- 2 days ago
Larry Riley, former general manager of the Warriors which Don Nelson was the team's head coach, joins Willard and Dibs to reflect on the life and legacy of his friend.
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00He was 86 and every time that at least we saw or heard from him and I'd say over the
00:07last decade or so, boy, it sure seemed and felt like he was having the time of his life.
00:12And so maybe that makes the news over the weekend a little bit easier to stomach the great Nelly Don
00:18Nelson passes away at 86.
00:21And one of the first people we wanted to talk to was, you know, the man was alongside with him
00:26in multiple stops around the NBA.
00:29The former GM of the Warriors joining us now, Willard and Dibbs here on the River Islands guest line, is
00:34none other than Larry Riley.
00:35Hey, Larry, what's going on today?
00:38Well, I'm just like you.
00:39I'm reflecting on, you know, the greatness of Don Nelson.
00:44And, of course, there's sadness associated with it.
00:47But I think you hit the nail on the head.
00:49But we should be happy that he had the time of his life right, you know, the last several years
00:57and, of course, had a tremendous career.
01:01Everything's documented there.
01:02No doubt.
01:03And I can't help but go back to, you know, 2009 when you guys drafted Steph Curry.
01:09And Mark and I were just joking during the break about what the Internet says as far as who gets
01:14the credit or how that all went.
01:16But can you take us back to the drafting of Steph Curry?
01:19Was it your idea you had to convince Nellie or likewise?
01:22Or what was that process like?
01:24You know, it's not a glorious story, so to speak.
01:29The media, of course, wants to have some flamboyant thing going on or some argument or something.
01:36There was never anything like that.
01:37I went out and I scouted Steph and our staff scouted Steph.
01:41We went through the natural process.
01:44We had him ranked as the number two player in that draft.
01:48And, of course, he went seven, I guess, you know, as far as that goes.
01:54But at the same time, I had sent Nellie the tapes and so forth for him to take a look
02:02at.
02:02And, you know, I wasn't going to go through the draft and not at least talk to the head coach
02:08and so forth.
02:09And so a lot of people make a big deal out of it.
02:12But he was our staff's guy.
02:15He was my guy.
02:16And Nellie just, he liked him.
02:19And so there was never any controversy.
02:21And everybody was in agreement.
02:23And there was no problem.
02:24You know?
02:25And that's really the way it went down.
02:28Nellie never saw him play.
02:30And I sent him the tapes.
02:32And, you know, I was glad things worked out the way they did.
02:36And, you know, I was told by ownership and by Robert Rowell, you make the pick.
02:40Do what you want to do.
02:41Nellie had told me, he said, nobody will believe this.
02:44I don't want to be the GM.
02:46This is your job.
02:47And here we are.
02:49We're in agreement, which we were in agreement on a lot of things.
02:52And we disagreed on some others.
02:54But that pick was so simple because we were all in agreement with it.
03:00Larry Riley is with us here on Willard and Dibs.
03:03And, Larry, I don't know if anyone's ever said this to you,
03:05but you just shared with us that you had Steph Curry as the number two player
03:08back in the 2009 draft.
03:11And you were wrong.
03:13He absolutely was the number one player in that draft.
03:16So you totally messed that one up.
03:18Who did you have ahead of him?
03:20Blake Griffin.
03:21Yeah.
03:22That's fair.
03:23You're absolutely right.
03:24If we'd have had the number one pick, I would have screwed it up.
03:28And when we, I remember this,
03:31when we brought Steph to town and showed him to the public, so to speak,
03:35having him in his first appearance,
03:36I said, we had him as the number two pick,
03:39and he's going to set out to prove it.
03:41He's number one.
03:42And by golly, he did it.
03:44And I just want to go back to the moments before the pick.
03:48And, you know, I know today's about Don Nelson, but I'm just fascinated by what took place,
03:53which is Minnesota's on the clock with back-to-back picks ahead of you.
03:57They need guards.
03:58Were you pretty certain that Steph Curry was going to go to Minnesota in one of those two picks?
04:04No.
04:04And what had happened, we were so concerned that Steph would be picked even ahead of Minnesota.
04:11We had actually looked at training to pick if Steph was not available.
04:16And there were quite a few conversations that had gone on in that regard because I just didn't see any
04:21way he could get to us.
04:22And the night before the draft, I got information that Minnesota was actually going to take the two guards that
04:31they took.
04:32Johnny Flynn, of course, won, and he was out of the league pretty quick, and then Ricky Rubio.
04:36And so I couldn't believe it, but that's the information I got, and it turned out that was exactly the
04:44way it went.
04:44And then here we are with Steph Curry.
04:46We will own Minnesota forever, Larry.
04:50Absolutely.
04:51No question.
04:52Yeah, circling back, I just wonder what, like if somebody asked you, hey, I heard Don Nelson passed away.
