Nelson's Plans For Dallas Mavericks Put On Hold

[Way Of The Ray <wayray@ix.netcom.com>]

Updated: Tuesday, Nov. 3, 1998 at 22:17 CST

Nelson's plans for Mavs derailed by NBA lockout

By Dwain Price
Star-Telegram Staff Writer

DALLAS -- If the Mavericks had opened their NBA season in Orlando last
night as scheduled before the lockout, Don Nelson would have been ready.

The Mavericks coach/general manager has the game plan for what would have
been tomorrow's home opener against Golden State, and he has a strategy
ready to handle Shaq. But since the Mavericks won't be playing the Lakers
in Los Angeles on Sunday or any game until December at the earliest, Nellie
is feeding his hunger for competition by playing golf and shuffleboard.

Make no mistake, though, he has been working hard at turning the Mavericks
from a 21-61 flop of last season into a formidable foe for the Lakers or
the Suns or the Sonics.

"I'm over-anxious to get started," Nelson said. "I'm champing at the bit.
There's no more fun thing in sports than to build a bad team into a good
one, and to get a chance to work with really good young people, and we have
that situation here now.

"It's just so much fun building a young team and getting them to play the
way you want."

Coaches like Nelson are creatures of habit. And right now, the lockout has
altered their lives.

"I've never been through something like this," Nelson said. "I just try to
be flexible, and whatever life brings you, you deal with it.

"It's just like it's still summer. What we're doing now is the kind of
things we do during the off-season."

For Nelson, the lockout has been like mental anguish. He misses the
day-to-day interaction with his players, and those opportunities to teach
them something new.

Before Nelson can start building the Mavs into winners, the lockout has to
end. Until then, a typical work day for him is anything but typical.

"I try to go into work the same time every day, 9 o'clock," Nelson said.
"Then I read all of the newspaper clippings from the labor negotiations.

"I try to go have lunch with somebody. Then I meet with the coaches,
usually in the afternoon, and go over the strategies that we're going to be
doing. I try to get our offensive and defensive books all done, and teach
them the way I way I want defense taught and offense taught, so when
somebody asks them a question they'll know the answer."

Just so he still gets his training-camp fix, Nelson sends 100 different
Dallas-area elementary kids through a training camp on Tuesdays and
Thursdays at the Landry Center. The kids are selected by their teachers
based on factors such as perfect attendance, and improvements in grades and
attitudes.

For Nelson, the kids' training camp is from the heart. But in a perfect
world, he would rather be going through training camp with sleek guards and
forwards rather than kids named Junior.

"I just feel that I'm helpless," Nelson said of the league's labor woes. "I
just sit here and ... there's nothing I can do about it. It's out of my
hands.

"I understand both sides, and I've been on both sides. There was a time
when players had very little advantage and the owners had all of the
advantages. Now it's kind of gone the other way, where the people in charge
are the players."

Since Nelson doubles as the Mavs' general manager, he also faces another
dilemma. League rules prohibit him, his coaches and anyone from the Mavs
organization from talking to any players or their agents.

That includes Mavs free agents Cedric Ceballos and Kurt Thomas, whom Nelson
respects highly and would love to re-sign.

"The good situation is, other than our own free agents, our roster is
pretty well set," Nelson said. "We don't need to sign other free agents --
we're not even looking at them.

"We're ready to roll. We want to have a minimal amount of guys in training
camp -- we'll probably have 15 -- and get right down to work."

Nelson is relishing the thought of getting serious about basketball right
now. His competitive juices go way beyond whipping someone at golf or
shuffleboard.

"I'd love to be on the court with this young team training them, but it's
not meant to be," Nelson said. "It's just our time to go through labor
problems.

"I do the best that I can not to let it wreck my day. But I'm a pawn like
everybody else, and just waiting to see what happens."


   © 1998 Star-Telegram