Don Nelson golden showered by Golden State

He gone.

http://nba.fanhouse.com/2010/09/23/nelson-out-keith-smart-in-as-golden-state-coach/

I'll admit it ... I had no idea Don Nelson was the winningest NBA coach of all-time. I probably did know it at one point, but completely forgot about it.

And this comes from someone who absolutely loved him all those years ago in Milwaukee. It's too bad those very talented Bucks teams could never break through for a title.

 

Not surprising, with new owners coming in.

 

Never a champion as a coach, but a five-time champ as a significant bench player with the Celts.
Also one of the dirtiest players I've ever seen.

 

I'll always be a Nellie fan. Glad he got the record, but I think even he knows its time.

 

Big Nellie fan, big Warriors fan, and I'm fine with this.

If nothing else, he made the team fun to watch again. We get fresh starts every couple years -- nice, new unis along with a new logo this year -- and maybe one of there says, it'll take.

 

Winningest coach of all time and not one ring to show for it. Wonder if there's any other sport where that can be said? And the guy who may soon pass him, Jerry Sloan, is also ringless.

Nellie actually was a pretty innovative coach back in the day. He kinda created the "point forward" concept with Paul Pressey in Milwaukee, and he managed to win nearly 60 games for a while with the likes of Paul Mokeski and Randy Breuer manning his center position. He then rejuvenated Golden State with some ultra small ball lineups that were fun as hell to watch, it's like he looked at his roster, saw his big men sucked and his little men were good, said "fuck it, I just won't play any big men", and it worked. But he then ruined that Run TMC dynamic right when it was peaking with the dumbassed Mitch Richmond/Billy Owens trade.

 

Nothing says "Warriors" like a bridge span.

Logo fail.

 

So much better than the dude with the lightning bolt.

 

I saw enough of Nellie in Dallas.

I'll give him credit; he resurrected a godawful franchise and found Steve Nash and Dirk Nowitzki. Nellie's style won a lot of regular-season games.

But in the playoffs he brought a knife to a gun fight. His teams weren't built to battle the Lakers and Spurs in a half-court type of game, and that drove Cuban crazy. (That pissing match continues to this day, BTW.)

 

Nelson's departure from Milwaukee was a real shame. He was immensely popular with the fans and probably made the Bucks more popular beyond the Milwaukee area and in Wisconsin overall than at any point in their history. He used to do things like ride a tractor across the state for charity, etc.

He could have been the Jerry Sloan of that franchise. But he got into it with the Bucks then-new (and still current) ownership -- a sign of things to come -- and it ended too soon.

Both on the court and in their popularity off the court, the Bucks have not been the same since.