He will be remembered around the DFW area as a Dallas Mavericks coaching and front office legend, but as large as his presence loomed over the franchise he guided from utter dormancy to perennial power, the basketball moments Don Nelson authored outside of his time with the Mavericks will be remembered as his most lasting and impactful.
Nelson passed away at age 86 on Sunday. At the time of his passing, Nelson had been living full-time on Maui, Hawaii, specifically in a home overlooking the Pacific Ocean in Kihei. He had come a long way from Muskegon, Mich., where he was born on May 15, 1940, but his mileage in the game of basketball is rivaled only by an elite few. And he’d hate for his name to be mentioned in a sentence also occupied by the word “elite.”
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His family issued the following statement, first reported by NBA insider Marc Stein:
“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. Throughout his last week, friends and family encircled him with love, sharing the blessing of his friendship and revisiting treasured memories.”
The cause of death was not publicly disclosed.
Nelson will be remembered as an innovator and a maverick, befitting the name of the franchise he coached from 1997-2005, a giant of the game he spent his life dedicated to and a fun-loving, unforgettable figure. He advocated for wildfire relief in Maui and for cannabis reform outside the game.
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“People thought I was a mad scientist,” Nelson said in 2025 after receiving the Chuck Daly Lifetime Achievement Award by the NBA Coaches Association. “They may have been right.”
He arrived in Dallas in 1997, taking on the tall task of revitalizing a stagnant Mavericks franchise. He immediately jettisoned Oliver Miller, the overweight and chronically unhappy center. The brand of “Nellie Ball” he would introduce Mavericks fans to over the next nine seasons would help usher in a new, fast-paced style of play that coincided with the game’s growing globalization.
“I read where Miller said he doesn’t care anymore, and I don’t want people like that around,” Nelson said, according to the Los Angeles Times. “I don’t want anybody on my basketball team who doesn’t care.”
He was already the sixth-winningest NBA head coach ever when he came to Dallas, after being fired by the New York Knicks the year prior. He replaced Jim Cleamons as head coach late in the 1996-97 campaign.
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“I thought I would be coming back to the NBA as a coach,” he told the Times. “Not many of these [general manager] jobs open up. I’m as surprised as anyone here.”
Nelson continued to surprise us all throughout his tenure as the Mavs’ coach and GM.
His first two seasons with the Mavericks were not successful, perhaps even steps back from the team’s 24-58 record in 1996-97, but as Dirk Nowitzki began to develop into the game-changing star that Mavs fans would come to know and love, Nelson’s stock, and his team’s, began to soar.
Nowitzki would go on to score 20.7 points and pull down 7.5 rebounds per game over his 21-year career with the Mavs, earning MVP honors for the 2006-07 season and leading the franchise to its first and only championship in 2011. Nowitzki posted his remembrance on X, formerly Twitter, on Sunday afternoon, saying:
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“I don’t think my career could have turned out how it did without you being my first coach and giving me the freedom to play my game. I can only say THANK YOU. For everything.”
The Mavs went 40-42 in 1999-2000, then embarked on an 11-year run of 50 wins or more, the first five of which came under Nelson’s tutelage. His son and future Mavericks’ GM Donnie Nelson is credited with initially scouting and “discovering” the otherworldly talent hiding in Wurtzburg, Germany, and Don and Donnie did their best to hide Nowitzki’s raw, game-changing talent from other front offices early on in that process.
Don Nelson watched Nowitzki train for the first time at the Downtown Dallas YMCA, leading Nelson to call the future star “the most unbelievable young player” he had ever seen. He literally hid the teenage Nowitzki in his basement for a time before Nowitzki was drafted ninth overall by the team in 1998.
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Nelson was also integral in point guard Steve Nash’s development. Nowitzki and Nash would lead the Mavericks to 57 wins in 2001-02 and 60 more the next year. Dallas would lose in the Western Conference Finals both seasons before Nash departed for Phoenix in the summer of 2004. Nash would go on to win NBA MVP honors in both 2004-05 and 2005-06.
Outside of his time with the Mavericks, Nelson will be remembered for scoring a Game 7-securing insurance bucket in the 1969 NBA Finals, when he played for Red Auerbach’s Boston Celtics. His shot from near the right elbow bounced high off the back of the rim and straight in, as if guided through the net by the basketball gods. It will be forever remembered as one of the biggest moments in late-game championship history.
“[Auerbach] called me up and said, ‘What do you think about Nelson?'” Tommy Heinsohn, Basketball Hall of Famer in the class of 1986 and Auerbach’s assistant, said. “I said, ‘This guy is slower than the turtle. But I’m going to tell you something, Red. He is a terrific offensive player. He can score.'”
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He would go on to win five championships as a player and three NBA Coach of the Year titles during his 31 seasons roaming the sidelines. Including his 14-year playing career, he spent 45 years in the professional game. He was a titan among titans. An icon who left an ever-lasting impact on every franchise he touched, from his start in Boston to his late coaching run with the Golden State Warriors, where he led the eight-seeded “We Believe” bunch to a first-round playoff win over his former team, the Mavericks, in the 2006-07 playoffs.
The Mavericks won 67 games that regular season, but that old rascal lovingly known as Nellie knew a little something about how to bring down the team he had built into the best in the West.
He finished his coaching career with 1,335 coaching wins, which at the time of his retirement in 2010 was the most all-time. His 79 ejections during his 31-year coaching career are an unofficial record as well. You could never accuse Nelson of not caring.
Nelson made 18 playoff appearances as a coach, finishing with a 75-91 postseason record. San Antonio Spurs coaching legend Gregg Popovich passed his regular-season mark in 2022, and Popovich’s 1,390 still stands today.
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The Nelson Family has also announced that there will be a celebration of life in tribute to Don Nelson on Thursday, Aug. 13, at Preston Hollow Presbyterian Church in Dallas. An ashes ceremony in Maui for friends and family will be confirmed at a future date, according to Stein.
Mavericks Governor Patrick Dumont released a statement shortly after the initial reports of Nelson’s passing, saying:
“Don Nelson was a true original whose impact on the Dallas Mavericks and the game of basketball will endure for generations. Nellie helped transform this franchise, bringing an innovative spirit, a belief in doing things differently and, most importantly, a winning culture to Dallas. His influence can be seen throughout Mavericks history and across the NBA today.
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“On behalf of the entire Mavericks organization, our thoughts are with Don’s family, friends, former players and coaches, and the many people whose lives he touched. We are grateful for all he gave to the Mavericks and to the game he loved.”
Rest easy, Coach Nelson. The game you loved with every ounce of your soul mourns your loss today.
And now, he’s ante’d up at the Great Card Game in the Sky.
1999: Head Coach Don Nelson of the Dallas Mavericks shares a light moment with Mavericks rookie star forward Dirk Nowitzki during an NBA game circa 1999. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and/or using this Photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 1999 NBAE (Photo by Sam Forencich/NBAE via Getty Images) | NBAE via Getty Images
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