Celtics legend Don Nelson passes away at 86
Boston Celtics legend and iconic head coach Don Nelson has passed away at the age of 86, his family announced on Sunday.
He was number 361 on the list.
On Sunday, it was announced that Boston Celtics icon Don Nelson had passed away. He was 86 years old.
Nelson's family has since released a statement, per 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,” said the family, per Stein's account on X, formerly Twitter.
Nelson played for the Celtics from 1965-1976, winning five
NBA titles with the franchise and having his number 19 jersey retired by the
team, now hanging in the TD Garden rafters.
Nelson went on to have an illustrious career as a head coach in the NBA after his retirement, coaching the Milwaukee Bucks, New York Knicks, Dallas Mavericks, and Golden State Warriors.
For 12 years, he held the NBA all-time record for most wins by a head coach with 1,333, passing Lenny Wilkens in 2010 before being surpassed by Gregg Popovich in 2022. He was then inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 2012.
Nelson began his playing career as a standout at Iowa before being drafted in the third round of the 1962 NBA Draft by the Chicago Zyphers. A small forward, he made a huge impact on the Celtics' dynastic success during the 1960s and 70s and was the rare elite player to go on to have just as successful a coaching career.
It remains to be seen what tributes the Celtics will have in
store for the legend.
After an All-American career at the University of Iowa, Nelson won five NBA championships playing with the Boston Celtics, with his number 19 retired by the franchise in 1978.
His unique brand of basketball is often referred to as
"Nellie Ball". A coaching innovator, Nelson is credited with, among
other things, pioneering the concept of the point forward, a tactic which is
frequently employed by teams at every level today. He was named one of the Top
10 coaches in NBA history.
Donald Arvid Nelson was born on May 15, 1940, in Muskegon,
Michigan, to Arvid and Agnes Nelson. Nelson grew up with his family and two
sisters on his grandfather's rural Illinois farm near Sherrard, Illinois. He
first learned basketball shooting in the chicken yard where a spokeless bicycle
wheel was nailed to the shed to make a basket. Nelson attended a one-room,
six-grade, seven-student school. When his family lost the farm, the Nelsons
moved to nearby Rock Island, Illinois, while Don was in middle school. His
father Arvid eventually worked at the Rock Island Arsenal.
Nelson attended Rock Island High School, in Rock Island, one
of the Quad Cities. The Nelsons lived in downtown Rock Island on 19th street
and Don would walk to school, stopping to shoot baskets at several different
locations along the way. Nelson would go to the YMCA after practice and shoot
more.
Graduating in 1958, Nelson led the Rocks to a 47–7 record in his last two years under coach Bob Riley. He had 39 points and 20 rebounds against Moline High School and 30 points and 29 rebounds against No. 1-ranked Ottawa High School. As a junior, Nelson averaged 12.6 points as Rock Island finished 25–3. As a senior, Nelson averaged 20.2 points, leading the Rocks to a 22–4 record in 1957–58.
After his senior year in high school, Nelson wasn't heavily
recruited. His father did not see a future for Don in basketball and wanted him
to become a watch repairman. University of Iowa Coach Sharm Scheuerman, who had
graduated from Rock Island in 1952, recruited Nelson, who ultimately chose the
Hawkeyes over Wheaton College and Nelson's hometown Augustana College.
In the era when NCAA freshman weren't allowed to play
varsity, Nelson was joined on the Iowa campus by future Hall of Famer Connie
Hawkins in 1960. However, after playing for the freshman Iowa team in
1960–1961, Hawkins was embroiled in the 1961 college basketball gambling
scandal and left Iowa. Hawkins was never charged with a crime and was later
reinstated by the NBA, who had banned him.
In Nelson's years at Iowa, the Big Ten conference was full
of future NBA players. Among others, Ohio State had future Hall of Fame players
in John Havlicek and Jerry Lucas, along with Larry Siegfried. Indiana had a
future Hall of Fame inductee in Walt Bellamy, while Purdue had future NBA
All-Star Terry Dischinger.
