NELLIE : Although He’s No Favorite of Laker Fans, Don Nelson Is Warmly Regarded in Milwaukee, Where They Believe He’s Building a Championship Team; Around the NBA, He’s Gaining Respect as One of the Game’s Finest Coaches

MILWAUKEE —  To every Laker fan who ever dribbled a basketball to the grocery store because that’s what Jerry West did when he was a kid, the very mention of Don Nelson’s name kindles a recurring nightmare.

The fact that Nelson of the Milwaukee Bucks may be the best basketball coach in the National Basketball Assn. right now does not absolve him from the crime he committed 16 years ago on one agonizing May night at the Forum. It was there that Don Nelson, a pudgy, slow-footed, thug forward for the Boston Celtics, lofted the worst-looking shot to leave a player’s hand.

It was in the waning minutes of the only game that mattered, the seventh game of the 1969 NBA championship. The Lakers, with West limping and Wilt Chamberlain on the bench with five fouls, dramatically climbed from 17 points behind and seemed ready to change the script that always had the Celtics winning in the end.

If not for one greasy, misguided shot by Don Nelson . . .

The shot that beat the Lakers that night hit the back of the rim and bounced high enough into the air to draw rain. It hung up there for what seemed a lifetime and when gravity finally prevailed, the ball fell straight through the basket, driving yet another stake in the hearts of Laker fans everywhere.

The victory balloons that Laker owner Jack Kent Cooke had harnessed at the top of the Forum that night were never to be set free.

There are those who remember 1969 and wish that Don Nelson would have dropped out of basketball and gone into the insurance business forever.

Now, there is an uneasy feeling deep inside that someday Nelson will return to the Forum and ruin the Lakers again. Don Nelson is at it again. Sixteen years after his last miracle, the man known as Nellie is working on another one in Milwaukee. It won’t come this year. But there’s always next.

What he has done is taken a team bound for nowhere, a roster filled with names such as Hodges, Mokeski, Breuer, Pressey and Lister and made it a championship contender. With the wave of a wand, Nelson has turned the Bucks into a team he would have loved to have played for, a team with two stars surrounded by a cast of overachievers like himself who won’t back down to any player or team. A team just a little bit like the old Celtics themselves.

The Bucks apparently didn’t hear that they were supposed to finish in the basement of the Central Division this season. A trip to the playoffs should have earned them a ticker-tape parade. Didn’t anybody read the scouting reports? Star center Bob Lanier had retired. Marques Johnson, Junior Bridgeman and Harvey Catchings were traded to the L.A. Clippers.

What right did the Bucks have to win the Central Division with the NBA’s third-best record, 59-23.

“It was Don Nelson’s finest year,” Philadelphia 76er General Manager Pat Williams said. “He’s taken a club that was supposed to be in a rebuilding year, meshed two all-stars with a bunch of overachievers, unwanted and fringe players. This was supposed to be a concession year and then, my God, they have the third-best record in the NBA. It’s really one of the remarkable stories of the last decade.”

Even more remarkable when you consider that Nelson almost never made it to this season.

Eight years of coaching the Bucks had taken its toll on Nelson. It was eight years of Nelson racing down the court after officials, his face red as he tried to escape the confines of a tie that he’d just as soon see around someone else’s neck. It was eight years of no sleep and Pepto Bismol and airports. It was eight years but it seemed like 40.

After last season’s conference-final loss to the Celtics, Nelson was described by one reporter as looking like walking death.

Nelson checked into the Mayo Clinic for a physical, vowing to cleanse body and soul.

It seemed a good time to leave the game. His Bucks had made a serious run at the title, but every time he looked at next year’s roster it felt as if someone kicked him in the stomach. His pivotal player and enforcer, Bob Lanier, would never play another season on his brittle knees. Stars Johnson and Bridgeman were heading toward the flip side of their careers.

And, physically, Nelson was a wreck. He could never get used to the ache in his stomach every morning after a loss. He could never get used to sleepless nights.

Don Nelson doesn’t like coaching. He’ll tell you that every time you ask. It has turned his hair gray and is the main reason there’s always a lit cigarette in his right hand.

For the sake of his health, it’s a shame he’s so good at his craft.

“I guess there’s some value doing something you’re good at,” Nelson said. “I don’t know if you owe it to somebody to keep going, but maybe.”

Nelson stayed for all the reasons he should have left.

“I probably came back because I thought we were going to have a bad season,” Nelson said.

“I was going to have an assistant take over, but it was unfair to him.”

But Nelson vowed that his job wasn’t going to kill him. He lost 25 pounds and cut back on the beers. He almost looked comfortable in a suit.

Then, he went out and made the trade of the season. Six days after Lanier officially retired in September, Nelson shipped star Johnson (age 28), Catchings (33) and Bridgeman (31) to the Clippers for Terry Cummings (23), Craig Hodges (24) and Ricky Pierce (25).

