The Golden State Warriors may not be in the NBA Finals this year, but a major piece of their history will still be honored as the Indiana Pacers and Oklahoma City Thunder face off.
The Chuck Daly Lifetime Award is given to longtime coaches for their life in basketball and for a "standard of integrity, competitive excellence, and tireless promotion" of the game. And a former Warriors coach is this year's recipient.
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Former Warriors coach Don Nelson will be given the Chuck Daly Lifetime Award during Game 2 of the Finals on Sunday night, which will be handed to him by the president of the Association, Rick Carlisle. Carlisle was Nelson's successor in Dallas and worked with Nelson's son in Dallas, so it should be a big moment for both.
Some recent winners of the award include Rudy Tomjanovich, Larry Brown, and Rick Adelman.
Nelson was the Warriors' coach from 1988 to 1995 and again from 2006 to 2010. He also spent time as the head coach of the Milwaukee Bucks from 1976 to 1987, the New York Knicks for the 1995-96 season, and the Dallas Mavericks from 1997 to 2005. When he retired in 2010, he was the NBA's all-time winningest coach with 1,335 wins, which has since only been passed by Gregg Popovich.
Nelson led the Warriors to the playoffs five times, including in 2007 when he led the infamous "We Believe" team over the top-seeded Mavericks and MVP Dirk Nowitzki. He also won the Coach of the Year Award three times: 1983, 1985, and 1992.
Because of his connection to the Dallas Mavericks, he'll be wearing a pair of Luka Doncic's signature shoes as his way of protesting the trade, per Marc Stein. His son, Donnie, was the team's general manager when the Mavs made the draft night trade for Doncic, and they remain big fans of the Slovenian superstar.
