Paradigm Change in the NBA: Don Nelson's "#8" has BLOWN AWAY the status quo "concept".

[tiptoe]

66-yr-old-Nelson's "small ball" Warriors will go 'ALL THE WAY' (with allowance for a possibly-injury-hampered Baron Davis).

((...while TNT's (well-paid) analyst, Charles Barkley, dons a yellow Warriors-fan "We Believe" shirt and *maybe begins* to "get a clue"...like Einstein's early detractors...))

(((...and while Dallas Maverick owner, Mark Cuban, not even begins to sense "The Curse of Steve Nash"...((((since the concept's yet to be laid upon him by lazy-brain, cliche-opportunist East Coast 'pundits'))))...)))

Dallas Mavericks 86 Golden State Warriors 111 —Warriors win first round from 67-win Dallas in six games, 4 - 2, -- first time in a seven-game NBA-playoff format -- as predicted by LOCAL sports-writer, Carl Steward, and as NOT PREDICTED by ANY of the EAST COAST LAZY-HEAD "EXPERTS".

(And no one -- 'cept possibly Baron Davis and Don Nelson and GM Chris Mullin -- had an appreciation as to the prospective ABSOLUTE SLAUGHTER of the affair...by the 2nd-youngest NBA team..."still learning.")

http://tinyurl.com/QKK23

[erpowers]

1. Nelson and Nash

I was one of those people who thought Dallas would win the series. However, do you think some of the problems was that Cuban got rid of both Nelson and Nash. Although I am not a big fan Nash being the MVP, he has done a great deal for the Suns. Now, Nelson has come back to beat the Mavericks. So, is it that Cuban made to very large mistakes?

[tiptoe]

2. Nelson's been saying, lately, he wants to 'stay above' his and Cuban's

differences, but that half-truths and misrepresentations have appeared in the press. Nelson will have more to say about these matters after the playoffs.

To me, Nelson seems a purist basketball coach, who might assess Nash's value in a way that a businessman, like Cuban, might not.

I don't know the nature of Nelson/Cuban business relationship, or if either party "stepped on the toes" of the other's domain.

What might be appreciated in contrast to Dallas' ownership/management situation is the one at Golden State. In the latter, owner Chris Cohan, unlike Cuban, has not sought public prominence and has left the personnel and coaching decisions of the Warriors to the people he hired: GM Chris Mullin and Coach Don Nelson. Chris Mullin has been unquestionably responsive to Nelson's "basketball philosophy", has made dramatic reversals of his own previous personnel decisions in order to address the kind of basketball that Don Nelson wants, and, then, Nelson set a goal -- amazingly in the middle of the season -- to remake the Warriors into a playoff participant this year.

He succeeded...against time and injury. (He really deserves Coach-of-the-...no...Genius-of-the-Year.)

I get the impression owner Cuban asserted influence at some operations level that possibly frustrated Nelson (and perhaps others). That's OK: always an owner's perrogative. But it's also "ok" for an employee to feel whatever he feels. Nelson chose to leave (...I suspect...but don't know for sure) shortly after the trade of Steve Nash.

If Cuban was the impetus behind Nash being traded, should he bear responsibility for having made a "mistake" on a presumption of 'bad judgment' to have traded away a future two-time NBA MVP? (Or did Nelson "sign off" on the trade and should share the blame?) Did Cuban override Nelson basketball decisions and philosophy and "bum out" Nelson to the point the latter couldn't continue working with Cuban?

We can't know until Nelson adds his side of the story to issues he claims have been misrepresented.

(I think it's obvious Don Nelson is a superior basketball mind to Mr. Cuban.)

[tiptoe]

3. (typo) "prerogative" nt