Don Nelson never coached the Los Angeles Lakers. But he has got Luka Doncic’s back.
The longtime NBA coach and Basketball Hall of Famer announced his support of the Lakers’ forward while receiving the Chuck Daly Lifetime Achievement Award prior to Game 2 of the NBA Finals in Oklahoma City on Sunday night.
Nelson, who turned 85 on May 15, was a five-time NBA champion as a member of the Boston Celtics before he got into coaching in 1976. He won 1,335 games and finished with a .557 win percentage in 2,398 NBA games coached over 31 seasons with the Milwaukee Bucks, Golden State Warriors, Dallas Mavericks and New York Knicks.
A three-time NBA coach of the year, Nelson was inducted to the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame as a coach in 2012, despite the fact none of his teams reached the NBA Finals.
What Did Don Nelson Say About Luka?
Though Nelson never coached Doncic — Don’s final season (2010) was eight years before the Mavericks acquired him for Trae Young and an 2019 first-round pick — he does have a personal connection to the now-Lakers star.
Nelson’s son, Donnie, advocated for the Mavericks to pick Doncic ahead of the 2018 draft. Neither Nelson is associated with the Mavericks anymore, which is why Don Nelson publicly backed the Lakers star and not his and his son’s former club, which traded Doncic to the Lakers for center Anthony Davis on Feb. 2.
“I want everyone to know I’m wearing Luka’s new shoes from Nike,” Nelson said. “I’m wearing it in protest of the trade. I think it was a tremendous mistake from the Dallas franchise to trade him, and I want everyone to know that.”
When asked what he would have done with Doncic instead of trading him, Nelson had a pretty clear road map.
“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, according to The Athletic. “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.”
How Did Don Nelson Honor NBA Greats While Coaching?
Nelson may have said all the right things Sunday, and he may have learned a thing or two about coaching greats, but his track record produced mixed results.
Star forward Chris Webber famously lasted just one season under Nelson with the Golden State Warriors before they shipped him to Washington for Tom Gugliotta and a basket of picks in 1994. Webber was the NBA Rookie of the Year in 1993-94 but didn’t want to play the game Nelson wanted him to.
“Don Nelson saw his strengths, what he could do like he was doing in Sacramento early,” Warriors guard Tim Hardaway said on the Forgotten Seasons podcast in 2024. “If I was there, I could have settled Chris Webber and made him understand, ‘Look, this how we want you to play, this how we need you to play if all of us is gonna be successful,'”
Yet, Nelson had more success coaching Steve Nash and Dirk Nowitzki, each of whom Donnie helped get to Dallas in the mid-2000s. But Nelson stepped aside for Avery Johnson in 2005, and Johnson coached Nash, Nowitzki and the Mavericks to the NBA Finals in 2006 before they lost to Dwyane Wade and the Miami Heat.
