Don Nelson, the Hall of Fame coach who helped pioneer a style of play that reshaped the modern NBA and who spent parts of five decades in professional basketball as both a player and a coach, died Sunday at the age of 86.
Nelson’s family said in a statement that he died peacefully that morning, surrounded by family, having spent his final week with loved ones sharing memories and friendship. Nelson had retired to a farm in Maui, Hawaii, following the end of his coaching career.
He finished with 1,335 regular-season coaching wins, a record when he retired that was subsequently broken by Gregg Popovich of the San Antonio Spurs in March 2022. He coached 31 seasons across five franchises, the Milwaukee Bucks, Golden State Warriors on two separate occasions, New York Knicks and Dallas Mavericks, finishing with a 75-91 postseason record across 18 playoff appearances.
As a player, he won five NBA championships across 11 seasons with the Boston Celtics, who retired his No. 19 jersey in 1978. He was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2012.
What Nellie Ball was and why it mattered
He never won an NBA title as a coach, but his influence on how the game is played today may be larger than that of coaches who did. The approach that became known as Nellie Ball prioritized smaller, faster, more athletic lineups over conventional size, pushing the pace of play and creating mismatches through speed rather than brute force. It was widely considered unconventional, even strange, for most of the years he practiced it.
Steve Kerr, who coaches the Warriors today, described Nelson as a true innovator who challenged conventional thinking, experimented with lineups and styles of play, and saw possibilities in the game that others could not. Kerr said much of what is now commonplace in the modern NBA traces back to how Nelson approached the game.
The philosophy was most visibly on display during Nelson’s first stint in Golden State in the early 1990s, when he put three guards on the floor simultaneously with Tim Hardaway, Mitch Richmond and Chris Mullin, an arrangement known as Run TMC. Using three guards as primary contributors was a daring choice at the time and a direct expression of the principles that later became mainstream.
Hardaway described Nelson as ahead of his time and said there was nobody else like him, crediting him with an incredible impact on his career and on basketball as a whole.
His coaching career
He began coaching almost by accident, joining Milwaukee’s staff as an assistant immediately after retiring as a player in 1976. Just 15 games into his first season, he was promoted to head coach after the incumbent was fired. He spent 11 seasons with the Bucks, winning seven straight Central Division titles but unable to advance past the dominant Boston and Philadelphia teams of the era. He resigned after the 1986-87 season.
He returned to Golden State for a second stint beginning in 2006, and it was during those final seasons that he pushed the organization to select Stephen Curry with the seventh pick of the 2009 draft. Curry said in a statement that Nelson gave him an opportunity to be his best self from the first day and had an immeasurable impact on the sport that will endure.
He was a three-time NBA Coach of the Year and coached the United States men’s national team to a gold medal at the 1994 FIBA World Championships.
His later years
In retirement on his Maui farm, where he grew flowers, coffee and cannabis, he remained connected to the sport. After the devastating 2023 Maui wildfires, he opened his rental properties to families who had lost their homes. In 2025, he received the Chuck Daly Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Basketball Coaches Association, attending the ceremony in a pair of Luka Doncic’s signature shoes to register his opposition to the trade that had sent Doncic from Dallas to the Lakers.
Adam Silver, the NBA commissioner, called Nelson a revolutionizer of the sport who brought fearlessness, ingenuity and deep conviction to everything he did, and said his impact will continue to be felt for generations.
