Nellie as Coach

Only Lenny Wilkens has more victories (1,315) and more games of coaching experience (2,448) than Nelson, who has coached 2,070 games in a career dating back to 1976, when he took over the Bucks after a stint as a playing assistant coach.

Nelson also played 14 years in the NBA with Boston, the Lakers and the Chicago Zephyrs. His No. 19 was retired by the Celtics.

He was the NBA's coach of the year in 1983 and 1985 with Milwaukee before moving to Golden State. He installed the run-and-gun offense that made stars of Tim Hardaway, Mitch Richmond and Mullin, who are still beloved to Warriors fans as the "Run T-M-C" trio.

But things went sour in Oakland during the 1993-94 season, when he led Golden State to the playoffs but clashed with Chris Webber, the first overall pick in the draft. Webber was traded to Washington after the season, but Nelson stuck around only 1 1/2 seasons longer.

The parting was acrimonious: Cohan sued Nelson when the coach took a job with the Knicks in 1995, and the dispute went on for more than three years.

Nelson's tenure in Dallas started poorly but became quite successful with owner Mark Cuban's money behind the coach's unorthodox schemes. Nelson groomed Avery Johnson as his successor and left the Mavericks shortly before the 2005 playoffs.