Don Nelson, the second-winningest coach in NBA history, a five-time NBA champion as a player and a member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, has died, it was announced Sunday. He was 86.
"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," Nelson's family said in a statement, according to NBA reporter Marc Stein. "Throughout his last week, friends and family encircled him with love, sharing the blessing of his friendship and revisiting treasured memories."
In 31 seasons as an NBA head coach with the Milwaukee Bucks, Golden State Warriors (twice), New York Knicks and Dallas Mavericks, Nelson finished with a regular-season record of 1,335-1,063. He retired with the most coaching wins ever, a mark that was broken by the San Antonio Spurs' Gregg Popovich in March 2022.
Nelson made 18 playoff appearances as a coach, finishing with a 75-91 postseason record.
As a player, Nelson won five NBA titles in 11 seasons with the Boston Celtics, who retired his No. 19 jersey in 1978. Overall, he played 14 seasons in the NBA.
Immediately following his playing career, Nelson joined the Milwaukee Bucks as an assistant coach for the 1976-77 season. Just 15 games into that season, he was promoted to head coach after Larry Costello was fired.
From there, Nelson, who added general manager to his title the following season with Milwaukee, used an unorthodox coaching style that became known as "Nellie Ball" to put together a Hall of Fame résumé during his 31 seasons. Nellie Ball proved to be ahead of its time, utilizing smaller, more athletic players to fuel a fast-paced offense that prioritized creating mismatches through speed. It was a philosophy that had been adopted across the league long after he retired.
"Don Nelson was a true innovator whose influence on the game of basketball is still felt today," Warriors coach Steve Kerr said in a statement Sunday. "He consistently challenged conventional thinking, experimented with different lineups and styles of play and saw possibilities in the game that others often did not. So much of what is now commonplace in the modern NBA can be traced back to the way Nellie approached the game."
Nelson was a three-time winner of the NBA Coach of the Year award (1983, '85, '92) but never won an NBA championship as a coach.
With Milwaukee, Nelson missed the playoffs just twice in his 11 seasons, winning seven straight Central Division titles. He never reached the NBA Finals, however, as he couldn't overcome Eastern Conference powerhouses Boston or Philadelphia, and he resigned after the 1986-87 season.
After one season of TV analyst work, he returned to the bench with Golden State, where he spent seven seasons before he resigned midway through the 1994-95 season. He returned for a second stint with the Warriors prior to the 2006-07 season and stayed four more seasons in his final NBA stop.
Nelson accepted the coaching job with the Knicks prior to the 1995-96 season but was fired with a 34-25 record and replaced by assistant Jeff Van Gundy.
The following year, Nelson joined the Dallas Mavericks, where he helped turn around the franchise's fortunes by working draft-day deals to acquire future Hall of Famers Dirk Nowitzki and Steve Nash. He coached eight seasons with the Mavericks, and his son Donnie, who served as his assistant, served as the team's general manager before an acrimonious split in June 2021.
"We hid Dirk for several weeks before the draft," Nelson told Sports Illustrated about Nowitzki flying under the radar while practicing with Athletes in Action in Dallas before the 1998 draft. "We made a commitment that we were going to draft him. We just wanted to keep him from going anywhere else to work out. He was going to be ours. He was happy with that. So, he hid for a week in Donnie's basement."
Nelson is also credited for helping land another franchise-altering superstar in his final years as Warriors head coach. During the 2009 NBA draft, he went against consensus and pushed Golden State to draft Stephen Curry with the No. 7 pick.
"One of the big reasons I was drafted by the Warriors was because of Don Nelson," Curry said in a statement. "The story is he never liked rookies, but from Day 1 he challenged me and gave me an opportunity to be my best self on the court. He taught me a lot during our one season together and I'll never forget the night he became the winningest coach in NBA history in Minnesota. We were so happy for him.
"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."
Don Nelson twice coached in the NBA All-Star Game, and he led "Dream Team II" to a gold medal at the 1994 FIBA World Championships.
After a standout college career at Iowa, Nelson broke into the NBA as a player with the Chicago Zephyrs, who selected him with the 17th pick in the 1962 draft. The Los Angeles Lakers claimed him off waivers before the 1963-64 season, but Nelson saw limited action. Celtics general manager Red Auerbach then came calling before the 1964-65 season, signing him as a free agent. Nelson went on to average 11.4 points and 5.2 rebounds per game while winning five titles during his 11 seasons in Boston.
Overall, he played 1,053 regular-season games as a small forward and power forward, averaging 10.3 points and 4.9 rebounds. In 150 career playoff games, he averaged 10.5 points and 4.8 rebounds.
After his coaching career, Nelson retired to a 22-acre farm in Maui, Hawai'i, and became an entrepreneur. He told HBO's "Real Sports" in 2019 that he grew flowers, coffee and cannabis on the farm.
After the deadly Maui wildfires of 2023, Nelson opened his rental properties to families who had lost their homes.