Woah, Nellie: Warriors Coach Don Nelson Reportedly Pushed Out
Categories: Sports
When the Golden State Warriors' once and future coach, Don Nelson, won his record 1,333rd game, SF Weekly congratulated him. And urged him to retire.
Nelson is the source of just about every fond pro basketball memory any Bay Area fan too young to remember fashionable plaid jackets can remember. He disproved both F. Scott Fitzgerald and Thomas Wolfe: There are second acts in American lives and you can go home again. Well, you could. Multiple news sources today are reporting that the Warriors' new ownership -- which took the team off the hands of Chris Cohan, the Bay Area's own Lord Voldemort, for $450 million-- has asked Nelson to retire. Apparently, he will.
Nelson is 70 years old -- with lots of mileage. He'll be remembered as the man whose teams played the most entertaining basketball in the league -- yet never managed to advance into the playoffs. On the face of it, that's true. But, as we wrote in April comparing Nelson's style of basketball to the defensive and downright thuggish play that dominated the 1990s would "be like contrasting Van Gogh with Thomas Kinkade. But, then again, Van Gogh died insane and filthy while Kinkade is a millionaire. You can't argue with success, even if it is banal and ugly."
Best of luck to Nelson with whatever he takes up next. There's a good chance he'll be having more fun than Warriors fans.
Follow us on Twitter at @TheSnitchSF and @SFWeekly
Nelson is the source of just about every fond pro basketball memory any Bay Area fan too young to remember fashionable plaid jackets can remember. He disproved both F. Scott Fitzgerald and Thomas Wolfe: There are second acts in American lives and you can go home again. Well, you could. Multiple news sources today are reporting that the Warriors' new ownership -- which took the team off the hands of Chris Cohan, the Bay Area's own Lord Voldemort, for $450 million-- has asked Nelson to retire. Apparently, he will.
Nelson is 70 years old -- with lots of mileage. He'll be remembered as the man whose teams played the most entertaining basketball in the league -- yet never managed to advance into the playoffs. On the face of it, that's true. But, as we wrote in April comparing Nelson's style of basketball to the defensive and downright thuggish play that dominated the 1990s would "be like contrasting Van Gogh with Thomas Kinkade. But, then again, Van Gogh died insane and filthy while Kinkade is a millionaire. You can't argue with success, even if it is banal and ugly."
Best of luck to Nelson with whatever he takes up next. There's a good chance he'll be having more fun than Warriors fans.
Follow us on Twitter at @TheSnitchSF and @SFWeekly
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