Hall of Fame coach Don Nelson dies at 86
Why it matters: Nelson won a record 1,335 NBA games as a coach and helped shape the league’s modern small-ball style.
Don Nelson, the Hall of Fame coach and former NBA player, has died at 86, his family said Sunday. Nelson played in the league from 1963 to 1976 before moving into coaching, where he worked from 1977 to 2010. He built one of the NBA’s longest and most influential coaching careers, finishing with 1,335 victories, a record noted widely during his career. In a family statement shared by NBA writer Marc Stein, relatives said Nelson died peacefully Sunday morning surrounded by family. Nelson was inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame after a career that spanned nearly five decades in the NBA.