach, spent his entire childhood in the locker room. At the age of 12, he found himself alone in the Trail Blazers locker room. He wanted a glimpse of an NBA sneaker belonging to Jerome Kersey. But it being out of reach, the lone Adelman went up on a stool and lost his balance.

“Landed directly on my left side. And thank God I fell on that side,” he told The Athletic. This wasn’t gratitude that he avoided falling chest-first. David Adelman was actually thankful that the fall happened, because it revealed a major problem with his left kidney.

“The fall revealed a hidden ailment with which he was born — a blockage in his left kidney, which could overwork his right kidney and lead to a rupture. Less than 36 hours after his fall, he was in surgery,” The Athletic wrote. If nothing happened, the blockage could have caused far severe repercussions later in life.

However, the fall caused by a curious mind ended up being life-saving. The surgery did have some complications. Adelman is only 5’9″. Both his father, Rick, and brother are over 6 feet tall. It also impacted his appearance. His sister revealed, “He was kind of a weird color for a while,”.

But the long stay in the hospital, being around patients and observing their families, gave him a new outlook on life. The perspective is now helping him become a better coach.

David Adelman’s experience shaped his philosophy

Generally, childhood memories are hard to recall. But profound instances remain in some part of the mind. David Adelman’s experience in the hospital was something like that. While spending regular time at the hospital for a year, the Nuggets’ interim head coach shared a room with two patients suffering from cancer.

Day in and day out, he would see both sets of families react differently. Everybody had their own way of handling the pain caused by seeing a loved one in that state. So Adelman reached a realisation. No matter how a person portrays themselves, there’s always something deeper to unearth.

“I think it’s helped me with leadership in a way because you feel like you should recognize everybody in the room, because you don’t know what everyone is going through,” he said of the learnings from his experience.

That allowed him to set a repo around the Nuggets before he incidentally became the head coach. For eight years as an assistant, he built genuine connections with players and staff. So when it was time to make the transition, all the Nuggets players had high respect for him. Nikola Jokic even credited him for ‘changing the energy‘ of the group.

That’s because everyone matters for Adelman, not just the stars. “I think what came from that experience (staying in the children’s hospital) was it made me want to really be there for everybody in a way … not just the main people who are going to play,” he explained.

His style of leadership sat well with the Denver Nuggets. And although they failed to make it further than last year, the players all advocated for David Adelman. They want to see how an entire season with his involvement and attention to detail impacts the squad. And while a decision isn’t made, team governor Josh Kroenke admitted feeling proud of Adelman’s efforts in tough times for the team.

If that can be taken as an indication, most people from the Nuggets organisation want to see David Adelman prosper as their head coach.