Don Nelson, lovingly called Nellie, donned quite a few hats across his nearly 50-year NBA career. But what if we told you there was a chance Nelson never would have made it big? Not once, but twice in his career. Very little came easily to him, and it had nothing to do with a lack of effort on his part.

Nelson was 86 when he lost his life on Sunday. The cause of his death wasn’t disclosed by his family. A brief account, however, came from veteran NBA insider Peter Vecsey, who mentioned that a legendary figure had been very ill.

“A Naismith Hall of Famer is in hospice following a series of strokes. Respecting the family I won’t reveal his identity. Prayers Squared!!” Vecsey wrote on X. His story was soon corroborated by The New York Times itself, which wrote, Nelson had died “at an assisted living facility in Frisco, Texas.”

The Times confirmed Nellie’s health had “deteriorated” after a stroke about three weeks ago. Here’s what the Nelson family’s personal statement said:

“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. Throughout his last week, friends and family encircled him with love, sharing the blessing of his friendship and revisiting treasured memories.”

Selected in the third round of the 1962 NBA Draft by the Chicago Zephyrs, Nelson found himself out of a contract within his first three professional years. The Zephyrs had moved him to the Los Angeles Lakers, who subsequently waived him. He came off a season averaging 2.4 points and 1.9 rebounds.

It didn’t help that Nellie’s father, Arvid, kept insisting for years that there wasn’t a future in basketball for him. It wasn’t looking good because the only other option at the time was to take up manual labor jobs to make a living. The NBA dream seemed over for the undersized small forward.

Out of nowhere, Red Auerbach, who was coaching the reigning league champions, the Boston Celtics, phoned Nelson during the summer of 1965. Auerbach offered the 25-year-old a $11,000 contract (much less than his rookie paycheck), but Nelson couldn’t be more thankful that somebody finally believed in him.

The rest was history.

Nelson went on to spend 11 seasons in Boston, winning five championships along the way. He also developed an undefendable jump shot, with his most notable contribution coming during the 1969 Finals against the Lakers.

The small forward who once struggled to find an NBA team eventually had a place in the rafters. The Celtics retired his No. 19 jersey in 1978!

A few years later, Nelson decided to retire as a player, and almost immediately, Milwaukee Bucks Coach Larry Costello recruited him as an assistant coach. But little did Nelson know that, just a year later, he’d once again find himself facing the same kind of doubt he had experienced after the Lakers waived him.

Costello lost his job. Nelson assumed that it would be it for him, too. However, Bucks’ owner, Jim Fitzgerald, offered Nellie the head coaching job.

“I said, ‘Jim, I’m not ready to be a head coach,’” Nelson recalled at his Hall of Fame induction in 2012. “Fitz said to me: ‘Give it a try. If it doesn’t work out at the end of the year, we’ll talk about it.’ Eleven years later, I was still there.”

Nelson won his first two of three Coach of the Year awards with the Bucks in 1983 and 1985. He also coached the Golden State Warriors across two stints, the New York Knicks, and the Dallas Mavericks. He developed big names, including Chris Mullin, Tim Hardaway, Mitch Richmond, Steve Nash, and Dirk Nowitzki.

Nellie’s style of play, nicknamed “Nellie Ball,” influenced how the league approached spacing and pace for decades afterward, even as his teams were frequently criticized for their lack of defensive commitment.

Years later, in a 2016 The Players Tribune story, Nelson wrote, “Fifty years ago, a wise man said something to me that I never forgot: ‘We are going to play fast.’”

He was referring to Auerbach and noted how, despite the 1960s being called the “Decade of the Big Man,” the Celtics boss decided to speed up the pace of the game, use smaller, more versatile players, and run opposing teams off the court.

Nellie retired from coaching in 2010 with the record for most regular-season wins in NBA history, a mark broken by Gregg Popovich in March 2022.

Interestingly, a year before he retired, Nellie insisted that the Dubs draft a young, thin guard named Stephen Curry from Davidson College.

Dare we say, again… the rest is history.

The Warriors released a statement after Nelson’s death, calling him “one of the most innovative and influential coaches in the history of the NBA and an iconic figure in Warriors history.”

“‘Nellie’ left an indelible mark on our franchise with his approach to the game,” the Warriors wrote. “From the Run TMC era to the ‘We Believe’ team in 2007, his teams captivated Bay Area basketball fans and created some of the most memorable moments in Warriors history.”

A Celebration of Life is scheduled for Thursday, August 13, at Preston Hollow Presbyterian Church in Dallas, with an ashes ceremony in Maui for friends and family to be confirmed at a later date.