It was a move toward youth and a concession to a long season.

“I was prepared to go to the bottom,” Nelson said. “I thought we were looking at being in the (draft) lottery. We thought if we made the playoffs we’d be lucky.”

In December, three players and Nelson were shaken up in an accident when the plane in which the Bucks were riding swerved to avoid a fuel tanker on the ground. Nelson missed two games with a bad back. Guard Mike Dunleavy strained his back and was lost for the season.

But still the Bucks kept winning.

Philadelphia’s Williams recently reviewed the Bucks roster and still can’t believe it.

Cummings: “A guy a team had given up on,” Williams said.

Hodges: “A throw-in to a deal.”

Charlie Davis: “A player that was waived.”

Sidney Moncrief: “A great player.”

Randy Breuer: “A 7-footer who still was only the 18th player taken in the draft.”

Paul Thompson: “An unknown.”

Kevin Grevey: “A veteran in his last years.”

Alton Lister: “A backup center.”

Paul Pressey: “A guard playing forward.”

Pierce: “A player given up on in Detroit.”

Kenny Fields: “Had a questionable attitude.”

Dunleavy: “Injured in a freak accident in December.”

“And there, ladies and gentleman, you have the Milwaukee Bucks,” Williams said. “It’s a phenomenal story.”

Nelson was named the NBA’s Coach of the Year in 1982, but he is drawing even better reviews this season. And is it because of Nelson that almost every Buck player had the season of their careers?

Cummings, who everyone believed to be a superstar of the future, became one this year. There was talk that guards Hodges and Pierce wouldn’t even be in the NBA today had it not been for the trade. Hodges, the team’s point guard, set career highs for rebounds, assists, steals and scoring. Pierce set personal records for assists and steals.

But the experts say that much of the credit goes to Nelson, who has masterfully orchestrated this team into a winner.

“He allows input from his players,” said Grevey, a 10-year veteran. “He’s not a dictator. He seems to want input from players.”

And Grevey said Nelson’s knowledge of the game is amazing. The Bucks have one of the most complicated defenses in the league, a series of rotations to cleverly disguise a zone.

The Bucks operate with what some have called the three-headed center. Because Milwaukee doesn’t have a dominating big man, Nelson has used the varied strengths of three centers (Lister, Breuer and Mokeski) to get the job done.

It was also Nelson who created the point-forward position in the person of Pressey, a versatile player who can bring the ball up the court. It forces opponents to put a big man on Pressey for the length of the court, which creates holes in the defense.

Doug Moe, who’s done a pretty good job of coaching the Denver Nuggets, said earlier this season that Nelson deserves to be Coach of the Year.

Around the league, Nelson’s image is glowing.

Clipper President Alan Rothenberg recently announced that Don Chaney would return and coach the team next season. He said the only thing that would change his mind was if Don Nelson walked through the door.

Nelson is not-so-quietly developing the reputation as the NBA’s finest coach.

“I think that’s silly,” Nelson said of such talk. “I think I’m a good coach but I don’t consider myself greater in any aspect of life. I won’t take a second seat to anyone but I don’t think I’m better than anyone.”

What’s been great about this season is that Nelson has been able to enjoy it. He’s in his glory.

“This is one of those special years in a lifetime,” Nelson said. “It has really been great.”

It’s been a year that has seen Nelson mellow. And that, to some, may be hard to believe.

Some of his courtside antics have become legendary.

Once, during a game against the 76ers in the Spectrum, Nelson became so irate with a call that he charged to the middle of the court and heaved his jacket as far as he could. In his anger, he nearly slugged assistant coach Garry St. Jean, who was trying to restrain him.

Someone in the crowd retrieved the coat and on the Bucks’ next visit to the Spectrum, the 76ers held a Don Nelson Coat Throwing Contest. Nelson thought the gesture amusing.

Nelson has always been a fighter.

As a player, he was a survivor in the NBA, a better-than-average talent who did everything he could to stay in the game. He was a working-class player, one who wasn’t afraid to rub elbows underneath. He was the consummate Boston Celtic and as a coach, he expected that type of play from one of his players.

Nelson is a hero in Milwaukee now, but it was Nelson who, as a player, poked the Bucks’ Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in the eye during an exhibition game against the Celtics in Buffalo. Abdul-Jabbar was so infuriated, he slammed his hand against an upright and broke his hand.

As a coach, Nelson expected his players to play the game as he did.

Once, in another game against the 76ers, Buck guard Quinn Buckner drove the lane and was flattened by Darryl Dawkins in what appeared to be a cheap shot.

Buckner just got up and walked away. Nelson was furious at Buckner and told him that if he ever backed away from another player he’d never play another minute.

It admittedly took Nelson awhile to mature as a coach.

