OKLAHOMA CITY — Legendary former NBA coach Don Nelson used what is perhaps the final crowning achievement of his career on Sunday as a chance to “protest” the Luka Dončić trade.
“It was a tremendous mistake by the Dallas franchise to trade him,” Nelson said after accepting the Chuck Daly Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Basketball Coaches Association prior to Game 2 of the NBA Finals.
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Nelson, 85, was coach and general manager of the Dallas Mavericks from 1997 to 2005 and was succeeded by his son, Donnie. It was the younger Nelson who drafted Dončić to the Mavericks, and the elder, Hall-of-Fame coach on Sunday said Dončić was “a dear friend.”
“I want everybody to know I’m wearing Luka’s shoes, his new shoes from Nike that just got on the market, and I wore them in protest for the trade from Dallas,” said Nelson, who was indeed wearing the latest of Dončić’s signature shoe from Jordan Brand (a subsidiary of Nike).
Nelson’s son was also wearing a pair of Luka shoes. It was clear the intent of not only the Nelsons, but former Mavericks and current Indiana Pacers coach Rick Carlisle to make a point about Dallas’ trading of Dončić to the Lakers in February.
Carlisle, president of the coaches association, who had a finals game to coach about a half hour later, introduced Donnie Nelson in the audience and mentioned he drafted Dončić and Knicks star Jalen Brunson in the same year. What he didn’t need to say, because everyone in the room already knew, was that both Dončić and Brunson are no longer helping the Mavericks win.
The elder Nelson, who left Maui for the first time in seven years to attend the press conference in Oklahoma City, said his philosophy of team building was learned from Red Auerbach.
“In this philosophy, when you have a great player, you don’t want to lose that player; you keep him for a lifetime,” Nelson said. “You put his number up and you honor that player. … My philosophy was always to honor the great players, not trade them away, but to add pieces to that player and make him and your franchise the best that you can be.”
Neither Nelson nor Carlisle mentioned current Mavs general manager Nico Harrison, who was in charge when Brunson left Dallas as a free agent and who traded Dončić for Anthony Davis. Nelson did say, however, that when the Mavs failed to re-sign Steve Nash 21 years ago despite Nelson’s insistence that it happen, it “ruined” his relationship with then-team owner Mark Cuban.
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Nelson won 1,335 regular-season games in 31 years as coach of the Mavs, the Golden State Warriors (twice), the Knicks and the Milwaukee Bucks. He retired in 2010 and was inducted into the Naismith Hall of Fame in 2012. On Sunday, he said that winning the Chuck Daly award was “as important to me” as his Hall induction.
(Photo: Alonzo Adams /Imagn Images)