As a rookie, Nelson averaged 17 minutes, playing alongside
Walt Bellamy (27.9 points), Terry Dischinger (25.5 points), Si Green and
Charlie Hardnett. Zephyrs Coach Jack McMahon was replaced by player Slick
Leonard halfway through the season as Chicago finished 25–55. The Chicago
Zephyrs moved to become the Baltimore Bullets after the season. Nelson played
for the Zephyrs for one season averaging 6.8 points, 4.5 rebounds and 1.2
assists in 17 minutes. Nelson was then acquired by the Los Angeles Lakers in
1963.
On September 6, 1963, Nelson was claimed on waivers by the
Los Angeles Lakers from the Chicago Zephyrs. He played in 80 games in the
1963–64 season, but just 39 in the following season under coach Fred Schaus.
After his career ended, Nelson's son Donnie remembers the family sitting in a Maid Rite restaurant in Moline, Illinois, and Don saying he had three choices: sell cars, become an NBA referee, or accept an assistant's job under Milwaukee coach Larry Costello. They voted 5–0 for the Milwaukee job, which paid $25,000.
Nelson began his coaching career as an assistant with the Milwaukee Bucks in 1976. After a 3–15 start to the season, Larry Costello resigned and Nelson was named Head Coach. A year later he became General Manager of the Bucks and soon began to show what would later become his signature style of wheeling and dealing players. Nelson made his first trade in 1977 by sending Swen Nater to the Buffalo Braves and turned the draft pick he received into Marques Johnson, who had a solid career with the Bucks. On November 25, 1977, the day after Thanksgiving, Nelson managed the greatest fourth-quarter comeback in NBA history. With Milwaukee down twenty-nine points to Atlanta, on the road, and with only 8:43 remaining, the Bucks went on a 35–4 run to win 117–115 in regulation. At the time, there was no three-point field goal.
In 1980, he sent off an underachieving Kent Benson to the
Detroit Pistons for Bob Lanier. Perhaps his most publicized deal came before
the 1984–85 season when he dealt Johnson, Junior Bridgeman, Harvey Catchings,
and cash to the San Diego Clippers for Terry Cummings, Craig Hodges, and Ricky
Pierce. And, in 1986, he would deal Alton Lister to the Seattle SuperSonics for
Jack Sikma.
Taking over a Bucks team in the aftermath of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's departure to Los Angeles, Nelson was able to improve their win total by 14 games in his first full season as head coach, and established the team as a legitimate championship contender by 1980. It was in Milwaukee where Nelson became known for his unorthodox, innovative basketball philosophy. He pioneered 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. In his offensive half-court sets, he would also put a center who wasn't a threat on offense, like Lister or Randy Breuer, at mid-court instead of near the basket to keep a shot-blocking center like the Utah Jazz's Mark Eaton away from the basket to make him less of a threat on defense.
This system, known as "Nellie Ball", created a lot
of mismatches and enabled Nelson to lead the Bucks to seven straight Central
Division championships with over 50 wins in each of those seasons. He earned
NBA Coach of the Year honors in 1983 and 1985. For seven straight years,
finishing no worse than second best in the Eastern Conference, the Bucks ended
up being eliminated in the playoffs by either the Larry Bird-led Boston Celtics
or the Julius Erving-led Philadelphia 76ers. After the 1986–87 season, which
included some controversy and distraction before Game 4 of the 1987 Eastern
Conference Semifinals against the Boston Celtics where Nelson told the local
sports media that he didn't expect to be back once the season concluded due to
a rift with Bucks owner Herb Kohl, Nelson resigned as head coach of the Bucks.
In 11 seasons, Nelson had a 540–344 (.611) record with Milwaukee.