05:01What do you want to share with the public about that?
05:06Like what's the first thing that comes to your mind that you would want to tell people about working alongside
05:10with him?
05:12Here's the thing.
05:14All of the accolades, his record and all that, that's obvious to everybody.
05:18But the person himself, I saw the loving side of him that probably a lot of people didn't see.
05:28And he cared about the people around him.
05:32Now, could he get crossways with somebody else?
05:34Yes, he could.
05:36I mean, but if somebody didn't like him, that didn't bother him.
05:40But when you worked hard, when you were with him and you were somebody who was supportive, you had a
05:47great friend.
05:48And that was him.
05:51Now, we can talk all about basketball and about his intellect and the fact he was such a pioneer.
05:56But there was a caring side to him that probably some people don't know about.
06:03Talk to me about the We Believe Warriors and just how he was the perfect guy for that roster when
06:10you get Steven Jackson in and Baron Davis and Al Harrington and all the rest of it.
06:14What made that thing so, like, symbiotic?
06:18Well, see, what happened is the Warriors had put together some pretty good players.
06:28And I've never thought that Chris Mullin got enough credit for what he did with that team because he and
06:34Rod Higgins were in the front office.
06:37And they had a little bit of a roster.
06:39Then they talked to us, Nellie and I, about, you know, training camp, adding Matt Barnes.
06:47And then they make the trade, as you just mentioned, that brings in Al Harrington and Steven Jackson.
06:53And Nellie, that was the perfect, well, it was the perfect type of player that he needed.
07:01And he was able to take advantage of it.
07:04And he got that group, about our top eight players, boy, he got them in sync.
07:09And got them to believe.
07:11And, I mean, that's, we had the We Believe team.
07:14And he didn't have anything to do with that because that came from outside.
07:18But he had the team believing.
07:20And he didn't have to work real hard about that because you had players who did have confidence.
07:26You know, Steven Jackson was full of confidence.
07:29But he had Jay Rich.
07:30You know, Jason Richardson was a confident player.
07:33So was Baron Davis.
07:36But Nellie brought the best out in them.
07:39And then, strategically, he prepared them for that series.
07:44And, boy, we won the first game and nobody on our team, whether it was the players or the coaches,
07:51nobody was surprised.
07:52I mean, that's where the confidence was.
07:55Because we had come into that thing and Nellie had worked with them.
08:00And he got us, I think we were 16-5 going down the stretch.
08:05And Nellie was just, he worked those games and really did.
08:10I think that was maybe his finest coaching job.
08:14And he had a lot of them.
08:16But that moment, that time, one of the best in his career.
08:22Larry, there are so many stories and a lot of them coming directly from the players you're referencing right now.
08:28With regard to how Nellie was, and I mean a player's coach is probably saying it too mildly.
08:35The openness with which he handled the players, what he allowed all of them to do and be both on
08:42and off the court.
08:43I'm curious from someone like you who's been with Nellie for many years and at multiple stops.
08:48Was it always that way?
08:49Or was that sort of something that Nellie just felt fit that group?
08:55It was more that group.
08:57And I would say, now, of course, I didn't work with Nellie when he was a younger coach.
09:04So everybody matures.
09:05But I think he was a hardliner, much more so.
09:09And then when we got to, you know, I joined Nellie in the year 2000.
09:16So at that time, I think he had not matured.
09:21That's not the right word.
09:22But I think he had seen the game where he could work with players maybe a little bit differently without
09:27being a hardliner.
09:29But he never lost the fact that he could come down on you pretty hard.
09:34And he did do that from time to time.
09:36But he also allowed some leeway for players.
09:40And I think that had a great deal to do with it.
09:43He knew how to manage that We Believe team and the characters that were on that team.
09:49He knew which buttons to press.
09:51And sometimes the team didn't know they believed in him.
09:55But they didn't know what he might come up with.
09:57And they had to be ready for anything.
10:00And that was him.
10:01He would do that.
10:02He'd come up with almost anything.
10:04One of the things that he is credited with coming up with is the whole idea of a point forward.
10:09And now you look at Draymond Green and the career he's had as kind of that point forward.
10:13What was it like in those early days when Nellie was coming up with different things that nobody else in
10:18the league was doing?
10:20Well, and you're exactly right.
10:22He did come up with a point forward thing.
10:25He once told me that he would love to coach a starting five, that all of them were six foot
10:32seven, and they could all play different positions.
10:35You know, that was, he said, it'll never happen, but that would be kind of fun.
10:39But see, he also, not only did he come up with a point forward concept where you could lift the
10:46forward out high and basically have him run as a point,
10:49but he was one of the first guys to really want to accelerate the game.
10:53Everybody talks about playing faster and so forth, and they give credit to a lot of other people.
10:58But he was one that he always wanted to play faster.
11:02He wanted the game to be fast and to get up and down the court.
