Interesting story. I knew nothing about his playing days, honestly.NELLIE THE NATURAL: Don Nelson, so ego-less, always got a kick out of revealing to modern-day players that he, too, was once an NBA athlete. His latest goof was on Shaq, who poked at Nellie for not having any rings, unaware that the man once won FIVE of them as a key Celtics player.
As the world honors Nellie the coach, we thought it timely to review Nellie the player.
Perhaps the one word that best defines Nellie the player is “efficient.” He was one of the first Celtics to consistently shoot a good percentage from the floor. (Sam Jones was the first, and several years would pass before he was joined by Bailey Howell and Nellie.)
Most impressively, Nellie was the rare player who shot signficantly better during the playoffs than the regular season. Usually it’s the reverse, owing to the increased defensive intensity. For his regular-season career, Nellie shot .480 from the floor and .765 from the line. In the playoffs, he raised those percentages to .498 and .817.
He really came up big in player-coach Bill Russell’s last two seasons. In the playoffs in 1968 and 1969 — both title years for the Celtics — Nellie shot 52 percent (stratospheric in those days) while contributing 12.5 and 12.4 points per game off the bench. (Old man Russell came up big, too, averaging 13 points, 5 assists and 22 rebounds.) Nellie also delivered in the playoffs as an aging veteran on the Celtics championship teams of 1974 and 1976.
Nellie was more than just a guy who “didn’t hurt the team” when he came in off the bench; he was a very big help, a terrific “complementary” player. And just because he wasn’t a leaper doesn’t mean he wasn’t a fine athlete., He was a very coordinated guy with a soft touch and a nice feel for the game. Perhaps that explains why he whips his reporter friends at bar games like shuffleboard. The guy’s a natural. Professor Dennis Hans 11am March 22 05
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Interesting story. I knew nothing about his playing days, honestly.
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