In 1986 former Bucks owner, Jim Fitzgerald, purchased the
Golden State Warriors. Nelson did part-time work as a color analyst for NBA
games on TBS during the 1987–88 season. During the season he was contacted by
the Dallas Mavericks, Golden State Warriors, and New York Knicks with offers to
coach their teams. Nelson decided to go with Golden State, in large part due to
his relationship with Fitzgerald, at first buying a minority stake in the team
before being named head coach and vice president after one season away from the
NBA.
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), he coached the Warriors
to a 23-game turnaround of their previous season and back into the playoffs
with his lineup popularly known as Run TMC, for Tim, Mitch and Chris. All three
were later elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame after their
careers. Nelson was named NBA Coach of the Year a third time after the 1991–92
season.
Nelson continued to retool the team, drafting All-Star
Latrell Sprewell in 1992. Nelson traded the Warriors' number 3 pick Penny
Hardaway to the Orlando Magic for their number one overall pick Chris Webber
during the 1993 NBA draft. Despite Webber averaging 17.5 points and 9.1
rebounds per game and winning the 1994 NBA Rookie of the Year Award, he found
himself at odds with Nelson's preference to play him at center rather than
power forward. Frequently clashing with one another, Webber threatened to use
the out-clause in his contract if he wasn't traded. Nelson reportedly offered
to resign rather than let the team trade away their young star, but nonetheless
Webber was dealt to the Washington Bullets on November 7, 1994, for Tom
Gugliotta and three future 1st round draft picks (1996, 1998 and 2000).
Nelson resigned as head coach of the Warriors on February
13, 1995. He made the playoffs with Golden State in four of his six seasons
there. Subsequently, the Warriors did not qualify for the playoffs for the next
12 seasons, until he returned to the team in 2006.
In 1994, Nelson coached the Team USA national basketball
team at the 1994 FIBA World Championship in Toronto, and led them to the gold
medal. The team was marketed as "Dream Team II".
Coached by Nelson, along with assistants Don Chaney, Pete
Gillen, and Rick Majerus, Team USA had a roster of Derrick Coleman, Joe Dumars,
Tim Hardaway (injured), Kevin Johnson, Larry Johnson, Shawn Kemp, Dan Majerle,
Reggie Miller, Alonzo Mourning, Shaquille O'Neal, Mark Price, Steve Smith,
Isiah Thomas (injured), and Dominique Wilkins.
USA went 8–0, defeating Spain 115–100, China 132–77, and
Brazil 105–82. In the final round, the U.S. team defeated Australia 130–74,
Puerto Rico 134–83, Russia 111–94, and Greece 97–58. In the gold medal game,
Team USA defeated Russia 137–91.
Nelson was named head coach and general manager of the
Dallas Mavericks in 1997. He was coming to a team that had been dormant through
the 1990s and a permanent fixture in the NBA lottery. In 1998, his first full
off-season in charge, Nelson worked out draft day deals with the Milwaukee
Bucks and Phoenix Suns, essentially trading the draft rights of Robert Traylor
and Pat Garrity for Dirk Nowitzki and Steve Nash, whom he wanted to pair with
the Mavericks rising star Michael Finley.
The trio of Nash, Finley and Nowitzki became the foundation
for the Mavericks dramatic turnaround, as Nelson coached the Mavericks to four
consecutive 50-win seasons. The height of their success was a 60-win season in
2002–03, when they reached the Western Conference Finals against the San
Antonio Spurs. An injury to Nowitzki in game 3 that kept him out for the rest
of the series doomed the Mavericks as they lost in six games.
Lacking an interior presence to combat low-post players such
as Shaquille O'Neal, Nelson introduced the "Hack-a-Shaq" defense to
the NBA while in Dallas. In the 2004 off-season, Steve Nash was offered a max
contract by the Phoenix Suns; despite Nelson's insistence on matching the
offer, Mark Cuban declined and Nash accepted Phoenix's offer. Nash won
consecutive MVPs with the Suns the following two seasons.
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, assistant GM Donnie
Nelson, as his replacement as GM. The Mavericks reached the NBA Finals the
following season, though they would lose to the Miami Heat in six games.
