- 10 hours ago
Willard and Dibs remember the great Don Nelson and what he meant to the Bay Area.
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00:00I'd love to hear what sort of stands out to you in your mind.
00:03And for me, it wasn't any of these specific moments that people will bring up.
00:08That's great.
00:09Certainly the We Believe season.
00:11But that We Believe season, I think the reason that one stood out more than anything
00:15is because Nelly sort of, as a young basketball fan, for me,
00:21he kind of taught me that there's more than one way to do this.
00:26And maybe an open mind is a really good thing.
00:30And wow, it fit, even though they were still, they were not San Francisco yet.
00:35That was East Bay still.
00:37It fit the Bay Area so well because Nelly would gather a lot of these players
00:42that either had some scars on them or other teams didn't want them.
00:46And it felt a little ragtag.
00:48And he was like, nope, watch me kind of make something out of these ingredients
00:53with this style of play and that style of player.
00:56And that stuck with me because I think that that really bleeds into all things in life.
01:02That's what I remember first.
01:03That's what comes to my mind with Don Nelson.
01:06It's the We Believe for sure.
01:07And that was the high point.
01:08And I can't help but think about the whole Chris Webber debacle where, you know,
01:12they drafted Hardaway.
01:14They traded him immediately for Webber.
01:15And then Webber didn't want to be a point guard anymore.
01:17He didn't want to play center rather.
01:19And so he and Nelly were at odds and he was awesome that rookie year.
01:23And then it all came down to a spot where they had to choose between the player
01:27or the coach.
01:28They kept the coach.
01:29They traded the player.
01:31And then the coach left anyway.
01:32So that for me is part of the whole, I guess, context of the Don Nelson era
01:37that we believe was a great redemption.
01:39And it was amazing.
01:40Like the right team with the right guy at the right time.
01:43But again, they just won one series.
01:46Five games.
01:47Right.
01:47That's it.
01:47Five basketball games.
01:49That's it.
01:50I don't know.
01:51And we've done this before.
01:52I don't know if there's a comparison to that.
01:54You know, certainly not.
01:56And I know the Warriors, you know, were not traditionally at that time,
01:59they were not traditionally a good team.
02:01But stuff like that is so reserved for cities and franchises that just suck all
02:08the time.
02:09You know what I mean?
02:09Like if the Cleveland Browns get to round one of the playoffs and win a game,
02:14sort of like how the Detroit Lions felt a few years ago when the Niners beat them
02:19in the NFC title game, it broke Lions fans' hearts.
02:22But you walk away from that with just like, wow, we actually won playoff games.
02:28We went to the playoffs and then we didn't bow out in the first round.
02:32And you cherish that a little bit.
02:34And so there was a piece of that with We Believe, but also so many other sort of iconic pieces
02:43on a social tip of why that particular team struck a chord with this area and that city
02:50and all of those things.
02:51And damn, you just brought up Weber.
02:53I was so excited when they drafted him.
02:56Right.
02:56I mean, just for those of you who weren't really of age when the Fab Five was doing its thing,
03:04for my lifetime, it's the best thing that college basketball has ever known.
03:09For me, it was the most iconic thing in college basketball during my age of fandom.
03:15And for the best player on that team to go from a very ill-timed timeout to then being
03:22a Golden State Warrior, I was so excited.
03:26And I know Nelly was too in that moment.
03:29And I hate that it went the way that it did after that between Weber and the organization.
03:34Oh, and we could talk about like the Trey Lance trade all we want about the worst trade ever.
03:38And I'm looking at it right now.
03:40Weber gets taken number one by Orlando.
03:42The Warriors take Penny Hardaway, Antfernee, Penny Hardaway out of Memphis at three.
03:48They trade the number three pick, Penny, for Weber and three future first-round picks.
03:54Right.
03:55So you get Penny and three firsts.
03:57We get Weber and he and Nelly don't get along.
03:59And so Weber gone, Nelly gone.