11:05Larry Riley with us on Willard and Dibbs.
11:07Larry, it's funny you just said that.
11:09He would have loved five players all at six, seven, who could play all the positions.
11:13And what sort of bounced into my head is, do you mean like basketball is now?
11:18I mean.
11:18I mean, you know, like what do you think Nelly would be, what would he do, for instance, with this
11:26warrior group?
11:26What if he were coaching now?
11:29Oh, he would be successful without question, and he would love it.
11:34He would love the way the game is now played.
11:37And he was one of those guys.
11:41The only thing I would say that is a little bit different is when it came crunch time,
11:48he always had a play in his hip pocket where he knew who to go to, who to get the
11:54ball to, and where to get him a shot.
11:57And, you know, he would never give that up.
12:00But otherwise, he would open up the floor, and he would be all about movement.
12:05And, you know, he'd be tremendously successful with the way this game is played.
12:10And the game now, though, is a little bit different, obviously, than the old school where you wouldn't just throw
12:16yourself on the ground and try to draw a call from the officials.
12:20Is that something that you and even Nelly, when you look at the modern game, is that something that you
12:24see as kind of a scourge of the NBA?
12:27It is. It is. It's something that most of us don't like to see, and I think the league doesn't
12:34like to see it.
12:35And so it's just something that's not part of the game.
12:40You know, that's not the way the game was intended to be played.
12:44But people see a way that they might take some advantage, so they do it.
12:48But, no, he wouldn't be into that.
12:50Now, if you wanted to take a charge and take a legitimate charge, he was all about that.
12:55And he would challenge players, you know.
12:58If you can't do anything else, if you get an opportunity to take the charge, yes.
13:03But he didn't like people flopping.
13:06Larry, what comes to mind if I asked you, what was your favorite night alongside Nelly ever?
13:14Game six against the Dallas Mavericks in the playoffs.
13:19Okay.
13:20So, is that just a basketball answer, or what was your experience?
13:25Because we've listened earlier to some of the things that happened after the game.
13:29What was your experience?
13:31No.
13:32After the game, yes, there was quite a party.
13:35But I'm talking about the game itself.
13:38Okay.
13:39And where were you during that party, Larry?
13:43Well, Nelly was up on the top floor of that building.
13:48What was that lake that was in Oakland?
13:52Lake Merritt, yeah.
13:54Yeah, there you go.
13:55And, yeah, I was certainly at the party.
13:58No question.
14:02You mentioned before that you guys win game one and you're not surprised and you kind of almost expected it.
14:08They won 67 games that year.
14:10What did you and Nelly and the whole staff see in Dallas that you knew you could take advantage of?
14:16We felt like we had guard play that was better than what they had.
14:20And we felt like we could get some defense in the game and disrupt them a little bit.
14:26And that's exactly what happened.
14:28See, we had, Nelly and I had, we had worked the zone defense quite a bit.
14:36And Nelly, you know, he never coached zone very much.
14:39I coached a little zone in college and the two of us got together and put together a 3-2
14:44zone.
14:45We had it in our hip pocket and we never pulled it out until game six.
14:49But it was there in case we needed it.
14:52But overall, we thought we were better defensively to the point where we could slow them down.
14:57And then when we got to game six, third quarter, we threw in that 3-2 zone.
15:03The defense was really great.
15:06The offense just exploded and everything came together all at once.
15:11And I have vivid memories of that.
15:14And it didn't hurt any that Steven Jackson just knocked the dickens out of everybody.
15:19I think he made six three-pointers in that second half.
15:26Yep.
15:26Yeah.
15:27Larry, were you still in touch with Nelly?
15:29When was the last time you talked to him?
15:32June.
15:33Okay.
15:33I had gone over to Dallas in June and, boy, I'm so glad I did.
15:40You know, we often talked about getting together more than we did.
15:44But I went in June, had an opportunity to be with him.
15:47And it's one of those things that, you know, just as we go through life, if you have a chance,
15:55I don't care if it's your grandpa, your grandma, or a good friend, you get a chance to go visit
16:02him, go visit him.
16:03It comes, you know, it's just a great thing to be able to do that.
16:07And I've known that, and it worked out for me and for Nelly this time.
16:13Well, Larry, above all, condolences on the passing of your friend.
16:18I'll tell you, he was such a special friend, and he was such a unique individual.
16:24There's nobody like him.
16:25I mean, I think everybody knows that.
16:28But, yeah, he was certainly a special friend, and I appreciate your condolence statement.
16:34Well, we appreciate you coming on to talk about him today.
16:37Thank you so much.
16:40I hope you guys have a good rest of the day.
16:42Yep, you too.
16:43There it is.
16:43Larry Riley, the former GM and obviously the counterpart alongside Nelly for many of the years
16:49with both the Warriors and the Mavericks.
Comments