In late March, when the news first broke that Don Nelson had been named to the Basketball Hall of Fame, I wrote a fairly long piece about his innovations, accomplishments, and problematic tendencies . That article remains the Cliff's Notes to my opinion on Nelson, a massively important coach in the history of professional basketball. At every stop of his career, Nellie has searched for new ways to win. While many of them were not particularly successful, they have often led to greater successes down the road — Gregg Popovich credits the basis of the San Antonio Spurs' offense to Nelson, and Dirk Nowitzki would not have developed into the uniquely great player he is today if he hadn't been coached by him — or indirectly inspired similar forms of outside-the-box thinking. Yet, for all that Nellie has meant, my initial assessment was arguably a little too positive. As a Warriors fan, I am very familiar with the frustrations inherent in a Don Nelson-coached team. In addition to the oft-peddled and not wholly accurate wisdom that his teams didn't play defense — the best ones were at least functional at that end of the floor — critics had plenty of reasons to distrust Nelson as a top-flight NBA coach.
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