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Did Nellie really need to come back?
By Tom Zulewski June 4, 2008 |
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He's 68 years old, looked tired after the regular season concluded in April, and talked about retirement in Hawaii for the second time. Don Nelson Sr. gave it some time, about a month's worth, before deciding to come back for another year as head coach of the Golden State Warriors. Nelson said that the grueling length of a season at his age started to wear and he felt every bit of it towards the end of last season. Nelson will be serving out his final year of his original three-year deal with Golden State. "I got the chance to rest a little bit, think about it, and wanted to come back. It wasn't that hard. I just needed to get away for a few weeks. I'm ready for more action," said Nelson. Nelson returned to Golden State after leaving in 1994-95. Nelson went onto coach the Knicks and the Mavericks before returning for a three-year deal in 2005-06. In the 2006-07 season, Nelson led the Warriors to their first postseason since that last season in 1995 when he last coached at Golden State. Age is always brought up to Nelson when talking about his continuing year after year. Nelson, haggard and tired after each of the 2005-06 and 2006-07 conclusions, talked about leaving each time and looking forward to kicking it again in Hawaii, but thought the better of it after the offseason kicked in full swing. You can spend so much time in the hammock until it becomes old hat and you want to go back to work. Nellie's been that kind of coach; he took a season off after leaving the Mavericks before joining Golden State and talked it over with his honey about coming back and sure enough, the Warriors worked the terms out with Nelson and Nellie strapped it on and came back. It was that second season of this three-year deal that Nelson will be most remembered for, bringing the Warriors back to postseason after the team not being in the playoffs since Nelson's last year with the club in 1995. The Warriors took out the battling high-seeded Dallas Mavericks in the 2006-07 playoffs and then lost a tough second round of the playoffs to the Utah Jazz. But after each season, Nelson would talk about getting long in the tooth and this past year after the season ended and the team didn't make postseason, he really gave things some serious thought after the team finished with a winning record at 48-34 but failed to make it in the playoffs. “If they're happy and I'm happy, we might do it more, you know? Larry Brown's older than me and just took a four year job." Brown is now the new head coach with the Charlotte Bobcats and he might be a role model for Nelson. Brown has a higher energy level than Nellie though. It seems after every season Brown is ready to coach summer league or something after concluding an NBA season where Nelson needs to rock in the hammock after finishing a season. Nelson's batteries are recharged he says and is ready to get into shoot around camp and is looking forward to the challenge of his third and final year of his deal with Golden State. You can be rest assured he'll be offered an offer sheet before the regular season is finished. Tom Zulewski does sports commentary for Sportstalk Radio. |
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