For Better or Worse, Nellie Is Back

Two Nellies have I, one to laugh and one to cry.

Professional basketball has no more elusive personality than Don Nelson. Personally, I’ve been trying to get a fix on him for years and failing.

When he was running the Golden State Warriors, whom he’d built into a rising power, I wrote a story detailing his accomplishments, noted his contract was about to run out and suggested he had the world by the tail.

Six months later, he was gonzo, his franchise reduced to smoking rubble, suddenly so reviled by players, he lasted half a season in his next job.

On one hand, Nelson is warm, down to earth, one of the NBA’s seminal influences--a sponsor of respected men such as Del Harris and Mike Dunleavy--and a man, by his own account, at peace with himself, secure in his place in the game.

On the other, he’s secretive, plays everyone for chumps, preens, shows off and does things that reek of insecurity. Peers view him with as much suspicion as respect.

“I wouldn’t put anything past him,” one general manager said last week. “Knowing how deceitful and devious he is, he’d stoop to just about anything.

“I think he’s just a terrific coach, probably more so than a front-office guy. I’m not sure he always does his homework. He just thinks he can outsmart everybody. I’m not sure that’s how the great ones expect to do it. He enjoys being the genius.”

Said another old hand who has known Nelson for decades, “Don’t ever trust him.”

For sure, it was a rough two years for Nelson, fired by the Warriors and the New York Knicks amid breakdowns so total, skeptics accused him of double career suicide.

His return from his Maui exile to accept the Dallas Mavericks’ job was a personal triumph. He flew to Cleveland the same day and attended the All-Star party at the Rock-and-Roll Museum, beaming, resplendent with his golden tan and $7.5-million contract.

He told friends he couldn’t help himself--with $10 million in the bank, he couldn’t turn so much money down. Friends without $10 million ground their teeth.

Actually, Nellie might have taken the job if he’d had to pay the Mavericks, simply to get back into the game. Getting rid of Oliver Miller was harmless fun and Jamal Mashburn’s contract was a problem, but then he restocked the Nets.

Maybe it was Nelson’s revenge on the “players of today” like Chris Webber, Latrell Sprewell and Patrick Ewing, who unseated him with furrows of their petulant brows. Nelson made the standard gracious remarks about the departing players but told ESPN’s David Aldrich they were “ . . . babies.”

Love him or hate him (some do both), call him a genius or a chump (he has been both), Nelson has tied himself to oft-injured, coach-frustrating, weight-room-shunning Shawn Bradley.

If Bradley blooms, Nellie can run for commissioner. If this stork won’t fly, he’ll be back on the beach at Kihei with another $7.5 million in the bank, less reputation but another chapter for his book.

DEAR NELLIE, THANK YOU

Reviews are streaming in. So far, no votes for genius.

Chuck Daly, TNT analyst: “I don’t think you’ll ever see a different Shawn Bradley. I think you have to accept some players for what they are.”

John Calipari, Nets’ coach: “For me to do this deal, I dropped to my knees and prayed.”

M.L. Carr, Boston Celtics’ coach-general manager, who has the Mavericks’ No. 1 pick, which continues to go higher: “Hopefully, in the short term, this works to our benefit. Saying anything more than that would be uncivilized.”

Jamal Mashburn, Miami Heat forward: “I want to call Don Nelson and say thank you or something. When I left there, the attitude was players against the coaches. . . . When you went in there and asked about your role, define it for me, the head coach didn’t have an answer for you.”

Tim Hardaway, former Warrior and longtime Nelson loyalist: “I don’t know what he’s doing. It’s wild.”

DEAR SHAQUILLE, COME HOME

Let’s get this straight: Shaquille O’Neal wants Orlando Magic Coach Brian Hill gone. Management backs Hill.

Shaq leaves.

The Magic players say they really want Hill gone and lose several games to prove it.

Management caves.

Let’s just say we’ve seen better timing. Hill averaged 56 victories in three seasons, although Shaq and Penny Hardaway helped. Then, without Shaq, with several starters hurt, he rallied the Magic to a 12-2 spurt before the All-Star break.

Then during a home loss to the Nets, Hill had a heated argument on the bench with Brian Shaw, massively overpaid third guard. Then Orlando lost at Detroit, where Hardaway, gimpy and disappointing all season, was scorched by Grant Hill and there were reports of a Penny-Brian row. There was a players’ meeting to demand the coach’s ouster that brought General Manager John Gabriel winging to Chicago, where the story broke.

“You have to take your hat off to Brian,” longtime conspirator Horace Grant said. “There’s not one guy on this ballclub who felt good about Brian getting fired, but we were at a standstill.”

Hill may have been a goner since last season’s game when his players started calling timeout to get reserve Anthony Bowie a triple-double in garbage time. Hill refused to join their huddle and apologized for them afterward. After that, insiders say, the players tuned him out.

However, even after management made it clear that Hill would stay, Shaq insisted, publicly and privately, he was coming back. He didn’t waver until the end, when the Magic asked him to take less than the Lakers were offering. That was the straw that broke the franchise’s back.

Laker fans would like to extend their heartfelt thanks to the Magic for hanging on to its principles, just long enough.

NAMES AND NUMBERS

Just let one of his guys try this, he’ll have him flogged, drawn, quartered and then waived: Heat Coach Pat Riley, railing about disgruntled players: “The commissioner should come in and suspend all of them. There should be some special attitude rule where you put people in purgatory, one big pool out there, make them play in the CBA or something for about a week or two. If your attitude is to break the coach’s butt and create and spread negativity, then there should be a place to send them. The only recourse is to do what Nellie did and what others do to try to move guys.” . . .

Second-biggest potential loser in the Net-Maverick deal, next to Nelson, is Sam Cassell, who had been the main man in the Jason Kidd trade, a free agent Dallas would have had to sign for whatever he wanted. Apparently missing the news that he had lost his leverage, Cassell declared, “I just want to get compensated for my value. I’d say between $5 million and $7 million [per year]. I know what it takes to win. Look at the point guards who are making a lot of money, Jason Kidd, Kenny Anderson, Kevin Johnson. I have something over those guys, two championship rings. They may have accolades and All-Star games, but people rarely forget the champions.” Perhaps in the excitement, Cassell forgot he was a backup on those champions. To date, he has started 29 games. . . .

Philadelphia columnists want the head of overmatched Coach Johnny Davis. Davis reportedly wants Jerry Stackhouse, Derrick Coleman and Clarence Weatherspoon moved, instead. Johnny, I don’t think they’re going for it: 76er President Pat Croce gives his new organization’s off-court effort an A (“The food’s better, the parking’s better, we are making a strong bid to involve the team more in the black community.”) but gave the basketball operation an F. . . .

Chicago Coach Phil Jackson told Toni Kukoc he will spot start at power forward in what is seen as the Bulls’ weaning themselves from Dennis Rodman. . . . There he goes again: Rodman, coming off the bench against the Atlanta Hawks with Commissioner David Stern watching, had shoving matches with Christian Laettner and Dikembe Mutombo, gave referee Bob Delaney the choke sign and fouled out in 30 minutes. “We try to control him in whatever form or fashion we can,” Michael Jordan said. “Hopefully, we don’t have to continue to do that.” . . .

Luc Longley, after the Bulls’ 110-89 rout of the Magic, their Eastern finals opponent last spring: “It’s funny how things change. We’re obviously a year or two, whatever, away from things changing more drastically than things have changed for Orlando. So we’ll take it while we can get it.”