We landed on the same flight and as we checked into the hotel, exhausted, Nelson said: “Dump your stuff and meet in the lobby in 15 minutes. The NBA was having its first Basketball Without Borders camp in South Africa. You couldn’t comprehend Nelson’s international scope unless you see it firsthand, which I was lucky enough to do in 2003. And a lot of times, it’s a 7-foot guy who turns out to be 6-7.” “Sometimes, just getting to see the guy you are there to scout is the hardest part. “It’s being able to drop into a country and know people in the basketball federation so you can get around the country and have somebody who knows the language and the people you needed to meet. “It’s all about relationships,” Nelson once told me. Or hitting many home runs.Īnd Nelson knew the blueprint for hitting hard when it came to uncovering talent. But if you don’t swing and miss now and then, you probably aren’t trying hard enough. Yes, along the way, there were Pavel Podkolzin and Antoine Rigadeau. He also had a tip for Cuban on Giannis Antetokounmpo, but a lack of reliable video about the 6-10 Greek Freak scared off the Mavericks in that draft. Barea and Jalen Brunson – all of whom were either undrafted or taken in the second round and became big-time players. He found players like Dorian Finney-Smith, Jae Crowder, J.J. He persuaded ownership (and his father) to trade for Nash, then an unproven commodity, in 1998, just months after joining the Mavericks.īut there were other successes – and a few failures along the way – that made Nelson such an important piece of the Mavericks’ fabric. He was on the Dončić trail well before the then-14-year-old became a bigger-than-life sensation in Spain. Nelson’s global connections in the basketball community helped uncover Nowitzki before the rest of the world caught on to his greatness. Nelson and the Mavericks parted ways “mutually” on Wednesday, 10 days after the Mavericks’ playoff run ended in a first-round loss to the Los Angeles Clippers in seven games.Ī search for his successor began immediately. The franchise made its only two trips to the NBA finals and won its only championship (2011) under Nelson’s stewardship. He joined the franchise in 1998 as an assistant coach and became general manager in 2005. He’s not Dirk Nowitzki, Steve Nash or Luka Dončić.īut beyond those icons, Mark Cuban and Rick Carlisle, Nelson’s place in Mavericks history is as important as anybody else. If you talk about the people who have defined the Mavericks’ organization, Nelson isn’t at the top of the list. Rest assured that Nelson left the Mavericks on Wednesday with his reputation and everything else perfectly intact. The other times were for a Canadian point guard and a teenage sensation from Slovenia. The first time was for a goofy-looking German kid whose skinny frame made his dorky hair look even more geeky. Donnie Nelson once told me that he only put his reputation on the chopping block for a player three times.
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