Former Los Angeles Lakers Forward Has Died

The Los Angeles Lakers family joins the basketball world in mourning the loss of Don Nelson, who passed away peacefully on Sunday morning at the age of 86, surrounded by his loved ones.

Nelson’s family shared that the Hall of Fame coach and five-time NBA champion as a player went to be with the Lord after a recent stroke, closing a life that touched nearly every corner of the league.

For Lakers fans, his story begins not with the championships in green or the innovative coaching career that followed, but with two formative seasons in purple and gold during the mid-1960s.

Claimed off waivers by the Lakers from the Chicago Zephyrs in September 1963, the 6-foot-6 forward from the University of Iowa stepped into a franchise already defined by greatness. Playing alongside legends Elgin Baylor and Jerry West under coach Fred Schaus, Nelson spent the 1963-64 and 1964-65 seasons contributing as a reliable, hard-working role player on teams that embodied the competitive fire of that era.

In his first year in Los Angeles he appeared in all 80 games, averaging 5.2 points and 4.0 rebounds in nearly 18 minutes a night as the Lakers finished 42-38 and advanced to the playoffs. The following season his regular-season role diminished, but he responded when the games mattered most.

In the 1965 postseason he helped the Lakers defeat the Baltimore Bullets before facing the Boston Celtics in the NBA Finals. There, Nelson averaged 7.2 points and 5.4 rebounds while logging significant minutes in a hard-fought series that ended in a 4-1 defeat.

Across his 119 games in a Lakers uniform he averaged 4.3 points and 3.3 rebounds, numbers that reflected a young player still finding his place yet already demonstrating the toughness and basketball IQ that would define everything that came later.

Those early years in Los Angeles were more than a footnote. They placed Nelson on the same floor as two of the greatest players the franchise has ever known and immersed him in the intensity of the Lakers-Celtics rivalry that would later feature one of his most memorable moments as an opponent.

After leaving the Lakers he signed with Boston and became a key reserve on five championship teams, including the dramatic 1969 Finals in which his famous foul-line jumper helped the Celtics edge the Lakers in Game 7 on their home floor. That shot remains part of the shared history between the two franchises, a reminder of how closely their paths intertwined.

Nelson’s subsequent coaching career only deepened his place in NBA lore. The pioneer of “Nellie Ball,” he revolutionized offensive thinking with small-ball lineups, position-less principles, and a freethinking approach that influenced generations of coaches and players.

He finished with 1,335 regular-season victories, second only to Gregg Popovich, earned three Coach of the Year awards, and was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2012. He guided the Milwaukee Bucks, Golden State Warriors, New York Knicks, and Dallas Mavericks with creativity and authenticity, mentoring stars and reshaping how the game could be played. Yet for those who followed the Lakers through the 1960s, it is impossible to separate the later legend from the young forward who once shared the court with Baylor and West in the Forum’s early days.

Don Nelson’s life in basketball spanned nearly half a century, from the farm fields of Illinois to the highest levels of the professional game. The Lakers organization and its fans remember him as one of their own for those two seasons that helped launch a remarkable journey.

His contributions as a player in Los Angeles, his later triumphs and innovations across the league, and the respect he earned from peers and opponents alike ensure that his impact will endure. The basketball community has lost a true original, and the Lakers join in offering deepest condolences to his wife Joy, his children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and all who were fortunate enough to know him.