Old School 44
04-06-2010, 01:16 PM
I thought this was an interesting excerpt from an ESPN interview with Don Nelson about the possibility of coaching the Spurs when Pop was GM. I assume this was when Bob Hill was fired. Not really sure if I would have liked him as the Spurs head coach.
----------------------------------------------------
So what would be your do-overs if you could have them?
"There were two opportunities I probably should have made happen. One was when we beat the Celtics in the playoffs in Milwaukee [in 1983]. They were going to make a coaching change. I think Bill Fitch was their coach at the time. After the last game, Red [Auerbach] walked by and asked me, 'Would you ever consider coaching the Boston Celtics?'
"I said, 'Red, it would be a dream come true. But the guy's been so good to me here, I really couldn't leave [Bucks owner] Jim Fitzgerald.' But looking back as a career move, that's probably something I should have done at that point. They had a really good championship-caliber team and that would have solved all the problems if I would have done that. K.C. Jones got that job and did a really good job and they won a few championships. Looking back, I was a loyal guy because Jim Fitzgerald was so good to me, so I don't really regret not going. But as a career move I probably should have.
"And then the second one was when I was in Golden State and I was having all the [Chris] Webber problems and Gregg Popovich was the GM in San Antonio and wanted to make a change. He called me up and said, 'Can you get out of your contract and come here and be my coach?'
"It was a great idea, because the way we were looking at it, one of us [Webber or Nelson] had to go and if I leave they can keep Webber and get a good coach and everything would be great. So I begged Fitz [Jim Fitzgerald had since bought the Warriors] to let me out of my contract, but he refused, so he and I got into a big argument.
"But he was going to sell the team and I had to be part of the sale because I guess [new owner] Chris Cohan wanted me in place. I've often thought, if Pop would have been the GM and I would have been the coach, that would have been a happy, happy time for me. But I ended up staying and we probably ended up making a bad decision on Webber [by trading him to Washington]."
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/columns/story?columnist=stein_marc&page=Nellie-100406
----------------------------------------------------
So what would be your do-overs if you could have them?
"There were two opportunities I probably should have made happen. One was when we beat the Celtics in the playoffs in Milwaukee [in 1983]. They were going to make a coaching change. I think Bill Fitch was their coach at the time. After the last game, Red [Auerbach] walked by and asked me, 'Would you ever consider coaching the Boston Celtics?'
"I said, 'Red, it would be a dream come true. But the guy's been so good to me here, I really couldn't leave [Bucks owner] Jim Fitzgerald.' But looking back as a career move, that's probably something I should have done at that point. They had a really good championship-caliber team and that would have solved all the problems if I would have done that. K.C. Jones got that job and did a really good job and they won a few championships. Looking back, I was a loyal guy because Jim Fitzgerald was so good to me, so I don't really regret not going. But as a career move I probably should have.
"And then the second one was when I was in Golden State and I was having all the [Chris] Webber problems and Gregg Popovich was the GM in San Antonio and wanted to make a change. He called me up and said, 'Can you get out of your contract and come here and be my coach?'
"It was a great idea, because the way we were looking at it, one of us [Webber or Nelson] had to go and if I leave they can keep Webber and get a good coach and everything would be great. So I begged Fitz [Jim Fitzgerald had since bought the Warriors] to let me out of my contract, but he refused, so he and I got into a big argument.
"But he was going to sell the team and I had to be part of the sale because I guess [new owner] Chris Cohan wanted me in place. I've often thought, if Pop would have been the GM and I would have been the coach, that would have been a happy, happy time for me. But I ended up staying and we probably ended up making a bad decision on Webber [by trading him to Washington]."
http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/columns/story?columnist=stein_marc&page=Nellie-100406