Don Nelson, Second-Winningest Coach in NBA History, Dies at 86

Don Nelson, the Basketball Hall of Fame coach and five-time NBA champion as a player, died Sunday morning at 86.

His family announced the death in a statement, shared by NBA writer Marc Stein: "On Sunday morning our beloved husband, dad, grandfather and great-grandfather Don Nelson peacefully went to be with the Lord, surrounded by his loving family." The statement continued, "Throughout his last week, friends and family encircled him with love, sharing the blessing of his friendship and revisiting treasured memories." No cause of death was given, according to TMZ. The Golden State Warriors, one of the franchises Nelson coached, also announced his death but released no additional details, according to Sportsnet.

Nelson's basketball life spanned more than five decades. Drafted in the third round by the Chicago Zephyrs in 1962 out of the University of Iowa, he played 14 NBA seasons, 11 of them with the Boston Celtics, and won five championships as a Celtics player under four different head coaches. He averaged 11.4 points and 5.2 rebounds across 872 games in Boston, according to Fox News.

He moved into coaching almost immediately after retiring as a player, joining the Milwaukee Bucks as an assistant before taking over as head coach in 1976 after Larry Costello resigned 18 games into that season. Nelson coached the Bucks for 11 years, winning seven straight division titles.

From there he built one of the most unusual and influential coaching résumés in league history. He had two separate stints with the Warriors, an eight-year run in Dallas, and a brief 59-game stretch with the New York Knicks. He finished his career with 1,335 regular-season wins against 1,063 losses, the second-most in NBA history, according to Sportsnet. He also served as general manager for the Bucks, Mavericks and Warriors, and is one of only two coaches in league history to record at least 250 wins with three different franchises.

Nelson never won a championship as a coach, despite 18 playoff appearances in 31 seasons and three trips to the conference finals with Milwaukee and one with Dallas. Five rings as a player and zero as a head coach is often the first thing people note about his career. He was a three-time NBA Coach of the Year and, in 2025, received the Chuck Daly Lifetime Achievement Award, but the top prize as a bench boss eluded him.

What set Nelson apart was style, not just win totals. He is widely credited with popularizing the "point forward" position and pushing the league toward faster, smaller lineups decades before pace-and-space basketball became standard. He traced that approach directly back to his playing days under Celtics Hall of Fame coach Red Auerbach.

"The league really hadn't seen an offense like the one we were running, and the results were undeniable," Nelson wrote in a 2016 piece for The Players' Tribune, cited by Sportsnet. "Without Red Auerbach teaching me the mechanics of running the fast break, none of it would have been possible. He deserves all the credit for Nellie Ball, and for how fast the game of basketball is played today."

That system reached its most famous form during Golden State's "Run TMC" era, when Nelson put Tim Hardaway, Mitch Richmond and Chris Mullin on the floor together and let them play. His second stint in Golden State ended badly, though, after a rift with rookie star Chris Webber, who was traded a month into his second season. Nelson missed nine games that year due to illness and resigned under pressure in February 1995, according to Sportsnet.

He rebuilt his reputation in Dallas, where he coached for eight seasons and helped shape the careers of future Hall of Famers Dirk Nowitzki and Steve Nash, according to TMZ. He missed 21 games starting in December 2000 while recovering from prostate cancer surgery. His son, Donnie Nelson, joined him as an assistant in Dallas in 1998 and later became the Mavericks' general manager, staying with the organization until 2021.

Nelson was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2012. He is survived by his family, who asked for privacy while they process the loss. No public memorial service had been announced as of Sunday.