VIGNETTE: COACH DON NELSON

By Anne Clarrissimeaux

Photography by Glenn James/NBAE/Getty Images.

Club membership: Gleneagles Country Club, Plano, Texas.
Occupation: General manager, head coach, NBA’s Dallas Mavericks.
Born: May 15, 1940, in Muskegon, Michigan.
Family: Wife, Joy; son, Donnie; daughters, Chris, Katie, Julie.
Career highlights: Two-time All-American at University of Iowa. Forty-plus years of experience as a player, coach, and general manager. Played in the NBA for 14 years. Player for five NBA Championship Boston Celtics teams (1966, 1968, 1969, 1974, 1976). Third-winningest NBA coach. Coach of the Year (1983, 1985, 1992). Led the Mavericks to their fourth 50-win season in 2001-2002.

When you were growing up, did you ever say, "I’m going to end up being a coach in this league one day?"

I didn’t think I’d be a player or coach in the NBA. It just kind of happened.

What is your response to the people who criticize the Dallas Mavericks, the management, and yourself?

Well, it’s a hard job and people criticize you for whatever reason. We get enough praise that it offsets the other. A lot of time we get too much criticism when we don’t deserve it, and too much praise when we don’t deserve that. I try not to let it bother me. It used to bother me when I was younger more than it does now, but it kind of goes with the territory. I just try to make sure that whoever’s praising or criticizing has the facts correct. They can interpret them any way they want, but it’s when they don’t do their homework and don’t have the facts right that bothers me. As long as they do, and don’t like something I’m doing, they can write about it, it’s fine.

Of the players on your current roster, who’s your best draft pick? Of all the players you’ve ever drafted, who’s your best?

Well, I’ve had some great drafts. There are probably 20 players. But the one in Dallas would be the Dirk Nowitzki deal. It probably turned our franchise around. That, and keeping Mike Finley and then the Steve Nash trade. It was a big turnaround for us.

What advice do you have for a 20-year-old rookie?

I don’t really have advice that I give everybody. It’s just advice as we go along. If they’re having difficulties in some areas, I’ll give advice. But I don’t have a predetermined talk.

So you don’t have a "this is how it’s going to be" talk?

No, I don’t know how it should be. It should be different for everybody because everybody’s life is different.

Describe the relationship between a player and a coach. Do you feel like you really stay with them one-on-one while they’re under your watch?

There’s a good balance. I think I have a good relationship with my players. But I don’t overdo the one-on-one relationship. I make sure that I communicate, but head coach is a different kind of a job. You can’t get too friendly with the players. You have to have a distance. Players have to have a respect for the job itself. It doesn’t matter who has the position, or who’s the head man … they have to respect that. I think I do it about right. I don’t get too close to too many of my players, but they know I love them.

You’ve guided the Mavericks from a losing team to a team that made it to the second round of the playoffs last year, went on a winning streak at the beginning of this season, and is now consistently at the top of the Western Conference. How did you do that?

Mark Cuban is a big part of where we are today. He’s really helped turn the franchise — and the philosophy of our franchise — around. He added to the professionalism, the structure of our team, and the way we operate now. There are so many positives that he’s brought with our plane, the first-class treatment, the new arena … the whole thing that goes with Mark Cuban makes it really a pleasurable situation.

Describe Mark Cuban in three words.

A great guy.

Any predictions for the Mavericks this season?

Well, I don’t predict the future because I’m not very good at it. I always try to create a team that plays every game the same. Play it hard; play to win. I don’t think if you turn it up and turn it down depending on the competition that you get the maximum out of your ability and out of your team, so it’s always been important to me to play every game the same.

You’re slated to move into the general manager’s seat next season, but you’ve recently expressed a desire to continue coaching. Have you made a decision?

I’ve made it clear I’d like to coach three more years, and I hope that happens. But if it doesn’t, there’s a lot of things I can do.

What’s the difference between a GM and a head coach?

It’s totally different. Coaching is the hard job. Being the general manager is not a difficult job. You travel alone a lot as a GM because you’re out on the road scouting and you’re doing a lot of those kind of things, more office work. We have a great staff around here and I’m the GM and coach — but I’ve got guys who do both jobs most of the time. I just show up and look good.

What have you done to prepare your son and Mavericks assistant coach Donnie Nelson for life as an NBA coach?

One of the real pleasures of my job is that Donnie has been with me for most of the time. I’ve never tried to steer him into any one area — and he’s very good at both of them — but I think he has more of a liking to the management end. He’s really good on scouting and player personnel decisions. But he’s good everywhere. It’s really what he wants to do, when he wants to do it. It’s up to him. You’d need to have the interview with him.

How do you balance personal life and professional life?

I don’t have a personal life anymore.

So basketball is it?

When you do it this long, you know that your life is pretty much an open book. The way you live it is the way they write it, usually. I still have my private time where I can close the door, but there’s no privacy in this business anymore.

Both you and your wife, Joy, recently battled cancer. What did that experience teach you about life? Did you come back thinking differently than you felt before?

I don’t think I have changed my philosophy. I thought I was pretty well grounded before I had cancer and, you know, there are life and death issues that you have to deal with when you have cancer. But I think I pretty well had those under control before I got it. I think my life is in order, and I don’t think I’ve changed, but you’d have to ask some other people.

What would be your ideal day away from basketball?

On a golf course. I’d play 27 holes on a nice sunshiny day, about 75, maybe 80 degrees and just enjoy the day with three other schmoes.

What do you want to do when you retire? Are you ever going to retire?

Yes, I am going to retire. I’m going to go to Maui and run my businesses over there and enjoy the rest of my life, I would hope.

Do you have a motto for life?

Do the best you can do every day. Yesterday is history, tomorrow’s a mystery.