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Mike Curtis: Final: #Mavs 123, #Nets 114. Dallas wins its 2nd straight despite traveling on a game day. Bagley led the Mavs with 22 points. Marshall had 21 pts, 5 rebs & 7 asts. Williams added 19 pts & 10 asts. Jason Kidd also secured his 200th win as Mavs coach, joining Rick Carlisle, Don Nelson and Dick Motta.
Q. There was a moment they were they could have traded Stephen Curry. They were going to choose between him and Monta Ellis. Anthony Morrow: Yeah. Q. Was the belief when you were in practices, was the energy like, they fully have bought into Steph or was it kind of like we don't know, it's a little wobbly, like do they believe in him? I know Mark Jackson eventually did, but what was it like those early years? Was it like you could tell that he's kind of like a trial run with them or was it like he's the face of this franchise? Anthony Morrow: Day one. They started him first game of the season against Houston. He played well. It's like he had like 17, but he had like a terrible turnover that lost the game. And like I remember all the vets like he ain't ready to play, he ain't this, he ain't that. I'm like Don Nelson is not turning his back on him. He chose him. He's not turning his back, and it was just part of the game. Like in the process, in the journey. I was like, he turned his back on this boy, man. The way he played, Don was opening him up like play yourself like you did at Davidson, and it is what it is and I remember the whole sh*t going on with him and Monta, well it wasn't him and Monta, it was like the media and everybody else and Monta, with Steph and Monta, and I mean Monta is a hell of a player bro, he was super underrated, still my guy, he was cold and I think that the way they played they had, was too small of a back court for back then.
Luka Doncic is part of an investor group headed by former Dallas Mavericks general manager Donnie Nelson that is seeking to bring a team to Rome as part of NBA Europe, three sources told The Athletic. Nelson, 63, the son of legendary former NBA coach and executive Don Nelson, has a preliminary agreement in place to purchase an existing basketball team from northern Italy, Vanoli Basket Cremona, to potentially set up a much larger play of entering a team into NBA commissioner Adam Silver’s new European league.
Doncic, 26, whom Donnie Nelson acquired in a draft-night trade with the Atlanta Hawks in 2018, is part of his group of investors, sources in American and European basketball with knowledge of Nelson’s plans told The Athletic. While the Milan-based sports publication La Gazzetta Dello Sport reported that Dirk Nowitzki was also a part of Nelson’s group, his spokesman, Scott Tomlin, said that was not the case. According to one of the sources, Rimas Kaukenas, a Lithuanian legend as a player who was a longtime star in Italy, is also part of the group.
While the Lithuanians had hoop skills, they didn’t have enough money to compete as an independent nation four years later in Barcelona. To get his team into the Games, Sarunas Marčiulionis, who signed with the Golden State Warriors in 1989, began fundraising in the Bay Area with then-Warriors assistant Donnie Nelson (son of legendary head coach Don Nelson). The Grateful Dead — formed in Palo Alto, Calif., in 1965 by Weir, Jerry Garcia, Phil Lesh, Ron McKernan and Bill Kreutzmann — saw an article about the fundraising efforts in the San Francisco Chronicle and decided to help. Through the band’s nonprofit, the Rex Foundation, they gave the Lithuanians $5,000 and a box of tie-dye T-shirts.
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Mark Cuban: It was like — I had Yahoo stock at the time. If it went up 20 bucks, that paid for the Mavs — just like that. I remember, I was on the bus going to a game — going to the arena — sitting by Don Nelson and Del Harris, our coaches. And they’re like, because it was the most paid for any team at the time: Don Nelson and Dell Harris were like: “Why’d you spend so [expletive] much?” I go, “Nelly, the stock just went up. Yahoo stock went up 20 bucks today. That paid for the whole thing — right there.” Like, I didn’t have to stress over it at all. So I was like, “Let’s go.”
Stephen Curry: Don Nelson, he went in the weight room cuz to your point, I came in 180 lbs maybe. They're trying to get me in the weight room doing all these lifts and stuff. I'm shooting like trash in training camp like the first week. He walked in there and cussed out everybody in the room. He was like ‘y’all killing his shot! He's lifting too much weight’. And to me, I didn't know that as a concept cuz like I always just wanted to get stronger. Like most of it was just vanity (Laughs). Well, I didn't even think about it in terms of shot. I know that there's a range of like body composition that matters to making sure everything moves right. So, if you're doing a big transformation, you can't change how your body moves. I never thought I could get to that point, but then when he caught it out, I was like, wait, are they really messing up my shot?
Nellie's response when I pointed out to him that the Knicks have a head coaching vacancy and asked if he has any interest in returning to Madison Square Garden: "Well, I'll tell you what, I enjoyed New York more than people think. I mean, I just loved it there when I was there, but I wasn't there very long. I got sideways with [Patrick] Ewing because there was a time when Shaquille [O'Neal] was being talked about to wind up with the Lakers. I had coached Shaq on the USA team [at the 1994 World Championships] and I found out that he might also come to New York — those were the two areas he was looking at. If the L.A. thing didn't work out, he liked the idea of being in New York — in the big city. I mentioned that in a private meeting with the owner and with the GM. And it wasn't long before it got back to Ewing. It pretty much ended our relationship when he found out about it."
"It was tough for a while in Dallas," Nelson said of his first few years in charge, before the Nowitzki/Nash/Michael Finley trio blossomed during the first full season of Cuban's ownership in 2000-01. "People though I was a mad scientist. They may have been right."
Scott Agness: Don Nelson shares that he’s wearing Luka shoes for this special moment “in protest of the trade.” He said the Mavs made a tremendous mistake. “My philosophy was to always honor the great players - not trade them away.”
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Marc J Spears: Former Mavericks head coach Don Nelson said @paulpierce34 was his “favorite player” in the 1998 NBA Draft, but his son made sure they kept to their commitment @swish41 to select him at ninth instead. Pierce was selected 10th by the Celtics.
David Aldridge: Don Nelson was asked about his small-ball philosophy. “When I was in Boston, at practice, we always played a game: bigs against smalls. And when we played full court, the smalls always won. The bigs never won. When we played half court, the bigs always won.”
Scott Agness: Don Nelson is the recipient of the 2025 Chuck Daly Lifetime Achievement Award. He will be honored tonight at Game 2. Rick Carlisle, president of the coaches association: "History has already reflected Don Nelson’s staggering contributions as a cutting-edge innovator and visionary of the NBA game. Back in the ’80s and ’90s, he made teams adjust to historic pace, liberal 3-point shooting, inverted offense, and disruptive defensive schemes. All this while establishing himself as one of the most compelling personalities in all of professional sports. I’m certain that Chuck Daly would agree that our beloved ‘Nellie’ is most deserving of this prestigious recognition."