He was handed the job just 16 games into the 1976-1977 season, taking over for Larry Costello.

A reporter who covered the Bucks at the time caught Nelson in the hotel lobby before the press conference.

Reporter: “Is he (Costello) going to get fired?”

Nelson: “Yeah.”

Reporter: “Are you going to get the job?”

Nelson: “Yeah.”

Reporter: Are you ready?

Nelson: “No.”

That’s Nelson. He’s always been straight forward.

“He made his mistakes early,” said Jon McGlocklin, a former Milwaukee player who now does color commentary on Buck broadcasts. “He would call timeouts at the wrong time. But now, without doubt, I think he’s the best coach in the NBA. He will jump on a guy for a mistake, take him out and sit him down. But he will always put the guy back in. And he has the ability to take the marginal guy, the one who may be finished, and use him to perfection. He sees in these guys what ability they have and he doesn’t expect more.”

Yes, Don Nelson, at age 44, has done a lot of growing up in recent years.

A reporter met Nelson at 7 a.m. following the Bucks’ second loss to the 76ers in the Eastern Conference semifinals. Had this been another year, Nelson might have been unbearable.

He used to take every loss personally. Sometimes after a loss, he’d stay up most of the night thinking about it. Once he slept through his wake-up call the morning after a loss because he wasn’t able to fall asleep until 5 a.m. He missed the team bus.

Losing, to Nelson, was a painful experience.

But on this morning he was in remarkably good spirits.

“I woke up with a little stomach ache and had some trouble sleeping,” Nelson said.

To him, that was a good morning.

The difference this year is that Nelson knows his team has already done enough this season. That the Bucks advanced this far was beyond his wildest dreams.

And so, Nelson, once tired and haggard, is rejuvenated.

His relationship with the people of Milwaukee has never been better.

Nelson, reared in Illinois, is almost too perfect for this town. He’s a shot-and-a-beer kind of guy, a coach you can find most anytime talking with fans at the local bar.

For years, he and former Buck owner Jim Fitzgerald negotiated Nelson’s contract with a handshake. There was no formal written agreement.

Nelson knows he’s the hottest ticket in the NBA right now but has no intentions of leaving.

“I’m a bit of a hick,” Nelson said. “I don’t like to wear a tie unless I have to.”

On this day, Nelson looked like he was about to embark on a hunting trip. He was dressed in blue jeans and a blue-denim shirt. He had on a pair of Hush Puppies and a red cap.

At the beginning of the season, assistant coach Mike Schuler dragged Nelson out to buy a new wardrobe. There used to be a running joke on the team as to how many games in a row that Nelson would wear his green blazer.

Once, on an overnight scouting trip, Nelson arrived at the airport with no travel bag. Asked what he would do should he need to brush his teeth, Nelson reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a toothbrush and toothpaste.

“He dresses like a pauper and drinks like a soldier,” Grevey said. “He doesn’t try to put on any airs. He used to drive a beat up old Lincoln, a real gangster mobile. He finally got a new car.”

Said McGlocklin: “He’s the type of guy that could put on a $1,000 suit and look like he’d just been in a fight. He’s a no nonsense guy, definitely not a hair-spray and have-your-suit-made-at-the-tailor guy. He’s almost a loner, yet he likes to sit at the bar and shoot the breeze. He has a hard-work ethic, and people like that. He’s the type of guy that would drive up in a pickup truck.”

And that would suit the folks of Milwaukee just fine. Nelson and the Bucks are seemingly on the verge of a dynasty. And not even Nelson will deny it.

“We may be a good center away from domination,” Nelson said. “If we could get a Lanier type, this team could win it all. I’m very excited about this team. I want people to say the Bucks can win it all, not that we’re doing it with a bunch of good-luck charms.”

Not that Nelson has never been lucky before.

Ask any Laker fan about 1969.

“What people don’t realize is that I scored 16 points in that game,” Nelson said. “All they remember is the shot.”

And how.

“I still see it on trivia shows now and then,” Nelson said. “It was probably the luckiest shot in the world. I’d like to say that I shot it real well but I didn’t. I shot it so badly.”

DON NELSON’S RECORD Regular Season

Season W L Pct. 1976-77* 27 37 .422 1977-78 44 38 .537 1978-79 38 44 .463 1979-80 49 33 .598 1980-81 60 22 .732 1981-82 55 27 .671 1982-83 51 31 .621 1983-84 50 32 .609 1984-85 59 23 .720 Totals 433 287 .601

*--Bucks were 3-15 when Nelson replaces Larry Costello Playoffs

Season W L Pct. 1977-78 5 4 .566 1979-80 3 4 .429 1980-81 3 4 .429 1981-82 2 4 .333 1983-84 8 8 .500 1984-85 3 5 .375 Totals 29 33 .469