Doug Moe obit

Legendary Nuggets coach Doug Moe passes away at 87

 

He was not on the list.

A foundational piece of the Denver Nuggets franchise died Tuesday.

Doug Moe was 87. Moe coached the Nuggets from 1980-90 and won 432 regular-season games, a feat that’s celebrated with a banner hanging at Ball Arena. He led the Nuggets to the playoffs in nine consecutive years and reached the Western Conference finals in 1985. In 1988, he was named NBA Coach of the Year, and he received the Chuck Daly Lifetime Achievement Award in 2018.

After playing in Italy and the American Basketball Association from 1965-72, Moe started his coaching career as an assistant to close friend Larry Brown with the Carolina Cougars. He followed Brown to Denver in 1974 before being named head coach of the San Antonio Spurs in 1976.

Four years later, he brought his fast-paced brand of basketball back to Denver. The Brooklyn native finished his coaching career as an assistant to George Karl in 2008.

“Doug Moe was my big brother. I am sad today. I will miss him,” Karl posted on X Tuesday morning. “Love you forever Doug.”

Douglas Edwin Moe was born on September 21, 1938, in Brooklyn, New York. Growing up in the playground of Foster Park in the Flatbush section of town, he would play games six days a week in the place once called the "Stars' Park". He loved basketball so much that he would play in various church leagues under various assumed names (whether it was Protestant or Jewish). Moe attended and graduated from Erasmus Hall High School and attracted enough attention to be recruited to the University of North Carolina despite playing just one year of high school ball.

Moe was a star player at the University of North Carolina, where he was a two-time All-American.

Once, in 1961, Moe was on the same flight as former Vice President Richard Nixon while Moe played for the Tar Heels. Noted for his fear of flying, Moe tried to read a book to distract himself; when Nixon was introduced to Moe by a coach, he stated Moe must be the student in the group and Moe (unfamiliar with the person making the remark) remarked, "What are you, a wise guy?"

However, his collegiate career ended in controversy when he admitted to being associated with a point shaving scandal. Moe received $75 from fix conspirator Aaron Wagman to fly to a meeting in New Jersey, arranged by Moe's friend, conspirator Lou Brown, but Moe reportedly turned down an offer to throw games. There is no evidence that Moe was ever involved in a fix conspiracy, but his ties to the scandal blemished his reputation.

Moe was selected in the NBA draft in 1960, by the Detroit Pistons, and again in 1961, this time by the Chicago Packers,

When he went to sign with the Packers, the scandal broke out involving Moe, who was quoted as saying what he had done wrong "was to accept $75 from Aaron Wagman, a gambler, the summer before my senior year. He was after me to shave points but I refused." (Moe did not report the incident at the time). Moe subsequently spent time in the Army and sold insurance. He graduated from Elon College in 1965 in education.

In 1965, he began his professional career in Italy's Lega Basket Serie A with the Pallacanestro Petrarca Padova.

Moe, alongside fellow former Tar Heel and roommate Larry Brown, joined in with the newly formed American Basketball Association with the New Orleans Buccaneers in 1967 for $5,000. Moe played a season for the team, which reached the ABA Finals that saw him along with Brown to be named ABA All-Stars. In 78 games, he averaged 24.2 points with 10.2 rebounds and 2.6 assists. He finished second in the ABA MVP race, receiving three of the 22 first-place votes (Connie Hawkins received the rest of the vote). Just a few months after the season ended, Moe and Brown were traded to the Oakland Oaks for Ronald Franz, Steve Jones and Barry Leibowitz.

Moe, alongside Brown, was traded to the Oakland Oaks. In 75 games, he averaged 19.0 points with 8.2 rebounds and 2.0 assists and received small MVP consideration to go along with All-Star honors. They played for the Oaks during what became a magic run that saw them go from worst to first to reach the playoffs. They made it all the way to the ABA Finals against the Indiana Pacers. In Game 5, Moe made two free throws late to give the Oaks a three-point lead late in overtime before his teammate Brown made two more to give them an insurmountable 135-131 lead to clinch the game and the series.

On June 30, 1976, Moe was named head coach of the San Antonio Spurs, who were to be members of the NBA after the ABA–NBA merger that yea; he replaced Bob Bass. The Spurs started off slow that year but were ten games over .500 by February and managed to win 44 games with a high-scoring average of 115 points a game to go with allowing a league-worst 114 points a game; described as a "player's coach", the team captivated the town. They lost in the first round of the playoffs in two games. The following season was better for the team, as George Gervin won his first scoring title and the team won their first ever division title with a 52-30 record that was good enough for 2nd best in the Eastern Conference. They were shocked by the Washington Bullets, who beat them in six games.

They repeated as division champions in 1979 and beat the Philadelphia 76ers in the semifinals that year for their first ever playoff series win since moving to San Antonio. In the Conference Finals, they faced the Bullets and took three of the first four games but could not finish the deal, losing the decisive seventh game 107-105 to the eventual world champion.

