Stephen Curry remembered the man who gave him his first NBA opportunity after former Golden State Warriors coach Don Nelson died Sunday at 86.
Curry posted a tribute to Nelson on his Instagram Story, calling him his first NBA coach and one of basketball’s greatest minds. But one five-word line stood out as Curry reflected on the coach whose unconventional ideas preceded much of what the modern NBA eventually became.
“Nellyball was a real thing.”
Curry added that Nelson “gave me the opportunity to find myself back in ’09” and said he would be “forever grateful” to his former coach.
The sentiment goes deeper than Curry simply honoring an important figure from the beginning of his career. Nelson played a direct role in bringing Curry to Golden State in the first place, and then gave the rookie the freedom to begin becoming the player around whom the Warriors would eventually build a dynasty. The Warriors said Sunday that Nelson died at 86. His family did not publicly provide a cause of death.
HeavyStephen Curry honored former Golden State Warriors coach Don Nelson in an Instagram Story after Nelson’s death at age 86.
Curry Credits Don Nelson With Helping Bring Him to Warriors
Curry’s Instagram message echoed a longer statement released by the Warriors after Nelson’s death.
“One of the big reasons I was drafted by the Warriors was because of Don Nelson,” Curry said, according to the team. Curry added that Nelson challenged him immediately and gave him a chance to become his best version on the court.
Golden State selected Curry seventh overall out of Davidson in the 2009 NBA Draft. Nelson coached him during the 2009-10 season, the final year of Nelson’s coaching career.
That season hardly resembled the beginning of a dynasty. Golden State finished 26-56, and Curry entered a backcourt already featuring Monta Ellis. But Nelson had long been willing to play smaller, faster and less conventionally than his peers.
Curry’s rookie season therefore placed him with a coach unusually comfortable challenging traditional assumptions about size, positions and shot creation.
Nelson’s role in the Curry decision also proved consequential well beyond their lone season together. The San Francisco Chronicle noted Sunday that Nelson had a hand in the Warriors’ decision to select Curry, one of the defining moves in franchise history.
What Steph Curry Meant by ‘Nellyball’
Curry’s “Nellyball” reference is more than affectionate nostalgia.
Nelson spent decades leaning into pace, shooting, smaller lineups and unconventional roles. He helped popularize the concept of a “point forward” and routinely placed skill and speed ahead of traditional positional structure. Steve Kerr said after Nelson’s death that many ideas now considered commonplace in the NBA can be traced to Nelson’s approach.
That makes Curry’s tribute especially fitting.
The championship Warriors under Kerr did not simply duplicate Nelson’s offenses, but they thrived on principles Nelson embraced years earlier: spacing the floor, creating matchup problems with unconventional lineups and empowering skilled players instead of forcing them into rigid positional definitions. That connection is an interpretation of Nelson’s documented influence rather than a claim that he designed Golden State’s later championship system.
Nelson also left Golden State with one other piece of history Curry remembered Sunday.
On April 7, 2010, the Warriors defeated the Minnesota Timberwolves as Nelson earned his 1,333rd career victory, then the most by an NBA head coach. Curry said he still remembered how much that achievement meant to the team. Nelson eventually retired with 1,335 victories; Gregg Popovich surpassed him in 2022.
For Curry, however, Nelson’s legacy was more personal than a number in the record book.
More than 17 years after Golden State drafted him, Curry’s tribute returned to the opportunity Nelson provided at the very beginning.
And five words summed up the basketball philosophy Curry believes deserves to be remembered with him:
“Nellyball was a real thing.”
Like HEAVY’s content? Be sure to follow us.
This article was originally published on HEAVY
The post Steph Curry Makes Emotional Don Nelson Admission After Warriors Legend’s Death appeared first on HEAVY.