04:02All of our first-round picks are gone.
04:05So as much as we want to like talk about Mike Dunleavy Jr., like, you know, it's inexcusable
04:10what he's doing, go back in your history and realize that the mistakes, quote-unquote,
04:15that they are making here, they're not this.
04:18Like, if you would have known that Weber would leave or you would choose like Nelly over Weber
04:22and then Nelly would leave, that is absolutely unconscionable, unconscionable rather.
04:28Yeah, yeah.
04:29But you got it at the time.
04:31Right.
04:32You know what I mean?
04:32That's one of those things.
04:33And maybe this is fair or unfair.
04:35I don't really know.
04:36It's for everybody to decide.
04:37But I always think it's a little tough when people will rip a move.
04:43Devers is the most recent example.
04:46Devers for Kyle Harrison.
04:47Just Devers for Kyle Harrison.
04:49Forget the fact that James Tibbs is, you know, crushing it in the Dodgers minor leagues.
04:54Like, would you do that deal again?
04:56And I still think there'd be a conversation there, but it certainly doesn't feel as good
05:00now as it did then.
05:03But if you want to rip Buster Posey for doing it, my opinion is sort of like you probably,
05:10you should have been hesitant about it at the time.
05:14Because if you loved it in the moment, then you can't be mad at Buster for also loving it
05:19in the moment.
05:20Right.
05:20Sometimes crap doesn't work out.
05:22You know what I mean?
05:23And this was a great example of it.
05:27Who knew that basically from a relationship standpoint, that deal for Chris Weber would
05:33break down and send the organization, you know, back into the same damn tailspin that
05:39it was always in.
05:40You would have no idea.
05:41And at the time, and I remember being in those moments and thinking, okay, they can't
05:45get along.
05:46Somebody's got to go.
05:47Well, you keep the player.
05:48You keep the six foot 11 point guard, I guess.
05:51I mean, he played that way and he was so ahead of his time, yet they decided we have to
05:57keep
05:57Nelly and then Weber goes and then Nelly goes too.
06:01And so now you have nothing and you blew all your first round picks.
06:04So I just want Warrior fans who are maybe not old enough to remember what that was like.
06:08They botched it multiple times and it set them back about a decade.
06:14But such a true original.
06:17And that's why, I mean, he comes back and there's the we believe and everybody remembers press
06:24conferences later in life where he's got long hair and openly talking about doing weed in
06:30Maui.
06:30And I'm just doing weed.
06:32Yeah, doing a little weed.
06:33Well, that's the way he's like, yeah, I've been doing weed in Maui.
06:35And like, he's just, it fit the bay.
06:41And I don't want to make it sound like everybody around the bay is just running around, you
06:45know, smoking weed.
06:46But like, he just, he fits, I think, the mindset, the attitude, the open mindedness that
06:53we like to think that a lot of people have here.
06:57And so that's why it felt the way that I think that it did over the weekend when he
07:03passed away.
07:04And it feels the way that it does right now.
07:06And to your point, it's why he is a coach who's beloved without a championship, without
07:14even a second round victory.
07:15Right.
07:16But because he fit, he fit.
07:18You know what I mean?
07:19He just, like, he always felt like, like a warrior.
07:24He felt like someone that just worked in this area.
07:27And I think that the confluence of events, what happened when he got here and they made
07:32the trade and they brought in the We Believe team, where you had Barron and Steven Jackson
07:37and Al Harrington, and you had these veterans who all were kind of a little bit like Nelly.
07:41Not that they were cast offs, but they were a little bit of the misfit.
07:46Yeah.
07:47A little rough around the edges.
07:48A little rough.
07:48Yep.
07:49And I think that Nelly was the same way.
07:50And I think that they all kind of coalesced.
07:53And, you know, I can't wait to talk to Kalena Azebuki about this because he was like the
07:56young pup on that team.
