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08/30/2006 -
OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) -Don Nelson relaxed in Maui, opened a bar in Dallas and just couldn't get comfortable in his cushy life after basketball.
The NBA's second-winningest coach simply had to get on the sideline again - and the Golden State Warriors were thrilled to welcome him back.
Nelson officially returned to the Warriors on Wednesday night, vowing to return excitement and respectability to the club he led to its best seasons in the past three decades.
Many of the players on Nelson's previous Golden State teams - Chris Mullin, Rod Higgins and Mitch Richmond - are club executives now, and the 66-year-old Nelson said he jumped at a phone call from Mullin.
``The main reason I came back was I had some real good friends that asked me to come,'' said Nelson, who left the Dallas Mavericks' sideline 18 months ago. ``They asked me if I would come back and get back some of the magic that used to be here, when this arena used to be rocking.''
He formally accepted the job at the Arena in Oakland in front of several hundred fans who still remember the club's better days, when Nelson coached Tim Hardaway, Richmond and Mullin - who is now Nelson's boss as the Warriors' executive vice president of basketball operations.
Nelson was the last coach to lead Golden State to the playoffs in 1994. The Warriors have endured 12 straight losing seasons since his departure, and they failed to make any significant personnel improvements to last season's 34-48 club under Mike Montgomery, who was abruptly dismissed Tuesday.
But Nelson saw an opportunity in Golden State big enough to lure him out of a comfortable routine at his home in Hawaii and his sports bar in downtown Dallas. With his unorthodox coaching methods - and a vow to improve his team's defense, just as he promised every season with the high-scoring Mavericks - he's ready to fix another moribund club.
``I still have the passion, and I think we have the talent here,'' Nelson said. ``I like this team. ... There's nobody better at playing small-ball than me. I know how to do that. There's a lot of positives here, and many of them happen to be smaller players.''
Jason Richardson and Mike Dunleavy attended the press conference along with Richmond and Higgins, who teamed with Hardaway as the core of the Warriors' still-beloved ``Run T-M-C'' clubs with their plain blue uniforms and exciting style.
They made three of Golden State's four playoff appearances under Nelson, who went 277-260 in his first 6 1/2 seasons in Oakland. Nelson has never reached the NBA finals as a coach, but has revitalized three losing franchises in his coaching career.
``The change is great,'' said Richardson, who had minor knee surgery earlier in the month. ``To have a coach of that caliber is going to help this team out a whole lot. Monty is a great guy, but Nellie has experience.''
Nelson, a three-time NBA coach of the year, has 1,190 victories in a career that includes stops in Milwaukee, New York and Dallas, where he led the Mavs' revival.
``I am excited that Nellie is back coaching,'' said Avery Johnson, Nelson's groomed successor who won the NBA's coach of the year award while leading Dallas to the NBA finals last season. ``We knew he could not stay away very long. With him at the helm, it gives the Warriors a great chance to get back to the playoffs. I want to thank him for all the ways he has helped me.''
The move represents a change in course for Mullin, who promised big offseason moves and repeatedly said Montgomery would be back this fall after his second straight 34-48 season in Golden State. Mullin, who hasn't made any significant personnel changes, even laughed at suggestions he was unhappy with the longtime Stanford coach.
``The major change was Nellie's availability and his desire,'' Mullin said. ``Once those things changed, I thought there wasn't a better person for the job. I can't think of a person I'm more confident in, that would be better to lead this team, than Nellie.''
Warriors owner Chris Cohan sat in the front row Wednesday night, smiling at the return of the coach he sued when Nelson accepted a job with the Knicks after leaving Golden State in February 1995.
``It was never bitter,'' Nelson said with a laugh. ``I had some of Chris' money, and he wanted it. (The dispute) ended with that, and it's been a great relationship ever since.''
Nelson agreed to a three-year deal, though he could see himself coaching the Warriors even longer. He's still working on his coaching staff, though it won't include his son, Mavericks executive Donnie Nelson.
Nelson also was the Warriors' general manager during his first tenure, and he controlled the Mavericks' personnel decisions for much of his tenure in Dallas. But Mullin will stay in charge this time around.
``I'll coach, and I'll stay out of the personnel matters,'' Nelson said. ``A healthy relationship has communication, but I'm not here to do anything other than coach.''
Copyright © 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.
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My fellow Americans, as tempting as it may be to don the coat and HD-ready tie in order to deliver this State of the Game address before the cameras, I know better. As Brad Paisley sings on his latest album, "I'm so much cooler online."
The ideas for this annual essay to kick off the MySportsbook.com college football betting preview flowed like frat-house beer, which is to say they were cheap and spilled all over the floor. The 2007 season will be better than 2007, if only because there will be more of it. A year ago, the NCAA Football Rules Committee made two rule changes in the interest of speeding up the game. These changes went over like Kobe burgers at a vegan banquet.
To its credit, the rules committee rectified its mistakes. This season the clock once again will start when a kickoff is received, rather than when it is kicked, and the clock will not start so quickly on a change of possession.
