Don Nelson Doesn’t Care What You Think
March 30, 2009 – 9:25 am by Tas Melas
Don Nelson listens to himself, not you, or team management, or anyone else. People may knock some of his decisions or the way he operates, but that doesn’t bother Nellie one bit. When the NBA season is over, he’ll scoot off to his second home in Hawaii, smoke cigars, hang with some celebs, and enjoy his life, his way. Hawaii is where he’ll ponder whether or not he’ll return to the Golden State Warriors in the fall despite having two years and $12 million on the table. Nelson’s latest move that’s being blasted is the benching of Jamal Crawford, the big-money man acquired mid-season. Crawford is healthy and owed $19-mil over the next two years, but Nelson has told him he should opt-out at the end of this one. Having a talented 19-point scorer sitting at the end of the bench isn’t sitting well with fans and media alike. Nelson joined Ralph Barbieri and F.P. Santangelo on KNBR to discuss Crawford and his young players.
On his reasoning behind Crawford’s benching:
“I’ve already talked about that, I’m not gonna talk about it anymore. It is what it is, I’m gonna do the right thing for the ball club, no matter what anybody thinks, I’m gonna do the right thing, this is the right thing. The right thing is play (Anthony) Morrow more, and that’s what we’re doing; I think Crawford understands that. Crawford, I have no problem, I like him, he likes me. At least I think, you can ask him, I think he likes me…”
On whether he would be upset if Crawford returned to the Warriors next season:
“Not at all! No! That’s totally his option, if he opts out he’s in control of the situation where he goes. If he doesn’t, we’re more in control, we’ll work with his agent, find him a good place for him to go if that’s possible. If not, he’ll be with us.”
On the chance Crawford could be a backup:
“I don’t think that’s probably gonna be possible ’cause there’s not enough time there, really for him. I think he’s too good a player to play 15-20 minutes a game, I think he’s a 30-35 minute guy, I don’t think he’d be really happy as a backup guy. It’ll be whatever it’ll be, you know, we’ll make those decisions when we see who’s on the roster when the season (starts).”
Listen to Don Nelson with Ralph Barbieri and F.P. Santangelo on KNBR in San Francisco
Tags: Basketball, Coaches, Don Nelson, Golden State Warriors, Jamal Crawford, KNBR, NBA
