Nellie

[MFFL]

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He's Don Nelson, and he's up to his old tricks that fluster opponents
By Ailene Voisin -- Bee Sports Columnist
Published 2:15 a.m. PDT Thursday, May 9, 2002

DALLAS -- Just when it appeared the Kings had seen the last of the big bruisers, along comes this beefy, blond maverick -- this aging ex-Celtic who can't jump a lick anymore -- tossing elbows, throwing punches, picking at the same sweet spot as the troublesome Sloan/Stockton/Malone triumvirate, yet without lifting anything weightier than a marking pen.

Don Nelson leaves bruises, too. Internal bruises.

In his fifth season with the Mavericks, Nelson plays with the head, messes with the mind. He thinks big, yet plays small. He strives to keep opponents guessing, to keep them on the run, and as this best-of-seven conference semifinal shifts to Dallas for the next two games, the most immediate problem for the Kings is this: They can't play Nellie's games, any of them. The mind games.

The speed games. The small-ball games.

Go small and lose big -- and no crying entrapment afterward.

Nellie guards his defensive assignments like a CIA operative, yet there is nothing covert about the Mavericks' offensive schemes, nothing coy about their sense of style: They rebound. They run. They pull up. They shoot.

Compensating for the absence of skilled low-post scorers/creative passers the caliber of Vlade Divac and Chris Webber, they challenge opponents to an old-fashioned shootout, their most skilled players against yours, with an occasional defensive stop tossed in for posterity.

And when it works? They win.

And when foes refuse to play along?

Hey, who won the Pacific Division anyway?

"We have to be ourselves," said Webber. "Sometimes it's that simple. We need to go to our strengths, get the ball inside. I mean, we're the Kings! But coach Nelson, he has always been ahead of the curve as far as thought process. He is a master at causing mismatches and disadvantages, and getting you to think about anything else but your team."

Webber laughed. Webber sighed. Webber knows the danger signs.

During Webber's 1993-94 rookie season playing for Nelson at Golden State, the two clashed like stubborn warriors, their reputations blemished, their futures ultimately elsewhere. Webber was traded to Washington, where his career continued its downward spiral, then traded to the Kings.

Nelson, his recovery equally protracted, and no less painful: resigned from the Warriors under pressure midway into the 1994-95 season; hospitalized for exhaustion immediately afterward; hired by the New York Knicks the following offseason; fired by the Knicks after proposing a youth movement and attempting to modernize an archaic offense anchored by an inflexible Patrick Ewing; lured out of retirement by former Mavs owner Ross Perot Jr., only to struggle mightily while awaiting the emergence of All-Stars Michael Finley, Steve Nash and Dirk Nowitzki.

"Looking back, what coach was trying to get me to do, now I see he had a plan," said Webber. "I understand what I could have been for him. Live and learn."

And somewhere in there, amid the confusion and the chaos, Nelson engaged in some serious soul-searching. And he, too, changed. "I looked in the mirror and didn't like what I saw," he said. "I didn't like my demeanor on the sideline, always yelling and screaming at players. It wasn't right."

Now, suddenly, this kindler, gentler Nellie is looking pretty good again.

Looking pretty smart again. The man who was voted to the NBA's all-time top-10 coaching list, who was known as a demanding, yet immensely popular player's coach with the Milwaukee Bucks and the Warriors, has his Mavericks threatening to supplant the Kings as the league's most entertaining young team. And once again his players swear by him.

"Believe it not, all the things I heard about Nellie before he got here were negative," said Finley, shaking his head. "Wasn't too much talking about his offensive schemes or his defensive schemes. Everybody was just talking about, 'He wasn't a good coach to play for.' I threw all that out the window the first year I got here. I think he's definitely a player's coach. He gives you the opportunity to go to your strengths and do the things you're capable of doing. I think that makes him one of the best coaches in this league."

It also makes Nelson a slick, dangerous opponent, someone who would like nothing more than to slip his way into the head of the Kings players and into his first conference finals since 1986. And the Kings can't let that happen.

They have to slam the door, avert the eyes, close the ears. They need to space the floor, move the ball, pound inside against the Mavs' cushy interior defenders. This is no time to lose their sense of self, to forget the big guys, to remember the new/old Nellie.

Dictate, rather than react.