Early coaching career

After graduating from Utah State University, Motta started coaching at Grace, Idaho, where he taught seventh grade and coached for two years before being drafted in the armed services. He once said in an interview that winning the 1959 Idaho state high school championship was his greatest thrill as a coach, even topping the NBA championship he won two decades later.

Motta coached at Weber State University in Ogden, Utah in the 1960s. Under the direction of Motta and assistant coach Phil Johnson, Weber State won three Big Sky championships. The first Big Sky Championship the duo experienced while at Weber State was in 1965.

NBA coaching career

With Chicago Bulls 1968-1977

Motta was hired as head coach of the Chicago Bulls in 1968 after a six-year stint at Weber State University. From 1970 to 1974 he led the Bulls to four consecutive seasons of 50 wins or more, winning the NBA Coach of the Year Award in 1971.

With Washington Bullets (1977-80) & Dallas Mavericks (1980-87)

In 1976, Motta left the Bulls to coach the Washington Bullets, with whom he won an NBA Championship in 1978. After two more seasons with the Bullets, he became the first coach of the Dallas Mavericks, whom he led to a 55-27 record in 1986-87. Motta also served with the Sacramento Kings and Denver Nuggets before retiring in 1997.

Motta holds the unique distinction of being one of the very few coaches in the NBA who never played either high school, college or pro basketball.

"The opera isn't over 'til the fat lady sings!"

Motta is sometimes erroneously credited with coining the celebrated phrase: The opera ain't over 'til the fat lady sings. In fact, the first recorded use of the phrase was by Texas Tech sports information director Ralph Carpenter, as reported in the Dallas Morning News on 10 March 1976.

During a KENS-TV broadcast of the 1978 NBA Eastern Conference semi-finals between the Washington Bullets and the San Antonio Spurs, Cook used the phrase in an attempt to encourage Spurs fans, as their team was down three games to one against the Bullets. Motta heard the broadcast and adopted his own rendition of the expression — "The 'opera' isn't over 'til the fat lady sings" — to warn Bullets fans against braggadocio.

The odds were against the underdog Bullets, and sportswriters were forecasting a grim finale, so Motta rebounded with the upbeat ostinato, "Wait for the fat lady!" The Bullets won the Eastern Conference against the Atlantic Division Champion Philadelphia 76ers, and went on to beat the Western Conference Champion Seattle SuperSonics four games to three for the 1978 NBA title.

The victory gave Washington, D.C. area fans their first professional championship team in any sport since the Washington Redskins won the National Football League title in 1942. (The basketball team played its home games in nearby Landover, Maryland.) In Motta's second year as coach, the Bullets (the Washington "Wizards", as of 1997) had become only the third team to win the NBA championship in a seventh game on the road. That 1978 championship remains the franchise's only NBA championship.

After the climactic Game 7 victory to claim the title, Motta celebrated with his team wearing a beer-soaked The Opera Isn't Over 'Til The Fat Lady Sings T-shirt.

What made the championship so great was that we weren’t supposed to win it. We came a long way. Most people didn’t give us a chance, but I felt all along we could. I really did. — Dick Motta

In a Nov. 5, 2003 interview in the Utah Statesman, the student newspaper of his alma mater Utah State University, Motta said opera lovers were angry with him at first. "My wife said they were going to kill me when I said that." But that as time passed, Motta said, he was extended friendly invitations to a variety of events with "operatic" themes ranging from the Metropolitan Opera in New York to the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville.

Head coaching record

Legend
Regular season	G	Games coached	W	Games won	L	Games lost	W-L %	Win-loss %
Post season	PG	Playoff games	PW	Playoff wins	PL	Playoff losses	PW-L %	Playoff win-loss %

Team	Year	G	W	L	W-L%	Finish	PG	PW	PL	PW-L%	Result
Chicago	1968-69	82	33	49	.402	5th in West	—	—	—	—	Missed Playoffs
Chicago	1969-70	82	39	43	.476	3rd in West	5	1	4	.200	Lost in Division Semifinals
Chicago	1970-71	82	51	31	.622	2nd in Midwest	7	3	4	.429	Lost in Conf. Semifinals
Chicago	1971-72	82	57	25	.695	2nd in Midwest	4	0	4	.000	Lost in Conf. Semifinals
Chicago	1972-73	82	51	31	.622	2nd in Midwest	7	3	4	.429	Lost in Conf. Semifinals
Chicago	1973-74	82	54	28	.659	2nd in Midwest	11	4	7	.364	Lost in Conf. Finals
Chicago	1974-75	82	47	35	.573	1st in Midwest	13	7	6	.538	Lost in Conf. Finals
Chicago	1975-76	82	24	58	.293	4th in Midwest	—	—	—	—	Missed Playoffs
Washington	1976-77	82	48	34	.585	2nd in Central	9	4	5	.444	Lost in Conf. Semifinals
Washington	1977-78	82	44	38	.537	2nd in Central	21	14	7	.667	Won NBA Championship
Washington	1978-79	82	54	28	.659	1st in Atlantic	19	9	10	.474	Lost in NBA Finals
Washington	1979-80	82	39	43	.476	3rd in Atlantic	2	0	2	.000	Lost in First Round
Dallas	1980-81	82	15	67	.183	6th in Midwest	—	—	—	—	Missed Playoffs
Dallas	1981-82	82	28	54	.341	5th in Midwest	—	—	—	—	Missed Playoffs
Dallas	1982-83	82	38	44	.463	4th in Midwest	—	—	—	—	Missed Playoffs
Dallas	1983-84	82	43	39	.524	2nd in Midwest	10	4	6	.400	Lost in Conf. Semifinals
Dallas	1984-85	82	44	38	.537	3rd in Midwest	4	1	3	.250	Lost in First Round
Dallas	1985-86	82	44	38	.537	3rd in Midwest	10	5	5	.500	Lost in Conf. Semifinals
Dallas	1986-87	82	55	27	.671	1st in Midwest	4	1	3	.250	Lost in First Round
Sacramento	1989-90	54	16	38	.296	7th in Pacific	—	—	—	—	Missed Playoffs
Sacramento	1990-91	82	25	57	.305	7th in Pacific	—	—	—	—	Missed Playoffs
Sacramento	1991-92	25	7	18	.280	(fired)	—	—	—	—	—
Dallas	1994-95	61	36	46	.439	5th in Midwest	—	—	—	—	Missed Playoffs
Dallas	1995-96	82	26	56	.317	5th in Midwest	—	—	—	—	Missed Playoffs
Denver	1996-97	69	17	52	.246	5th in Midwest	—	—	—	—	Missed Playoffs
Career		1,952	935	1,017	.479		126	56	70	.444

[ Source: Wikipedia ]