He will be remembered around the DFW area as a Dallas Mavericks coaching and front office legend, but as large as his presence loomed over the franchise he guided from utter dormancy to perennial power, the basketball moments Don Nelson authored outside of his time with the Mavericks are his most impactful.
Nelson passed away at age 86 on Sunday. At the time of his passing, Nelson had been living full-time on Maui, Hawaii, specifically in a home overlooking the ocean in Kihei.
His family issued the
following statement, first reported by NBA insider Marc Stein:
“On Sunday morning our beloved husband, dad, grandfather and great-grandfather Don Nelson peacefully went to be with the Lord, surrounded by his loving family. Throughout his last week, friends and family encircled him with love, sharing the blessing of his friendship and revisiting treasured memories.”
Nelson will be remembered as an innovator and a maverick, befitting the name of the franchise he coached from 1997-2005, a giant of the game he spent his life dedicated to and a fun-loving, unforgettable figure. He advocated for wildfire relief in Maui and for cannabis reform outside the game.
He arrived in Dallas in 1997, taking on the tall task of revitalizing a stagnant Mavericks franchise. He immediately jettisoned Oliver Miller, the overweight and chronically unhappy center.
“I read where Miller said he doesn’t care anymore, and I don’t want people like that around,” Nelson said, according to the Los Angeles Times. “I don’t want anybody on my basketball team who doesn’t care.”
He was already the sixth-winningest NBA head coach ever when he came to Dallas, after being fired by the New York Knicks the year prior. He replaced Jim Cleamons as head coach late in the 1996-97 campaign.
“I thought I would be coming back to the NBA as a coach,” he told the Times. “Not many of these [general manager] jobs open up. I’m as surprised as anyone here.”
Nelson continued to surprise us all throughout his tenure as the Mavs’ coach and GM.
His first two seasons with the Mavericks were not successful, perhaps even steps back from the team’s 24-58 record in 1996-97, but as Dirk Nowitzki began to develop into the game-changing star that Mavs fans would come to know and love, Nelson’s stock, and his team’s, began to soar.
The Mavs went 40-42 in 1999-2000, then embarked on an 11-year run of 50 wins or more, the first five of which came under Nelson’s tutelage. His son and future Mavericks’ GM Donnie Nelson is credited with initially scouting and “discovering” the otherworldly talent hiding in Wurtzburg, Germany, and Don and Donnie did their best to hide Nowitzki’s raw, game-changing talent from other front offices early on in that process.
Don Nelson watched Nowitzki train for the first time at the Downtown Dallas YMCA, leading Nelson to call the future star “the most unbelievable young player” he had ever seen. He literally hid the teenage Nowitzki in his basement for a time before Nowitzki was drafted ninth overall by the team in 1998.
Nelson was also integral in point guard Steve Nash’s development. Nowitzki and Nash would lead the Mavericks to 57 wins in 2001-02 and 60 more the next year. Dallas would lose in the Western Conference Finals both seasons before Nash departed for Phoenix in the summer of 2004.
Outside of his time with the Mavericks, Nelson will be remembered for scoring a Game 7-securing insurance bucket in the 1969 NBA Finals, when he played for Red Auerbach’s Boston Celtics. His shot from near the right elbow bounced high off the back of the rim and straight in, as is guided through the net by the basketball gods. It will be forever remembered as one of the biggest moments in late-game championship history.
“[Auerbach] called me up and said, ‘What do you think about Nelson?’” Tommy Heinsohn, Basketball Hall of Famer in the class of 1986 and Auerbach’s assistant, said. “I said, ‘This guy is slower than the turtle. But I’m going to tell you something, Red. He is a terrific offensive player. He can score.”
He would go on to win five championships as a player and three NBA Coach of the Year titles during his 31 seasons roaming the sidelines. Including his 14-year playing career, he spent 45 years in the professional game. He is a titan among titans. An icon who left an ever-lasting impact on every franchise he touched, from his start in Boston to his late coaching run with the Golden State Warriors, where he led the eight-seeded “We Believe” bunch to a first-round playoff win over his former team, the Mavericks, in the 2006-07 playoffs.
The Mavericks won 67 games that regular season, but that old rascal Don Nelson knew a little something about how to bring down the team he had built into the best in the West.
Rest easy, coach Nelson. The game you loved with every ounce of your soul mourns your loss today.
And now, he’s ante’d up at the Great Card Game in the Sky.