The Spurs sputtered in the following season. Moe was fired by team owner Angelo Drossos with sixteen games to go in the 1979-80 season; he was replaced by Bass, who managed to get the team to finish at 41-41.

Moe returned to Denver in 1980 to take over the head coaching reins from another UNC alum, Donnie Walsh. From 1980 to 1990, Moe compiled a 432–357 (.548) record and led the Nuggets to the postseason nine-straight years—advancing as far as the Western Conference Finals in 1985. He guided the Nuggets to two Midwest Division titles (1984–85 and '87–88) and a franchise-record 54 wins in 1987–88. He was named NBA Coach of the Year that same year. Under Moe's direction, the Nuggets high-octane offense led the league in scoring in six of his 10 seasons in Denver.

Moe used a run-and-gun offense which had his team shoot before the opponent's defense had set up. He ran almost no plays, instead relying on ball movement, screens and constant cuts to the basket. Players were not to hold onto the ball for longer than two seconds. The movement of the ball was predicated on what the defense allowed. "You can't diagram it, you can't put a pencil and paper to it. If you do, you're doing an injustice to the system", said former Nuggets assistant Allan Bristow. Moe simply said, "The passing game is basically doing whatever the hell you want."

Moe's passing strategy was adopted from North Carolina head coach Dean Smith. Smith, normally a conservative coach, thought that the passing game could work with the right players, but he did not believe players would be smart enough to execute it at all times.

Though his offensive strategy led to high scores, Moe's Denver teams were never adept at running fast breaks. His teams at times appeared to give up baskets in order to get one. He disputed the fact that his teams did not play defense, attributing the high scores to the pace of the game.

Moe announced his dismissal from the Nuggets on September 6, 1990, at a press conference where he and his wife Jane had a Champagne toast. He had three years remaining on his contract but was caught in the middle of a front-office restructure initiated by Comsat Video Enterprises, Inc. which had purchased the franchise eleven months earlier. Comsat Chief Executive Officer Robert Wussler was most critical of his coaching. Moe is honored by the Nuggets with a banner that reads "432" for his number of wins as a Nuggets' head coach.

On May 27, 1992, Moe was hired by the Philadelphia 76ers. He was hired to a five-year contract. He had his son David Moe serve as an assistant coach. Less than two months after he was hired, the 76ers traded away star power forward Charles Barkley to the Phoenix Suns. On March 7, 1993, Moe was fired 56 games into the season with the team at 19-37 (in one game prior to his firing, the 76ers lost by 56 points). He stated his regrets upon the firing as one that failed to live to his vision, "I knew a few guys were going to have to play at a higher level than they'd ever played, but I believed that, if we played to the max, it was possible to get to 50 wins. But it was unrealistic. That probably hurt us. The expectations were too high. We underachieved."

Moe's overall NBA head coaching ledger stands at 628–529 (.543), the 19th most in NBA history. His win total was the most in Nugget history until Michael Malone passed him in November 23, 2024, much to Moe's approval.

In 1997, Moe was inducted into the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame. He was inducted into the NYC Basketball Hall of Fame in 1998. In 2015, he was inducted into the San Antonio Sports Hall of Fame.

Some of the better known players he coached include Alex English, Lafayette Fat Lever, Dan Issel, David Thompson, Kiki VanDeWeghe, T. R. Dunn, Bill Hanzlik, Danny Schayes, Glen Gondrezick, Calvin Natt, Blair Rasmussen, Michale Adams, Walter Davis, and Wayne Cooper.

Career history

Playing

1965–1967      Pallacanestro Petrarca Padova

1967–1968      New Orleans Buccaneers

1968–1969      Oakland Oaks

1969–1970      Carolina Cougars

1970–1972      Virginia Squires

Coaching

1972–1974      Carolina Cougars (assistant)

1974–1976      Denver Nuggets (assistant)

1976–1980      San Antonio Spurs

1980–1990      Denver Nuggets

1992–1993      Philadelphia 76ers

2003–2008      Denver Nuggets (assistant)

Career highlights

As player:

ABA champion (1969)

3× ABA All-Star (1968–1970)

All-ABA First Team (1968)

All-ABA Second Team (1969)

Lega Basket Serie A Top Scorer (1966)

First-team All-American – USBWA (1961)

Second-team All-American – AP, SN (1961)

Third-team All-American – NABC, NEA (1961)

2× First-team All-ACC (1959, 1961)

As coach:

 

NBA Coach of the Year (1988)

Chuck Daly Lifetime Achievement Award (2018)

No. 432 honored by Denver Nuggets

Career ABA playing statistics

Points  6,161 (16.3 ppg)

Rebounds        2,560 (6.8 rpg)

Assists 1,197 (3.2 apg)