PRINT THIS PAGE | E-MAIL THIS PAGE

Thursday, February 20, 1997

Why nobody shows up for Nelson's team pictures

By JIM LITKE AP Sports Writer

He coached or traded enough of the players invited to the All-Star game in Cleveland two weeks ago to take his own team picture. He never bothered. Being Don Nelson, he knew none of them would have showed up.

A short while later, the rest of us were reminded why.

Nelson became the Dallas Mavericks' general manager 11 days ago. Already, every name on his enemies list has a line through it. On Day 1, he told tubby Oliver Miller to take his meals at someone else's training table. On Day 7, he sacked the equipment manager. Monday night, Nelson shipped every Dallas player who wasn't nailed to the bench, five in all, to New Jersey.

Why? Maybe just to prove he could do it.

"The locker room shocked me," Nelson said. "The things that went on, the things that were said, the negative things coming out from new and old players, were shocking.

"I observed it, I watched it, and basically got sick about it."

Experience says wait before passing judgment on a trade. So here's something to think about for a few paragraphs: Some guys are tough to get along with. Every place Nelson worked the last couple of years seems to have had a few guys like that. At some point it seems fair to ask: Has Nelson become as much a part of the problem as the solution?

"He's tearing things down," said Eric Montross, part of the New Jersey trade after coming to Dallas from Boston last June and costing the Mavericks their 1997 first-round pick, "and it fell on me and a couple of other guys."

All the other times Nelson had run-ins with players, he deserved the benefit of the doubt. He was an unselfish, uncompromising player himself, someone who figured out what jobs the championship Celtics teams of the late 1960s needed doing and then set out to do them.

Filling the lane on a fast break, taking a charge, grabbing tough rebounds, just sitting on the bench with his mouth shut - so long as Boston won, Nelson didn't care which it was, or what kind of stats it produced. And he couldn't stand players who did.

There probably weren't that many around when he started coaching in Milwaukee two decades ago. Or even through the first few years at Golden State, where he moved in time to start the 1988-89 season. But a tidal wave of bad attitude was already gaining momentum somewhere out at sea, about to sock the NBA shore.

Chris Webber was the first guy to soak Nelson. What made it look worse is that the Warriors surrendered the draft rights to Penny Hardaway and three No. 1 picks to get him. As soon as Nelson uprooted Webber and shipped him across the continent, up popped Latrell Sprewell as Golden's State's next prima donna, like a bad mushroom. Before Nelson could send him packing, a full-scale mutiny erupted and he lost his job.

He resurfaced in New York, as coach of the Knicks for most of the 1995-96 season. There, Nelson collected powerful enemies, including Patrick Ewing, much quicker than friends. He inherited a veteran team, but contended it was already infected with the me-first virus that made today's youngsters uncoachable. Then he threw up his hands and quit trying. That's why Nelson was available when the GM job opened in Dallas.

Now he sees trouble - everywhere. He might be right about many of the kids, especially the ones he found lying around in Dallas. Still, players run things more than ever, Brian Hill's firing in Orlando being only the most recent example.

Some kind of accommodation is necessary. Nelson should have realized by now he can't trade them all. He is trying. That's what makes the decision by the Mavericks' ownership group to hand him the roster card and a pair of scissors at the same time look even worse.

It's not just that Nelson's view of things is distorted; he was never the judge of talent he was reputed to be. Someone went back and counted up: including Tim Hardaway, Webber, Mitch Richmond and Tyrone Hill, et al, Nelson - at one time or another - traded away players who made a combined 11 All-Star and two Dream Team appearances. The consensus around the league Tuesday was that he'd goofed again.

Somehow, the whole thing leaves the feeling there will be another reunion of Nelson's castoffs at next season's All-Star game. And that members of that not-so-exclusive club will welcome new ones with a knowing nod and this greeting:

Same old Don.Send a Letter to the Editor about This Story | Start or Join A Discussion about This Story
Send the URL (Address) of This Story to A Friend: