Don Nelson, five-time NBA champion as player and second-winningest coach, dies at 86

Don Nelson, who won five NBA championships as a player with the Boston Celtics and ranked as the second-winningest coach in NBA history, died on Sunday at the age of 86, his family said.

“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,” a statement from his family read.

The Nelson family did not divulge a cause of death.

Nelson was one of two coaches in NBA history to record at least 250 wins with three different franchises — Milwaukee, Dallas and Golden State — and he also served as general manager for all three clubs. He was a three-time coach of the year and made the playoffs 18 times in 31 seasons. He reached the conference finals three times with the Bucks and once with the Mavericks, although he never won an NBA title as a coach.

Nelson introduced what is now known as the point forward and promoted an up-tempo offensive style that created a buzz. He said the idea of shifting from the dominant big men of the 1970s to an offense focused on speed and the fast break came from his playing days under Celtics Hall of Fame coach Red Auerbach. As a player he spent 11 of his 14 seasons in Boston and was on five Celtics championship teams under four different coaches.

After retiring as a player he became an assistant coach in Milwaukee and took over as head coach when Larry Costello resigned 18 games into the 1976-77 season. Nelson coached the Bucks for 11 seasons beginning in 1976 and won seven straight division titles.

His fast-paced offenses were most visible with Golden State’s “Run TMC” era, featuring Tim Hardaway, Mitch Richmond and Chris Mullin; Nelson said he wanted them on the court at the same time. Nelson spent 11 seasons with Golden State across two separate stints.

The first Golden State stint was punctuated by a rift with rookie Chris Webber, who was traded away about a month into his second season; Nelson, demoralized by the trade, missed nine games that season due to illness and resigned under pressure three months later in February 1995. He was fired after less than one season in New York in 1995-96, then coached in Dallas for eight seasons, taking time off during that period after being diagnosed with cancer.

Nelson’s son, Donnie, joined him as an assistant with the Mavericks in 1998, later became general manager and remained with the organization until 2021. Together they persuaded 20-year-old German star Dirk Nowitzki to pass up European basketball and join the Mavericks. Nelson also developed Steve Nash into one of the NBA’s top point guards before Nash won back-to-back MVPs with the Phoenix Suns in 2005 and 2006. At Golden State, Nelson’s “We Believe” Warriors, led by Baron Davis, upset Nowitzki and the top-seeded Mavericks in the first round of the 2007 playoffs in one of the biggest shocks in NBA history, and in his final season as a coach Nelson mentored rookie Stephen Curry in 2009-10.

Nelson retired as the NBA’s career coaching wins leader with 1,335, just ahead of Lenny Wilkens’s 1,332. He kept that top spot for nearly 12 years before close friend and now-retired San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich passed him in March 2022.