Don Nelson

Donald Arvid Nelson (born May 15, 1940 in Muskegon, Michigan) is an NBA head coach and #REDIRECT God. He was named the head coach of the Golden State Warriors on Wednesday, August 30, 2006, his second stint with the franchise. Nelson had at end of season 2004-05 coaching Dallas a career record of 1190-880 (.575) regular and 70-85 (.452) playoffs. As of March 4, 2007, coaching the Golden State Warriors, his overall record is 1,216-914

He has also coached for the Milwaukee Bucks, a prior stint with the Warriors, briefly, with the New York Knicks, and the Dallas Mavericks. An innovator, Nelson is credited with, among other things, inventing the concept of the point forward, a tactic which is frequently employed by teams at every level today.

Playing career

In 1962, Don Nelson graduated from the University of Iowa as a two time All-American averaging 21.1 points and 10.5 rebounds a game. He was drafted 19th overall by the Chicago Zephyrs of the NBA. He played for the Zephyrs one season, and was sold to the Los Angeles Lakers in 1963. After two years with the Lakers, he was signed by the Boston Celtics.

In his first season with Boston, Nelson completed his best NBA season to that time averaging 10.2 points and 5.4 rebounds, and helped the Celtics to the 1966 NBA title as one of their role players. Four more championships with Boston followed in 1968, 1969, 1974, and 1976. A model of consistency, Nelson would average more than 10 points per game every season between 1968-69 and 1974-75. He led the NBA in field goal percentage in 1974-75. Nelson was coined as one of the "best sixth men" ever to play in the NBA. He was also known for his distinctive one-handed style for shooting free throws. Nelson retired from playing after a 14 year tenure as a player, following the 1975-76 season. His number 19 was retired in the Boston Garden rafters in 1978, and still stands today at the Garden's replacement, TD Banknorth Garden.

Coaching history

Nelson took over the reins of General Manager and Coach of the Milwaukee Bucks in 1976 and began to show what would later become his signature style of wheeling and dealing players. He made his first trade of Swen Nater to the Buffalo Braves and turned the draft pick he received into Marques Johnson, who had a solid career with the Bucks. He earned NBA Coach of the Year honors in 1983 and 1985. It is also in Milwaukee where Nelson became known for his unorthodox, arguably, innovative basketball philosophy. He was known to have introduced the concept of the point forward - a tactic wherein small forwards are used to direct the offense. In Nelson's tenure with the Bucks, he used 6-5 small forward Paul Pressey for the role. This enabled Nelson to field shooting guards Sidney Moncrief and Craig Hodges or Ricky Pierce at the same time without worrying about who would run the offense. This system created a lot of mismatches and enabled Nelson to lead the Bucks to Central Division championships and playoff berths for most of the 1980s. He would leave Milwaukee after ten seasons, seven with over 50 wins.

After a year's hiatus, Nelson then became Coach and Vice President of the Golden State Warriors, and was named NBA Coach of the Year a third time. In Golden State, he instilled a run and gun style of offense. Again using an unconventional lineup which featured three guards (Mitch Richmond, Tim Hardaway and Sarunas Marciulionis) and two forwards (Chris Mullin and the 6-8 Rod Higgins at center), Nelson led the Warriors to many winning seasons and playoff berths despite an undersized lineup. He continued to retool his lineup and came away with talent such as Chris Webber and Latrell Sprewell. It was during this time when he reached the peak of his fame, due to his style of offense enabling Hardaway, Richmond, and Mullin (also known as Run TMC) to emerge as premiere players. After 4 winning seasons, he left Golden State after disputes with Webber and a 14-31 start.

He was invited to coach the Dream Team II at the 1994 World Championships in Toronto. He accepted and led them to the Gold Medal.

In 1995, Nelson would begin his stint with the Knicks, which lasted from that July until March of 1996. Nelson had many personal problems with the players, though, despite a respectable 34-25 record. Nelson tried to convince management to trade Patrick Ewing in order to be in position to make an offer to rising free agent Shaquille O'Neal. He also favored a more up-tempo style of offense, sharply contrasting with the Knicks hard-nosed defensive style of play.

Nelson was named Head Coach and General Manager of the Dallas Mavericks in 1997, and led them to four consecutive 50 win seasons. The trio of Steve Nash, Michael Finley, and Dirk Nowitzki became the foundation for the dramatic turnaround. In Dallas, Nelson created an offensive powerhouse in which every player could score at any time. However, lacking interior defense - as the frontcourt with Raef LaFrentz, Shawn Bradley and Nowitzki was weak in the paint - they never reached the NBA Finals.

One notable result of Nelson's tenure at the helm of the Mavericks was the introduction of the somewhat controversial "Hack-a-Shaq" defense to the NBA.

On March 19, 2005, Nelson stepped down as Dallas' Head Coach, naming Avery Johnson as his successor. Nelson retained his job as Dallas' GM until after the season, when he named his son, Donnie Nelson, as his replacement.

On August 29, 2006, ESPN's NBA Senior Writer Marc Stein reported that the Golden State Warriors bought out Mike Montgomery's contract and hired Don Nelson to take over the team again. Nelson was the coach of the Warriors when the team last made the playoffs in 1994, enduring a 12-year drought in his absence.

Records

On December 29, 2001, Don Nelson became the third coach in NBA history to win 1,000 games, behind Lenny Wilkens and Pat Riley. Nelson won his 1200th career game on December 9 2006, joining Wilkins as the only coach to pass this milestone.

References

• Monty Out, Nelson In (Golden State of Mind)
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