Nelson, second-winningest NBA coach, dies at 86
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- Don Nelson, the second-winningest coach in NBA history and five-time champion as a player with the Boston Celtics, died at 86, with his family saying he "peacefully went to be with the Lord" Sunday morning surrounded by loved ones.
- Over 31 NBA seasons coaching the Milwaukee Bucks, Golden State Warriors (twice), New York Knicks, and Dallas Mavericks, Nelson compiled a 1,335-1,063 regular-season record — the all-time mark until the San Antonio Spurs' Gregg Popovich surpassed it in March 2022.
- Nelson won five NBA titles in 11 seasons with the Celtics, who retired his No. 19 jersey in 1978, but he never won a championship as a head coach despite being named Coach of the Year three times (1983, '85, '92).
- His unorthodox "Nellie Ball" philosophy deployed smaller, faster lineups to manufacture mismatches through speed — an approach the Warriors said in a Sunday statement "paved the way for generations of players and coaches who followed."
- Nelson revived the Dallas Mavericks by engineering draft-day deals to acquire Dirk Nowitzki and Steve Nash, once hiding Nowitzki in his son Donnie's basement for a week before the 1998 draft to keep him from working out for other teams.
- After the deadly 2023 Maui wildfires, Nelson opened rental properties on his 22-acre Maui farm to families who had lost their homes.
Why it matters: Nelson's career crystallizes a stubborn NBA paradox: he held the all-time regular-season wins record for decades and was honored as a Basketball Hall of Famer, yet never reached the NBA Finals as a head coach — a gap between longevity and playoff hardware that continues to define how coaches are judged.
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