NBA Hall of Famer Dies

Legendary NBA Hall of Famer Dies

A basketball era came to a close Sunday with the death of Don Nelson, the Hall of Fame coach and five-time NBA champion whose family confirmed his passing at age 86. No cause of death has been made public.

The announcement came directly from Nelson’s family, relayed through NBA reporter Marc Stein. Their statement painted a picture of a peaceful final week surrounded by loved ones.

“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,” the family wrote. “Throughout his last week, friends and family encircled him with love, sharing the blessing of his friendship and revisiting treasured memories.”

Long before he became known as one of basketball’s most inventive strategic minds, Nelson made his name as a champion on the court. The 6-foot-6 forward spent his prime years with the Boston Celtics, where he helped capture five NBA titles.

Nelson’s professional journey began far from Boston, however. The Chicago Zephyrs drafted him in the third round out of the University of Iowa back in 1962. 

A brief stop with the Los Angeles Lakers followed before he found his championship footing in Boston. Across 14 seasons as a player, he averaged 10.3 points and 4.9 rebounds per game.

It was his second act, though, that cemented his legacy. Nelson’s coaching career launched in 1976 as an assistant with the Milwaukee Bucks — a role he expected to hold for years. 

Fate had other plans. When head coach Larry Costello resigned that November after a dismal 3-15 start, the job fell to Nelson, then just 36 years old.

“I expected to be an assistant at least two years, maybe longer, before trying for a head coaching job,” Nelson admitted at the time, according to the New York Times. “I don’t have the most experience in the world.”

Despite the doubts, Nelson never returned to an assistant role again. 

He commanded the Bucks’ sideline until 1988, claiming Coach of the Year honors twice, in 1983 and 1985, while pushing Milwaukee to at least 50 wins in seven straight seasons.

A one-year hiatus preceded his next chapter: taking charge of the Golden State Warriors starting in the 1988-89 season. 

He remained there until resigning in February 1995, exiting with a 14-31 record but not before earning a third Coach of the Year trophy in 1992.

New York came calling next. The Knicks tapped Nelson as Pat Riley’s successor for the 1995-96 campaign, but the marriage soured fast — he was let go after only 59 games.

Dallas became the site of his next transformation. 

Joining the Mavericks in 1997-98, Nelson helped steer the franchise toward relevance, notably during the draft that brought Dirk Nowitzki to Dallas at the ninth overall pick in 1998. Within a few seasons, the long-struggling Mavericks were back in playoff contention.

Nelson’s career came full circle when he returned to Golden State for a second tour, inheriting a Warriors squad that had missed the playoffs since his earlier exit. 

His comeback season delivered an instant classic: the No. 8-seeded Warriors toppled the top-seeded Mavericks in a first-round playoff upset.

The Warriors never returned to the postseason during the remainder of Nelson’s tenure, but his final years on the bench held historic significance. 

He coached a rookie guard named Stephen Curry, whose statement Sunday credited Nelson as a driving force behind his own NBA journey.

“One of the big reasons I was drafted by the Warriors” traced back to Nelson, Curry said. “The story is he never liked rookies,” Curry continued, “but from Day 1 he challenged me and gave me an opportunity to be my best self on the court. … He had an immeasurable impact on the sport and will go down as one of the greatest minds in the history of the game. He’s a true icon and will be missed by the countless number of people he touched, including myself, during a legendary career.”

By the time he stepped away from coaching in September 2010, Nelson had amassed 1,335 career victories, a total that ranks second in NBA history behind only San Antonio’s Gregg Popovich. 

His resume includes three Coach of the Year awards across three different decades.

Nelson’s fingerprints remain on the modern game through “Nellie Ball,” his signature system that prioritized speed and smaller lineups over traditional size, and helped introduce the point-forward concept to basketball vocabulary.

“Most of all I wanted to have all my best players on the court at the same time — regardless of position,” Nelson explained in a 2016 essay for The Players’ Tribune.

Tributes poured in from across the basketball world following news of his death. 

The Warriors organization honored him as “a true basketball visionary who saw the game differently and was never afraid to challenge conventional thinking.” Chris Mullin, his former player during Golden State’s “Run TMC” period, said Nelson “was more than a coach to me,” while teammate Mitch Richmond noted simply that Nelson “made the game fun.” Fellow “Run TMC” member Tim Hardaway added, “Nellie was ahead of his time, and there was nobody else like him.” Nowitzki, meanwhile, credited Nelson with recognizing “things in my game before I ever realized I could do them.”

Nelson’s basketball journey reached its formal capstone in 2012, when he was enshrined in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

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