ANDERSON, Ind. — Let’s see if I’ve got this right. The Golden State Warriors part ways with head coach Mike Montgomery and immediately replace him with captain of the NBA’s All-Retread Team, Don Nelson.

Yikes.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t Nelson two years older than Neptune?

In a league spilling over with talented young assistant coaches eagerly anticipating the telephone call of their dreams, the Warriors fill the void with Nelson, who, I admit, was a great NBA coach. In 1989.

What’s next, cotton-haired Dick Versace emerging from mothballs to lead the Pacers?

Red Auerbach drawing up plays for the Boston Celtics?

Bob Cousy guiding the Sacramento Kings? Bob, turn your car around because the franchise moved from KC-Omaha 21 years ago. Furthermore, don’t count on Nate Archibald and Otis Birdsong gracing your roster.

Golden State’s immediate cornering of Nelson mere minutes after Montgomery’s dismissal sends a disturbing message, that the NBA’s all-white Good Old Boy network is alive, well and not becoming extinct anytime soon.

The one that dues-paying assistant coaches — black or white — can get passed over any time, any place so that the Hubie Browns, Bob Weisses and Don Nelsons can continually be recycled.

Now it should be mentioned that Pat Riley, coach of the just-crowned NBA champion Miami Heat, is 61.

Riley is a unique case having won two titles with the Los Angeles Lakers by the time he was 40. He could coach until he’s consuming meals through a straw and no one would bat an eye. Same is true for nine-time titlist Phil Jackson, who turns 61 on Sept. 17.

Auerbach, another nine-timer, left coaching at the age of 49.

Other quality mentors with nothing left to prove should have followed old Red’s example.

When Seattle brought the 63-year-old Weiss in to be the main man in July 2005 following 11 seasons as a Sonics assistant coach, I wondered how long it would take for a roster of 20- and early-30-somethings to begin tuning him out.

Weiss had been an NBA head coach with stops in San Antonio, Atlanta and Los Angeles (Clippers, not Lakers) with a win percentage of .427 (210-282) to show for it. Not exactly Phil Jackson’s résumé.

The experiment lasted 30 games. Sonics management removed Weiss as head coach after Seattle sputtered to a 13-17 start to the

2005-2006 season.

Hubie Brown, who at 71 stepped down after a short coaching rebirth in Memphis, did a marvelous job with the Grizzlies until the man with professional roots in the old American Basketball Association got tripped up by health problems.

Now Nelson, 66, gets another chance, albeit with a franchise guilty of 12 consecutive losing seasons.

Nelson’s previous stint at Golden State produced a 277-260 record

(.519) from 1988-95, an era Warriors fans proudly refer to as the good old days.

Perhaps Nelson, the second-winningest coach in league history, performs basketball’s equivalent of raising the Titanic with salad tongs and leads Golden State into the playoffs. Or maybe health issues stretched over a training camp, preseason schedule and 82-game regular season become too much of a burden and he steps down.

Meanwhile, assistant coaches from New Jersey to Phoenix are left wondering what they have to do to get that long-awaited opportunity to run the ship.

The answer is simple: Be retired.



Mike Beas writes for The Herald Bulletin in Anderson, Ind.