Сагсан бөмбөгийн алдрын танхимын гишүүд болон NBA-гийн олон алдартан 86 насандаа таалал төгссөн Дон Нелсоны гэгээн дурсгалыг хүндэтгэх ёслолд цугларч, түүний спортын ертөнцөд оруулсан хувь нэмэр болон хувь хүний зан чанарыг дурсан ярилцлаа.
NBA-гийн түүхэн дэх хамгийн олон ялалт байгуулсан дасгалжуулагчдын хоёрт эрэмбэлэгддэг Дон Нелсоныг хүндэтгэх ёслол пүрэв гарагт Престон Холлоугийн сүмд болсон бөгөөд уг арга хэмжээнд Грегг Попович, Дел Харрис, Рик Карлайл нарын дасгалжуулагчид болон Стив Нэш, Майкл Финли, Крис Муллин зэрэг олон тоглогч оролцлоо. Грегг Попович агсан дасгалжуулагчаа “саран дээрээс ч том зүрхтэй, хөвөн шиг зөөлөн хүн байсан” хэмээн дурссан бол Рик Карлайл түүнийг орчин үеийн сагсан бөмбөгийн “Small ball”, “Position-less” зэрэг ойлголтуудыг бусдаас хэдэн арван жилээр түрүүлж санаачилсан суут ухаантан гэж тодорхойлов.
Дон Нелсон 1998 оны NBA Draft-ын үеэр Дирк Новицки болон Стив Нэш нарыг багтаа элсүүлсэн нь Даллас Мавериксийн түүхэн дэх хамгийн чухал алхмуудын нэг болсон юм. Түүний удирдлага дор Даллас Маверикс NBA-гийн хамгийн өндөр үр бүтээлтэй довтолгооны багуудын нэг болж, 2001 онд 10 жил үргэлжилсэн плэй-оффийн ган гачгийг эцэслэж, 2003 онд NBA Finals-д шалгарахад тун ойрхон ирж байв.
Түүний ойрын найз, жүжигчин Оуэн Уилсон видео мэндчилгээндээ Нелсон амьдралын хүнд хэцүү үед нь хэрхэн тусалж, өрсөлдөх сэтгэлгээг нь сэргээж байсныг хуваалцсан бол Дирк Новицки захидалдаа түүнийг “жинхэнэ тоглогчийн дасгалжуулагч” байсан гэдгийг онцолжээ. 2010 онд зодог тайлсныхаа дараа Хавайд амьдарч байсан Дон Нелсон нь сагсан бөмбөгийн ертөнцөд төдийгүй хувийн амьдралдаа ч олон хүний хүндлэлийг хүлээсэн нэгэн байв.
Дэлгэрэнгүй эх сурвалжийг харах
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DALLAS — In 1994, Gregg Popovich had a job offer he was mulling over.
The San Antonio Spurs wanted him to return to the franchise to become the team’s general manager. Popovich had previously worked for the organization as an assistant on Larry Brown’s staff from 1988 to 1992. Brown and his staff were fired, but just two years later, the Spurs were offering Popovich the chance to return and run their front office.
Popovich told his boss, Golden State Warriors coach Don Nelson, that he had a five-year deal on the table with annual raises of $50,000. Popovich told Nelson he loved working for him in Golden State and wasn’t sure whether he should take it.
“He said, ‘You big dummy, Poppo, you’re going back there,’” Popovich recalled. “‘And this is how you are going to do it. Call them back and say, ‘Add $50,000 to my first year. From there, $50,000 on top of that.’ So at the end, after five years, you will have made $250,000 more. That will pay for your house.’”
Popovich was one of nearly a dozen Basketball Hall of Famers who gathered inside the Preston Hollow Presbyterian Church on Thursday for a ceremony to honor Nelson, who died Sunday at 86.