On August 29, 2006, Nelson returned to the Golden State
Warriors for a second stint as head coach. Chris Mullin, a favorite of Nelson's
from his first stint as Warriors head coach, was the team's general manager.
Nelson's style of coaching favored the play of Baron Davis, Monta Ellis, Matt
Barnes, Jason Richardson, and Andris Biedriņš. Midway through the season,
Mullin (at behest of Nelson) orchestrated a trade with the Pacers to obtain Al
Harrington and Stephen Jackson.
The new lineup thrived under Nelson; Davis, Biedriņš and
Jackson saw an increase in scoring and efficiency, Barnes went from a virtual
unknown to a solid rotation contributor and Ellis was named the NBA's Most
Improved Player after averaging 16.5 points per game, a substantial increase
from his average of 6.8 points per game the prior season. The Warriors closed
out the season on a 16–5 run and just managed to qualify for the 2007 playoffs.
Nelson faced his former team, the Dallas Mavericks, in the
first round of the playoffs. The Mavs had the NBA's best record, and were a
pick to win the NBA championship that year. In one of the biggest upsets in NBA
playoff history, Nelson coached the 8th-seeded Warriors to series victory over
the top-seeded Mavericks in six games. It was numerically the largest upset in
the history of the NBA playoffs, with the 67–15 Mavericks' regular-season
win–loss record 25 games better than the 42–40 Warriors'. The Warriors went on
to lose to the Utah Jazz in the second round. Nelson became the only coach in
NBA history to steer three teams to a first round series victory while being
seeded either 7th or 8th, having previously coached the Warriors to first-round
upsets of the Jazz in 1989 and the Spurs in 1991 as the 7th seed.
Nelson married Joy Wolfgram at the Oakland Coliseum in June
1991.[62] Nelson and his wife have a total of six children from prior
marriages.[62][63] He has a daughter born out of wedlock and put up for
adoption, whom he did not know about for 29 years, who first reached out to him
in 1997, not wanting anything in return. She now lives in Maui near Nelson and
his wife.
He had fifteen grandchildren as of 2012.
Nelson's son Donnie Nelson was the general manager of the
Dallas Mavericks. Donnie was Don's assistant coach with the Mavericks when Don
won his 1,000th NBA game. Donnie moved from coaching to become the president of
basketball operations for the Mavericks in 2002 while his father was still
coaching Dallas. Donnie Nelson was an assistant coach for Lithuania in the
1992, 1996 and 2000 Olympics.
Nelson calls Dirk Nowitzki his "German son".
Nelson coached Nowitzki for his first six NBA seasons in Dallas. "In my
second game ever in the NBA -- obviously I wasn't a defensive presence -- he
wanted me out there in the game but he didn't have anybody for me to
guard," recalled the 7'0" Nowitzki. "So he let me guard
[5-foot-3] Muggsy Bogues for a couple possessions. He said, 'Just stand there
in the paint and wave at him. He doesn't want to shoot.'
Career history
Playing
1962–1963 Chicago
Zephyrs
1963–1965 Los
Angeles Lakers
1965–1976 Boston
Celtics
Coaching
1976 Milwaukee Bucks
(assistant)
1976–1988 Milwaukee
Bucks
1988–1995 Golden
State Warriors
1995–1996 New York
Knicks
1997–2005 Dallas
Mavericks
2006–2010 Golden
State Warriors
Career highlights
As player:
5× NBA champion (1966, 1968, 1969, 1974, 1976)
No. 19 retired by Boston Celtics
Third-team All-American – AP, NABC, UPI (1962)
As coach:
3× NBA Coach of the Year (1983, 1985, 1992)
2× NBA All-Star Game head coach (1992, 2002)
Top 10 Coaches in NBA History
Top 15 Coaches in NBA History
Chuck Daly Lifetime Achievement Award (2025)
Career playing statistics
Points 10,898 (10.3
ppg)
Rebounds 5,192
(4.9 rpg)
Assists 1,526 (1.4 apg)
