We did a segment this week where I told Dan that despite having no source or insider information, I expected Nellie to leave us this summer. It just seemed like a beat down with his health, his wife's health, his age, his team, etc...It looked to me that it was time that he spent his days in Maui full-time.
Well, I guess I was wrong. He left before lunch. Avery is now your leader.
Mark Stein offers some reasoning to the decision …
"I see a little slippage as a team," Nelson said. "The team is just responding better to Avery at this point."
The 64-year-old Nelson also had the title of general manager, but most of those duties were done by his son, Donnie, the team's president of basketball operations. The elder Nelson will stay with the team as a consultant.
"Nellie has earned the right to approach this any way he wants," team owner Mark Cuban said. "I just wanted to be supportive of any direction he wants to go."
So, why did Nellie quit? The timing is curious. Theories abound from his wife’s health to Cuban becoming all the more annoyed by the recent home failures, to not wanting Avery to get away. Time will tell soon enough…
4 comments:
Crazy, I'm just glad that he stepped down on his own so Cuban didn't have to fire the guy and pay him for nothing for 2 more years. :)
I think this one can actually be taken at face value: The team does do better under Avery.
Just a thought.
I am happy for Don if this was done under his own terms. His health, his wifes health should all be top priority. Happy retirement Don!
It's best this way. If it happened at the end of the season, some of AJ's veteran coaching help might have retired as well (Del Harris). This way, AJ has the benefit of maintaining the staff for a while as he adjusts to being the full-time head coach.
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