Popovich and Del Harris, whom Nelson considered his “coaching brothers,” spoke. Former Dallas Mavericks coach and current Indiana Pacers boss Rick Carlisle was also there to honor Nelson, the second-winningest coach in NBA history. So were Sidney Moncrief and Paul Pressey, who played for Nelson in Milwaukee; Chris Mullin, Mitch Robinson and Tim Hardaway, whom Nelson worked with in Golden State; and Steve Nash and Michael Finley, two of Nelson’s players in Dallas.
“His heart was bigger than the moon and as soft as marshmallows,” said Popovich, who has taken a step back from public life since a stroke forced him from the sidelines nearly two years ago. “That’s what he was to me.”
Nelson, the son of an Iowa hog farmer, won five championships as a player over 11 seasons with the Boston Celtics while earning the respect of Red Auerbach and Bill Russell. Then Nelson got into coaching, where he revolutionized the game by playing smaller, faster lineups than his opponents and disregarding conventional beliefs about a player’s position.
“Small ball. Stretch big. Point forward. Position-less. These are all common terms today,” Carlisle said. “Nellie invented this stuff. And it wasn’t like he invented it a few months or a few years before everyone figured out this is the way the game should go. He was decades ahead of everyone.”
Don Nelson and Rick Carlisle share a laugh in June 2025. Nelson was honored with the Chuck Daly Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Basketball Coaches Association before Game 2 of the NBA Finals that year. (Alonzo Adams / Imagn Images)
Two of the shrewdest moves Nelson made came on draft night in 1998. Alongside his son, Donnie, Nelson swung separate trades for Dirk Nowitzki, a jump-shooting 7-footer from Germany, and Nash, a Canadian point guard whose NBA career started with two unmemorable seasons in Phoenix.
Under Nelson’s watch, both players blossomed, and the Mavericks turned into the NBA’s highest-octane offense. In 2001, the Mavericks ended a 10-year playoff drought and upset the Utah Jazz in the first round, and in 2003, Dallas came within two wins of reaching the NBA Finals.
“Larger than life,” Nash said. “Basketball genius. Scary.”
The 6-foot-6 Nelson could also be physically intimidating. In a January 2000 game against the Jazz, Karl Malone elbowed one of Nelson’s players, Shawn Bradley, in the face. Nelson took exception to it. He got in Malone’s face and was ejected. Video of the interaction made the rounds on social media this week, which Finley found amusing.
“If you read his lips, he said, ‘I’m not scared of you, motherf—-r,” Finley said.
Nowitzki, who played for Nelson for six-plus seasons, was unable to attend because he was visiting his parents in Europe. But Nowitzki made sure his close friend Nash read a letter on his behalf. One of Nowitzki’s observations in his letter was that Nelson had “aura.”
“I know that word gets used a lot these days,” Nowitzki wrote. “But when he came into a room, everything just lit up. He was funny. He was loud. He was always joking. He was truly one of a kind. And he was the ultimate player’s coach. I don’t think there is a player in the history of this game who benefited from Nellie more than me.”
Nelson retired from coaching in 2010 and moved to Hawaii. He had regular poker games with famous friends like country music legend Willie Nelson and actor Owen Wilson on the island of Maui. He also liked to golf barefoot.
Wilson, who was born in Dallas, recorded a video message that was played during Thursday’s ceremony. In it, he remembered Nelson’s ribbing on the 18th hole of a golf course. They had a sizeable wager on the hole, and Nelson was trying to gain a mental edge.
“Nellie drives up,” Wilson said. “He’s looking at me, and he’s like, ‘Christ, did you have Polio as a kid? Your legs are so skinny. There’s no definition.’”
Wilson also saw Nelson’s tender side. In 2007, Wilson survived a suicide attempt. Nelson came to visit him once he was released from the hospital.
“I remember him grabbing me and saying, ‘It’s time to compete now. You have to compete,’” Wilson said. “That kind of became my rallying cry as I tried to find my way back.”
It was a sentiment that Wilson believed contained larger meaning.
“Maybe Nellie was tackling the big question,” Wilson said. “’What are we doing here?’ We are here to compete. We are here to do our best. We are here to try to live meaningful lives. And we are here to try and be part of the team.
“I thank God I was on his team.”
