JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
This week, we are remembering a man who changed modern basketball. Don Nelson died on Sunday at the age of 86. Celtics fans will remember the five championship teams he played for in the '60s and '70s, and NBA fans will remember him not only as the second winningest coach, but for his impact on how the game's played. Jackie MacMullan covered the NBA for decades with The Boston Globe and ESPN and joins us now to talk about Don Nelson's legacy. Welcome back to the program.
JACKIE MACMULLAN: Thank you, Juana. Thanks so much for having me.
SUMMERS: I mean, Don Nelson had just such a profound impact on the league over more than five decades. What's at top of your mind? What set him apart?
MACMULLAN: He was just so innovative. Nellie was always willing to try different things. We look at the modern NBA and what do we see? We see 7-footers like Kristaps Porzingis standing behind the 3-point line. Nellie was doing that decades ago. He understood the idea of spacing the floor. They called it small ball back then because they had shooters all over the floor. He also was so far ahead of the pack on international players. People think about Dirk Nowitzki because that was one of the real gems that he drafted for the Dallas Mavericks. He was just well ahead of everybody at looking at the game as a global event instead of just the, you know, the colleges throughout the United States.
SUMMERS: I mean, this is someone who went from being a successful championship player to a wildly successful coach. Why do you think he was able to do both of these jobs so well?
MACMULLAN: He was a very difficult coach to play for because he was very exacting and expected the most of you. But when the practice was over, he was one of the most easygoing, affable, fun people. I mean, he had a second office at Major Goolsby's in downtown Milwaukee when he coached there, which is a favorite watering hole of locals, and he would sit there and talk with fans. You know, remember, too, this is a guy who, when he was coaching in Milwaukee, he started something called Nellie's Farm Fund because he got this very desperate letter from a farmer who had 13 children, who was worried how he was going to pay his bills, and raised almost a quarter of a million dollars to help farmers in Wisconsin.
He spent the end of his life in Maui in Hawaii. And when they had those terrible, terrible fires, he had 20-plus acres of land and opened up his hotel to people who had lost their homes to stay there for free. So everyone could identify him. He was an everyman in many, many ways.
SUMMERS: Many know him as the pioneer of Nellie Ball, this style of play that was fast-paced and geared towards smaller lineups. How did that style change the speed of the game as we know it today?
MACMULLAN: Oh, it changed - it turned the game on its head. Remember now, this - Don Nelson is the one who drafted Steph Curry. Think about that now. Steph Curry at Davison, who everyone thought too small, can't play in the NBA, he's - he became one of the most transformative players in NBA history, a sure-fire Hall of Famer. Nellie's the one that drafted Steph Curry. He had a vision for the game that everyone could play. Remember, he was a 6-foot-6, I guess you could call him a forward. He was undersized, guarding people like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and in his mind, that didn't disqualify him from making a difference in the NBA. He really felt that you could play all - this game all different ways, and it didn't have to just be a center plunked in the middle of the key to be successful. And for the longest time, many of his compatriots, if you will, that's how they saw the game.
SUMMERS: Jackie, how will you remember Don Nelson?
MACMULLAN: Well, he just was one of my favorite people to be around. And, you know, I've covered the NBA - I'm retired now - but over 40 years, and nobody made me feel the way Don Nelson did. You have to remember, I was a young female reporter in a pretty much all-male environment in the 1980s, and Don Nelson didn't care if I was Black, white, male, female or purple if I knew basketball - which I did 'cause I had played it - and I could talk basketball and I did my job and I worked at it. He became my biggest fan, and I became his.
SUMMERS: That was Jackie MacMullan. She covered the NBA for decades with The Boston Globe and ESPN. Thank you so much.
MACMULLAN: Thank you.
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