SJMN (Kawakami blog): Don Nelson's season-ending KNBR interview

Don Nelson's season-ending KNBR interview: Time to stop feeling sorry for
yourself, Don

By Tim Kawakami
Thursday, April 17th, 2008

I'm a Don Nelson guy. Have been from the first shocking day the Warriors
hired him almost two years ago. Think he's done an incredible job since
then.

He's so much better than any of the last bunch of Warriors head coaches it's
not funny.

Doesn't mean he's perfect, as I have often pointed out. But he has been
excellent, no question. The guy is the second-best NBA coach (after Phil
Jackson) I've ever covered.

Still, Nellie does thrum the nerve points sometimes.

I was a captive listener to the interview he just did with Tolbert and
Barbieri (stuck in traffic on my happy way to HP Pavilion) and now I can't
help myself-I'm here early for Sharks-Flames, time to kill, and I've got to
say:

Don? Enough with the self-pity.

So you've gotten light criticism here and there and from me about your
insistence on running your Big 3 into the ground this year and basically
ignoring the young players in a desperate bid to reach the playoffs.

(Give Don credit: He admitted he did it to make the playoffs, and by not
making the playoffs, maybe that's an oopsy.)

LIGHT CRITICISM, I repeat.

Nobody is saying Nelson should be fired or even chastized roughly. We all
understand the pressures he faced in the race to 50 victories and with his
veteran bench players falling apart one by one and with Baron Davis and
Stephen Jackson choosing randomly whether to pay attention to him or nap
during an opponent fastbreak.

WE GET IT. TOUGH JOB. That's a lock solid truth, or else Brian Winters would
be celebrating his 300th career victory as Warriors coach right about now.

We also get that Nelson had Brandan Wright sitting there, yet he still gave
Chris Webber 126 prime minutes in the middle of the season. for what reason?

We get that he trashed Patrick O'Bryant-OK, not at all a Nellie player-and
now POB will probably go and be a decent back-up C elsewhere. While the
Warriors could use a back-up C.

Tolbert is right: Nelson played Mitch, Timmy, Billy Owens and Spree when
they were rookies. Glad Tom brought that up. But ah, that's the
difference-those guys are all perimeter players.

The point: Don doesn't play BIG young players, and often doesn't want to
play ANY BIG players at all (rebounding and shot blocking usually is
sacrificed for shooting-and Don has succeeded doing that for a long time).

That paid off last year but, eventually, in this historic West, it killed
the Warriors this season. You push three perimeter players to the brink and
they just kill you-as Baron and SJax, in particular, did in the final month.

I am not going to back off of that point. Nobody should back off of that
point. I know people inside the organization who don't mind the point being
brought up, don't mind it at all.

So maybe Nellie has heard this too much. Maybe he's sick of this. He's got a
million victories and has out-coached my butt every day of his life.
Absolutely.

So what? He's getting $5.1M for this.

And oh yes: He's the guy who held out last summer in order to guarantee $2M
in bonuses that originally only would've been paid if he made the playoffs
and advanced a round this summer.

Which he didn't. He got $5.1M-elite level pay-for a team that did not make
the playoffs. Not his fault, I realize, that the West was so loaded.

But still.

Hey, I'm the guy who wrote a column congratulating Don for benching Baron in
the second half against Phoenix. Too bad he didn't do it earlier, but I get
what he's doing. It's good coaching.

He's trying to move this team from all-Baron to spread it out to Ellis,
maybe Wright, maybe Marco Belinelli AND Baron. That's smart and it's
inevitable-the dumb coaches are the ones who wouldn't see that.

That's going to be tough, but there's almost nobody in the universe who I'd
trust more to do it than Nellie.

He's not the Pope, though. It is possible that he's made a mistake or two in
his life and this season, too.