Don Nelson, a Hall of Fame coach and five-time NBA champion as a player, died Sunday at age 86. His family shared that he passed peacefully, surrounded by loved ones, at his home.
“Throughout his last week, friends and family encircled him with love, sharing the blessing of his friendship and revisiting treasured memories,” the family said in a statement.
Nelson’s basketball journey began at the University of Iowa before he entered the NBA in 1962 as the 17th overall pick by the Chicago Zephyrs.
After a short stint with the Los Angeles Lakers, he found a lasting home with the Boston Celtics, where he won five championships between 1966 and 1976. Over his playing career he averaged 11.4 points and 5.2 rebounds a game, and the Celtics retired his jersey number in 1978.
A Coaching Career Built on Innovation
Nelson’s true legacy came after he traded his playing shoes for a clipboard. He got his start as an assistant with the Milwaukee Bucks and was quickly promoted to head coach.
Over 31 seasons guiding the Bucks, Golden State Warriors, New York Knicks and Dallas Mavericks, he compiled 1,335 regular season wins, a record at the time of his retirement in 2010 and since topped only by Gregg Popovich.
His coaching philosophy, nicknamed “Nellie Ball,” emphasized speed, spacing and smaller lineups long before those ideas became standard across the league.
He was the architect behind the “Run TMC” era in Golden State and later helped build the “We Believe” squad that pulled off one of the greatest upsets in NBA playoff history, a No. 8 seed defeating the No. 1 seed Mavericks in 2007. He won NBA Coach of the Year three times and was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2012.
Tributes Pour In From Across the League
Warriors coach Steve Kerr called Nelson a true innovator whose impact is still felt in today’s game. Stephen Curry, whom Nelson pushed the Warriors to draft in 2009, credited him with shaping his early career and called him one of the greatest minds in basketball history.
Dirk Nowitzki, whom Nelson helped bring to Dallas, thanked him for believing in his potential before anyone else did.
Nelson never captured a championship as a head coach, but his influence on modern basketball strategy remains widely recognized throughout the sport.