07:58But to see all of that come together with Nelly, it was a little bit of the IDGAF approach.
08:05Like, I don't give a forsy frick about what people think.
08:10We're going to do it the way we do it.
08:12We're going to do it our way.
08:12And we're going to go ahead and, like, we're going to go small.
08:14We're going to play fast.
08:15And we're going to make sure that Dallas is uncomfortable.
08:17And I think when you look at the way it played out, and by the way, anybody's got a Nelly
08:21story or any reaction to this, feel free.
08:23Hop in the conversation, 888-957-9570.
08:26Withered and Dibs, 95.7 the game.
08:28Glad you're with us.
08:29Hope your weekend was awesome.
08:31Larry Riley and Matt Barrow's on the guest list today.
08:34And who knows what else as things unfold.
08:37But I just, I look at not just Nelly, but people like Nelly, that larger idea of we're going to
08:46zig when everyone else is zagging.
08:49And we're going to do it in a very open, player-friendly, what sort of feels like no rules kind
08:58of a way.
09:00It can work.
09:01I always feel like there's a shelf life.
09:03I don't know how sustainable that kind of thing is.
09:08And twice, it proved to not be terribly sustainable.
09:14But those players on the We Believe team have openly talked about this.
09:19And we'll actually let you hear something from Matt Barnes and Steven Jackson, who off of that team, this is
09:25something we don't talk about enough.
09:26It's kind of off of the We Believe team that one of the biggest podcasts in basketball and all of
09:34that in the world of content exists because of that team.
09:38Steven Jackson and Matt Barnes.
09:39All the smoke.
09:41Like, that has become a huge deal.
09:42And to hear them share stories on there over the weekend about Nelly and the fact that he essentially let
09:50them know he did not give a you-know-what about what they did off of the court.
09:57In fact, he might do it with them.
10:00I think that there is a lack of sustainability in that concept, but in a short, bursty stint, it can
10:10really work if you got the right personalities for it.
10:13And he had the right personalities.
10:14And that's what was hitting me earlier today, Mark, is the idea of that team at that time with that
10:20coach at that time.
10:22And I'm just looking at his career and the We Believe was 06, 07, and he was 66 years old.
10:28And he would coach three more years after that, and then his career would be over as a head coach.
10:34But those guys were all, the majority of them were all in that early 30 to, like, late 20, early
10:3930s spot where, yeah, you have a veteran coach who obviously has done a ton in his career.
10:45And he's given you a little bit of, like you said, you know, leash to do what you want to
10:49do, but show up and ball.
10:51And they showed up and they balled, for sure.
10:54The coaches you grow up with, man.
10:56Like, for me, and I get it, there's, like, different coaches.
10:59They come, they go, short stints, long stints.
11:01But these three franchises that I've followed since being a 5, 6, 7-year-old kid, if you ask me,
11:09like, when you came of age and started to follow this stuff, like, the coach you remember or the manager
11:16you remember for each of these teams, it is Roger Craig, Hum Baby with the San Francisco Giants.
11:22It's obviously the great, great, great Bill Walsh for the 49ers, and it was Nellie for the Warriors.
11:33What did you think I was going to say, Boach?
11:35Yeah, I thought you were going to go through, like, Boach came, I was, like, in my mid-30s already.
11:41But you're talking about when you were a kid.
11:42Yeah, when I was a kid.
11:43Gotcha.
11:43Yeah, like, when I think back to loving these teams for the first time, it was Roger Craig's, Hum Baby
11:50Giants, it was Bill Walsh's iconic teams of the 80s, and then for the Warriors, it was Nellie.
11:58It was fun.
12:00You know what I mean?
12:01He brought the fun and the personalities, and that's with both stints.
12:06You know, I was a Tim and Chris Burger guy.
12:09We're going to McDonald's to get a Tim and Chris burger, or a Chris and Tim burger, depending on which
12:13one you liked more.
12:15And then when they come back for We Believe, same thing.
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