Former Mavericks head coach Don Nelson took a shot at the current organization for trading Luka Doncic, Joe Vardon of The Athletic writes. Nelson, who was named the recipient of this year’s Chuck Daly Lifetime Achievement Award by the National Basketball Coaches Association on Sunday, commented on the controversial deal prior to Game 2 of the NBA Finals.
“It was a tremendous mistake by the Dallas franchise to trade him,” Nelson said.
Nelson, 85, was coach and GM of the Mavericks from 1997 to 2005. His son, former Mavs executive Donnie Nelson, was instrumental in the draft-day deal that brought Doncic to Dallas.
“I want everybody to know I’m wearing Luka’s shoes, his new shoes from Nike that just got on the market, and I wore them in protest for the trade from Dallas,” Nelson said.
Here’s more on the Mavericks:
- Second-year forward Olivier-Maxence Prosper underwent season-ending surgery on his right wrist in early March. Prosper offered an update to the Dallas Morning News’ Mike Curtis (Twitter link), saying he should be fully healthy in a few weeks. “Rehab is going great. The process is where it’s supposed to be and I’ll be back soon,” said Prosper, who posted averages of 3.9 PPG, 2.4 RPG, and 0.8 APG in 11.2 MPG across 52 appearances this season. Prosper is under contract for $3MM next season. Dallas will have to decide by October 31, 2025 whether or not to pick up his $5.26MM option for the 2026/27 season.
- Guard Lin Wei, one on the top scorers in China, has a workout scheduled with the Mavericks, according to Emiliano Carchia of Sportando. Lin Wei, who is draft-eligible this month, is averaging 21.6 points this season while shooting 34.4% from distance for Nanjing MK of the Chinese Basketball Association.
- ICYMI, projected top pick Cooper Flagg will visit with the Mavericks brass on June 17. Get the details here.
Didn’t Don Nelson trade away a 21yr old Chris Webber for Gugliotta right after he won ROY?
Gugliotta and three 1sts. And at the time, Gugliotta was only a few years older than Webber and had similar stats. Incidentally, one of those 1sts was used on Vince Carter, though he was traded for Antwan Jamison.
Lol I really feel like if you take just a half step back you’ll see how delusional you sound. I been a fan of Googs since I started watching basketball. The Webber trade was absolutely terrible. Did Googs do anything at all in Oakland at all? Him being a few yrs older is as irrelevant as his middle name, he was never on Webber’s level. He was better than Googs in every way, even as a rookie. Webber had clear HOF level talent & everyone knew it, especially Nelly. But let his ego get in the way & lost out on a legend. If he has criticism of the Luka trade he should 1st admit his own failures & say that he’s speaking from exp. That may make his argument more credible tbh.
You are talking about the wrong ego. Webber forced the trade. He didn’t want to play the 5. Even though Nelly traded for a Center, Webber was still willing to sit the season out. I guess C-Webb didn’t like “Small ball”.
Webber was a restricted free agent & they didn’t wanna give him a new contract bc he wanted an opt-out after yr3 & they figured he would leave as soon as he could opt out bc he & Nellie had such a bad relationship. Unsurprisingly you blame Webber. Unsurprisingly I take the player’s side. End of the day Nellie executed a terrible trade that was similar to the trade that he just got thru publicly criticizing. Man’s standing in a shattered glass house with them new Luka’s on but he shoulda wore a throwback W’s Gugliotta jersey to really make his statement.
Huh? What do you mean unsurprisingly?
Are you saying the conflict over Webber’s role didn’t exist?
Webber did retire as a Warrior. Guess who was the Head Coach.
Webber did acknowledge that Nelson was ahead of his time.
Was it a terrible trade or not?
So, you are acknowledging that their was conflict over his role…Duh? When do forced trades ever work out…Silly question.
Webber‘s favorite player was Magic Johnson. He pictured himself a talented 6-9 ball handler as well.
But the Warriors needed a bruiser.
If the year was one year earlier maybe the Warriors could’ve drafted Alonso Morning at #2? The rest may have been history with that run TMC group? I can only imagine.
Another “if” was maybe Weber would’ve loved the run and gun style of the Warriors run TMC if Hardaway didn’t tear his ACL that November?
But Webber wasn’t the first to tell Nelly, “no” as an undersized center.., Larry Smith wouldn’t resign with Golden State because he knew what his role would be and he didn’t like it.
Webber would have been perfect with Hardaway & Spree. Warriors could have just given Webber the contract (with the early opt-out) he wanted & he would’ve been back. Or they could’ve fired Nelson & Webber prob would have signed a more team friendly deal. Instead Nelson made a terrible trade. Now he’s criticizing the Mavs for making what is probably a better trade. Lol whether y’all acknowledge it or not the hypocrisy is pretty loud on this one.
Webber didn’t want to come back.
He basically forced his way out…. leaves out most important facts to make Nellie look bad.
“you’ll see how delusional you sound.”
Buddy, I made ZERO assessment of Webber, Gugliotta, or the trade. You are projecting an argument that I’m not even making and calling me delusional. I stated facts. They traded him for Gugliotta and three 1sts. Gugliotta was only a few years older and his stats were similar to Webber’s. Facts. Maybe read instead of being a reactionary buffoon. This is why no one ever takes your posts seriously. You didn’t even know that Webber demanded the trade and forced Nelson’s hand.
There’s no hypocrisy from Nelson here. His star demanded a trade, he got a solid young player in return AND three 1sts. This is not comparable to trading one of the best players in the league for an aging and oft-injured star and one 1st, especially when Doncic was blindsided by the deal and didn’t demand it like Webber did. Nephew.
