Like most tourists, Don Nelson lived a leisurely life in Hawaii. He started the day with golf and ended with beer. Nelson was completely immersed in paradise on earth. After 30 years on the high-pressure golf course, Nelson is ready to embrace a happy and relaxing retirement, smoking cigars and watching the waves on Maui.
Further reading:The Mavericks’ new savior—Luka Doncic’s top 5 career moments
But the Dallas Mavericks and second owner Frank Zaccanelli had other ideas. In 1997, they were looking for a new general manager, and Nelson was always at the top of the list. "We heard rumors around the league that Nellie was living in Hawaii very quickly and had no interest in other jobs. But when we contacted Don Nelson, this was completely wrong news. His mission in life was on the court. "
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When Texas billionaire Ross Perot Jr. bought the Mavericks from Don Carter, he and Zaccanelli immediately thought they needed someone who really knew basketball to run the team. In the 1996 draft, before Nelson joined the Mavericks, the Mavericks didn't even discuss Kobe Bryant. "It's the easiest way to understand how behind we were at that time," Zaccanelli said.
Although he was not sure whether he would see Nelson at the time, Zaccanelli quietly set off for a trip to Hawaii, but immediately discovered that this trip was definitely the worst secret plan in NBA history. "I had just boarded the plane, and the driver came out to follow me. Said: Mr. Zaccanelli, I wish you a pleasant conversation with Don Nelson, we even went out to the airport!"
Zaccanelli, who had a heavy responsibility on his shoulders, suffered constant blows throughout the trip. As soon as he arrived in Hawaii, he received Nelson's most straightforward evaluation of the Mavericks team at that time.「Your team sucks! Zaccanelli could only reply, "I don't want you to tell me something I already knew after flying for so long."
Despite the ups and downs, the relationship between Zaccanelli and Nelson gradually became better. Not only did they become the team's best administrative partners in the next four years, they also did perhaps the most important thing in the history of the Mavericks and created the Mavericks. The Xia team's dominance and the first NBA Gold Cup in team history was selected by Dirk Nowitzki.
Before Nowitzki enters the Mavericks' blueprint, Nelson has to face the problem at hand. The Mavericks' "3J" (Jasaon Kidd, Jamal Mashburn and James Jackson) plan completely failed in the 1996-97 season and fell apart into a motley crew. On February 7, 1997, Nelson took office. Throughout the season, players came and went. As many as 27 people had been with the Mavericks. In the end, they only ended the season with 24 wins and 58 losses.
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On his first day as general manager, Nelson didn't have a new official to start the job. He walked into the lounge and asked all the players present if anyone wanted to play elsewhere. To his surprise, more than three-quarters of them did. The players raised their hands at the same time, "We have to trade a lot of players, and I don't want players on the team who are careless." Nelson said. "The only player we believed in was Michael Finley, and we traded Jason Kidd, Jim Jackson and Jamal Mashburn to reorganize the team," Zaccanelli said. "Nellie told me we had to start from scratch."
At the same time, the future of the Mavericks was already under Nelson's control. When Nelson's son Donnie was exploring Europe, he saw Nowitzki's game for the first time and was deeply attracted by the young German.
But at that time, Nelson couldn't spare the time to go to Europe to see Nowitzki. It wasn't until Nowitzki arrived in the United States for a week that he had to go to Dallas and San Antonio for trial training. Nelson goes to the court every day to observe Nowitzki practicing. "This kid has the opportunity to lead basketball to a new wave of changes." Nelson told Zaccanelli.
With further knowledge, Nelson worried that Nowitzki's performance and ability would attract too much attention, so he lobbied Nowitzki not to go to San Antonio. Nelson even turned to Nowitzki's coach, Holger Geschwindner, to ensure that Nowitzki did not try out with other teams. , Nelson's stalking strategy was relatively successful, "We tried to hide him. I didn't spend time studying high school and college players, but I've never seen any young player with a higher ability than him."
Nelson blocked every other team but the Spurs. Nowitzki still went to San Antonio as planned, and scored 33 points in a game against an American high school team, catapulting him onto the radar of scouts and making the Mavericks' 1998 draft difficult.
Unable to hide Nowitzki, facing the Celtics and their coach Rick Pitino who vowed to grab Nowitzki with the tenth pick, the Mavericks front office could only ensure that Nowitzki was obtained through intensive planning. The Mavericks first traded with the Bucks and Suns. At that time, the Mavericks held the sixth pick. They selected Robert Traylor first. The Bucks selected Nowitzki with the ninth pick and Pat with the 19th pick. Garrity, then the Mavericks traded Traylor for Nowitzki and Garrity in one fell swoop, and then traded the latter to the Suns for Nash. Nelson's move has been hailed as one of the most robberies ever.
Looking at Nowitzki with white hair, the Mavericks not only selected the person they wanted, but also got new hope for the future. Nowitzki also experienced setbacks at the beginning, but with the help of Nash and Finley, he gradually became the strongest long man in NBA history.
Nowitzki led the Mavericks to defeat the Heat's Big Three to win the championship in 2011. He entered the All-Star Game 13 times and became the only six players in the NBA to score 30,000 points in his career.
"At that time, I thought we had a chance to get a star player and the cornerstone of a rebuild. At the time, no one would believe that he could score 30,000 points, but I always believed that he would be a great player," Nelson said.
On March 19, 2019, the Mavericks faced the Pelicans at home. Dirk Nowitzki completed his career record with 31,424 points in just two shots. With 8 minutes and 35 seconds remaining in the first half, he made a mid-range jumper to officially qualify. Chamberlain jumped to sixth in scoring history. On April 9, 2019, the Mavericks defeated the Suns at home 118-105. Dirk scored 30 points at the age of 40. After the game, he announced that this game was the last home game of his career.
I'm very proud of him and his life and basketball accomplishments have been amazing.
Nelson said
Note 1: In January 2000, Mark Cuban officially took over the Mavericks, and Don Nelson continued to be the head coach. In the summer of 2004, Nelson and Cuban had a falling out, and Nelson asked to leave.
Note 2: In the 2007 playoffs, Nelson led the eighth-seeded Warriors to defeat the first-seeded Mavericks, creating the legend of the eighth-seeded team on his old team.
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