However, kickoffs have been moved back five yards, to the 30, which will force more returns. (Thus forcing the clock to run. Clever, huh?) Special teams might decide a lot of games, because coaching strategy will come straight out of another new Paisley lyric (almost), I'd like to check you for kicks.
Paisley sings with a twang, which is why he's appropriate for this college football season. The sun coming up over the 2007 college football betting lines season rises from the south. It's a Southern football world. As the Southeastern Conference begins its 75th year, the power shift is noticeable.
Eight-figure budgets, glamorous settings -- and that's just for the head coaches. The SEC has four coaches who have won national championships -- the greatest aggregation of coaching know-how since Eddie Robinson dined alone.
Steve Spurrier, Phil Fulmer, Nick Saban and Urban Meyer have given lie to the idea that a conference championship game is too daunting a hurdle on the road to No. 1. In six of the past 10 seasons, the national champions played and won a conference championship game -- three of the six (Tennessee, 1998; LSU, 2003; Florida, 2007) from the SEC.
There will be more of the same this season, if the preseason prognostications are correct. Six SEC teams are in the preseason coaches' poll, more than from any other conference. Only one conference has talent so deep that a team with 15 returning starters, including the best quarterback in the league, from an eight-win season is considered an afterthought. That may speak more to Kentucky's losing legacy than to the wisdom of the predictions, but there you have it. And seriously, keep an eye on Wildcats QB Andre' Woodson.
The reach of the South extends all the way to No. 1. Take a look at the team that is a consensus pick to win the national championship. The quarterback is from Shreveport. The best wide receiver is from Nashville. The top recruit is from New Orleans.
So what's the campus doing in Los Angeles? Hey, it is the University of Southern California.
USC lost two Pacific-10 Conference games a year ago, the first time that had happened in five seasons, and university officials withstood the urge to form blue-ribbon panels to unearth the cause of such a disaster. Instead, the Trojans gathered themselves and routed Michigan, 32-18, in the Rose Bowl.
USC's losses at Oregon State and at UCLA last year should have given pause to those who question the Pac-10's football prowess (such as, without naming names, L.M. from Baton Rouge). The league only got deeper this season; Dennis Erickson is taking over an Arizona State team that never quite got out of its own way under his predecessor, Dirk Koetter.
Erickson will resume his quest to become the first coach to win a national championship at two schools. Both he and Spurrier, now in his third season at South Carolina, returned to college football at schools with lower profiles than where they won their titles.
That isn't the case for the third coach looking for the national championship double. You may have missed this, but NASA reported the astronauts on the space shuttle last spring made contact with what can only be described as beings from another galaxy.
The leader of the aliens said, "We come in peace," followed by, "So how do you think Nick Saban will do at Alabama?"
The public is reacting to the new Crimson Tide coach as if he is the Barry Bonds of college football -- beloved at home for what his fans believe he is going to do, hated on the road for his intimidating attitude and for what his detractors believe he did (bend NCAA recruiting rules). I made this comparison from the dais at a charity dinner in Mobile, Ala., last month, and the chill that washed over me didn't come from the air conditioning.
Saban will attempt to prove that he can remake in Tuscaloosa what he built in Baton Rouge, much like another member of the national championship fraternity. Bobby Bowden is attempting to remake at Florida State what he built at, um, Florida State. Bowden rebuilt his offensive staff, bringing in four new coaches led by Saban's former offensive coordinator, Jimbo Fisher, to jump-start an offense that has been dead for a couple of years.
The Atlantic Coast Conference is expected to show new signs of life, too. That is said with no disrespect toward last season's champion, Wake Forest, which provided one of the best story lines of 2007. The Demon Deacons begin this season in their customary position, overshadowed by the Virginia Techs, Miamis and Florida States.
It's not that Wake will find it difficult to duplicate its success in 2007 as much as the feeling that success engendered. Surprising success is the narcotic of sport. It never feels quite so euphoric the next time. Big East commissioner Mike Tranghese has figured this out. He refers to 2007, when a league looked down upon by fans and foes alike took three undefeated teams into November, as "Cinderella."
The fairy tale may be over, but the Big East has four genuine Heisman Trophy candidates in Louisville quarterback Brian Brohm, West Virginia tailback Steve Slaton and quarterback Pat White, and Rutgers tailback Ray Rice. Rutgers, as did Wake Forest and, of course, Boise State, proved last season that the have-nots in college football occasionally have quite a lot.
The Broncos' rousing 43-42 overtime victory over Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl has raised the profile of all schools in conferences that don't get automatic BCS bids. This season, TCU and Hawaii are the preseason favorites to burst through the BCS doors and earn an at-large bid. The Warriors return 14 starters from an 11-3 team, including quarterback Colt Brennan.
Brennan not only broke the single-season record with 58 touchdown passes in 2007, but he also led Division I-A in passing efficiency (186.0). The senior is expected to contend for the Heisman Trophy, and neither his success nor the rise of his team should come as any surprise in the 2007 season.
After all, Hawaii is the southernmost team in the country.
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