Lol. Where nephew come from? Lol that’s so random. But yea clearly you were making an assessment lol you didn’t just say that stuff about Nellie, Gugliotta & Webber out of nowhere. It was obv in refute of what I had just said. And not only did you attempt to make an assessment but your assessment was wrong. Similar stats don’t really matter. As I said, & is obvious to anyone back then or in the present day, Webber has always been clearly better than Googs. Those guys are 2 different levels of forward & this has never been in question. The picks they got back brought a mid return to put it nicely. Nothing they got back comes close to Webber. Nelson is the primary reason Webber requested the trade lol.
I’d rather get a HOFer like Anthony Davis than a average forward plus 3 picks that don’t amount to much. Max Christie already been more productive in Dallas than Googs was in GState. Nelson should have mentioned some of that last night.
I agree with this
You really should search your ideas and agendas. You wind up flaming for no reason. This isn’t a competition lol….
Webber wanted out. Did you forget that !!!!
And although Webber is a great all time player. He never won a ring. When he was traded for Googs he. was one best young stretch 4s coming up. Webber had a better career. Considering he did not want to play for Nelson. Nelson did well in that trade. Getting a starter and three picks to rebuild. Nelson got fired not much later. On those days the player, young star had more leverage.
Webber didn’t reach his potential till he got to Kings. He didn’t work out in Washington either.
I tell you what I do remember. Is Barkley dropping 52 on Webber in the playoffs. His ROY year ….
Those three picks turned into Todd Fuller (a bust C)Antwan Jamison (an all star, could of been Vince),Chriss Mullin (HOFer)
link to hoopsanalyst.com
You know…you can disagree with someone without being mean about it.
I respect your court vision, sankara, but weber is no doncic. Antawn J. as the main takeaway wasn’t so bad a comedown from webber.
But trading doncic is akin to trading larry bird, not chris webber.
Yes, and then he traded Gugliotta to Minnesota for Donyell Marshall. Everyone kept telling Nelly he needed to get bigger and Marshall was tall for a shooting forward.
The fortunate thing with the Gugliotta trade was that at least the Warriors got their three first round picks back.
They got their future picks back but the most important pick was the one they used on Webber. That one was completely wasted. Meanwhile Webber went on to a HOF career while the Ws were 1 of the worst teams in the West
I’m with you on this one. Nelson‘s reputation was severely hurt with the Webber ordeal. Almost ruined his legacy.
I say almost because he is pretty much held in good light and is recognized for his regular season coaching success over many years, even though he never won a championship.
He’s an old school, my way or the highway, type coach. These statements about Luka are an attempt to rewrite his history.
That plus he felt Dallas did him wrong and did his son wrong. Kind of two birds with one stone here, but basically all for the benefit of Nelly’s legacy.
I mean tbh Don Nelson’s NBA legacy is so great that this Webber trade doesn’t really affect it a whole lot in my eyes. I’m a huge Paul Pressey fan. He’s one of my favorite players ever. So I have a ridiculous amount of respect for Nellie just off the strength of the freedom he gave Pressey. And beyond that he’s just a great coach. Tbh Nellie is def a top 5 NBA coach ever & may well be #1. I dw take anything away from his legacy. I’m just saying his criticism of this trade, which is basically just piling on & trying to stoke hate, probably bc he has some type of beef with Nico or the Mavs as you say for some unrelated reason. But overall I absolutely love this guy as a coach.
I doubt he ever met Nico. So, probably no beef there. The only one he would have a beef with would be Cuban, who also hated the trade.
Donnie still does business with the Mavs. So, I doubt there is much animosity.
I think Donnie sued the Mavericks and Mark Cuban when he was fired.
I think there was a big beef about another employee and either bullying or sexual misconduct or something like that. Donnie went to Cuban about it and Mark wanted to sweep it away. So he fired Donnie.
Donnie is still a part owner of the Mavs GLeague team. So, it seems to have been resolved. I mean would they want to keep doing business?
Nelson isn’t entirely old school. He created ‘small-ball’. It is more accurately called position-less basketball. He was an advocate for the point-forward.
Webber demanded a trade and the GSW owner Chris Cohen, widely regarded as either stupid or retarded, made a poor decision. Nelson has faults and does Webber. The situation could have been solved by a competent owner. The resulting trade for Gugliotta wasn’t awful. Gugliotta played 10 more years in the NBA and the Warriors actually drafted Vince Carter, again trading Vince Carter was not Nelson’s fault as he was long gone from GSW. The GSW could have picked any number of better players with the other 2 1st rd picks. But again GSW was stupid., and Nelson was long gone. The Webber trade did ruin GSW and it led to Nelson’s firing. BTW Webber sucked for the Wizards. But keep it real.
I don’t know if it was specifically the Weber trade that ruined the Warriors. It may have been the Mitch Richmond Billy Owens trade? It may have been Tim Hardaway‘s ACL and Sarunus Marciolonas ACL?
Also it was the desperate attempt to get a center and bring Rony Siekely from Miami. That blew up in their face too.
The glory years of run TMC was maybe 2 1/2 seasons of pure joy. Alton Lister was the big man and so was Chris Gatling, Victor Alexander, Tyrone Hill… Tom Tolbert lol
Oh well. A few Good times mixed in with 2 decades of disappointment !!
They had a mix of bad luck and poor front office decisions
Webber was never THAT great anywhere he played let’s be honest. He looked good in Sac because they had a few other good players for most of his time there.
That Michigan time out man.
Luca es muy bueno para anotar, pero aun asi dejo a los Lakers en verguenza en los playoffs