Warriors Want to Say Good Bye to Their Coach, But It’s Not That Easy By Jason Don Nelson became the winningest coach in the NBA history last season, but that accomplishment may not translate to another season as head coach of the Golden State Warriors. This season the Warriors are in transition. At the top of this transition is the change of ownership and it already has been a catalyst for trades, free agents coming to the Warriors and Warrior players moving to new locations. Long-suffering Warriors fans are waiting for the completion of the transition from one of the worst owners in all of sports, Christopher Cohan (this turkey got booed by his hometown fans at the 2000 NBA All Star game!), to a new ownership team that consists of Joe Lacob and Peter Guber. Lacob is someone who lives in the Bay Area, has been a Warriors season ticket holder for ten years, a minority owner of the Boston Celtics and someone who is knowledgeable about the NBA and basketball. It did not take long for fans to realize that the new Warriors owners were like night and day from the previous regime. They will be more accessible and appeared to be taking more of a direct hands on approach. This can be good or bad, but generally bad as owners are influenced in their decisions because it is their own money they are spending. But for now, any change from dung heap Cohan is good. And to be fair to new ownership, they have not been able to put their management in place. In an interview with local radio station KNBR, Lacob said that whether it was this season or the next, coach Nelson is not in the Warriors' future plans. Already fans are viewing this announcement in two ways. The pro-Nelson fans will miss Don Nelson because of his penchant for the run and gun up-tempo and exciting style of play. The Warriors were a fun team to watch under Nelson because they get the ball and bring it up court in a flash and their plays are very dynamic and free flowing. They were the second highest scoring team in the NBA last season at 108.8 ppg. Nelson supporters also point out that he was the coach who brought them their only playoff appearance in the sixteen long suffering years under the Cohan regime. They say Nelson is a genius in regards to match-ups and offensive creativity. He revolutionized the NBA game. The anti-Don Nelson fans are many. Probably more than pro-Nelson fans. They think he’s a fat “dumb bastard,” something that Nelson himself like to say in radio interviews. He doesn’t emphasize and preach defense enough is a big complaint. He doesn’t develop young players. He doesn’t play two big men together and favors small ball is yet another. Not only that Nelson had a personality that became grating on players as he was an authoritarian who wanted his players to play out of position and in specific match ups that he deemed advantageous. This meant uneven playing time and usually a smaller player going up against a bigger opponent. Nelson’s key players played a lot of minutes, sometimes too many, while his less favored players played uneven minutes. This led to friction between a player and coach and Nelson’s players usually did not stay on his teams very long whether they were stars or role players. The fat dumb bastard didn’t stay very long on any one team either. Teams realized they initially liked Nelson for his creativity, coaching knowledge and public persona, but that he came at a high negative cost with their players and fans. So now, the Warriors new management have stated they want to part ways with Don Nelson, i.e. buy him out, but they aren’t in a position to hire a new coach that they want. They may be forced to keep Nelson for another year and see how he works out with new key players such as David Lee, Dorel Wright, rookie Ekpe Udoh and even Brandan Wright who’s returning from injury. Nelson has said that he understands if the new ownership want to go a different direction and he’s also willing to come back for another season. Warrior fans will have to wait and see what happens. Personally, I think Nelson is gone and the Warriors will go with an interim coach like Keith Smart and start a coaching search.
