Don Nelson Will Coach the Warriors Next Year, Come Hell or High Water

"Fortune, fame, mirror vain,

Gone insane but the memory remains..."

Any headbanger worth his salt knows that these are the opening lines from Metallica's 1997 single "The Memory Remains," a great song from a period when they were mocked both by the critics and their fans for daring to move away from their thrash metal roots, but which produced some of their best overall songs.

But I digress. What relevance does this song have to the Warriors, Don Nelson, or even basketball, I hear you asking?

Well, firstly Metallica are from the Bay Area, but more accurately the quoted lyrics could almost apply to Nelson right now.

It's easy to forget that when he came back like the prodigal son to Oakland after an acrimonious falling out with Mark Cuban, the Warriors had experienced a 15-year playoff drought. And not in the "oh, we just missed out" way, but in the "I'm one more bottom of the ladder season from packing in basketball altogether" way. 

I had my doubts that Nellie could do anything for my situation. We got four games a week on pay TV in those pre-League Pass days, and maybe one every three months would be a Golden State game. I had no need to keep watching or following basketball. I could have become a full-time rugby league fan and been very happy with it, especially since my local team was coming off its first title in 40 years. 

However, I decided to give the Warriors one last year. They rewarded me and the long-suffering Bay Area. And did it feel good. Finally, I could look my Bulls-loving brothers, my Sonics fanboy dad, and all my uncles (who seemed to support every other team in the NBA equally) in the eye. 

In hindsight, after a couple of bad seasons in which every man and his dog has been calling for Nellie's head (including your correspondent), it's easy to forget how vital Don Nelson was to that series. 

One thing Nelson has always been is an innovator. It's the main reason why, at 70 years of age, he's still able to coach in the NBA.

Sometimes his unorthodox streak has led to his downfall. Arguably the reason why he's never won a ring or coached a team to the Finals is because of his unwillingness or inability to coach conventional, fundamental ball. However, in a situation where you have the scroggin mix of players that the Warriors had that year, there's no one better suited for the job than Nelson.  

There are three reasons why we beat the Mavs that year.

1) Dirk Nowitzki never using his size advantage to his benefit

2) the Roaracle during the home games

3) Nellie's matchups

Of the three, only one directly relates to the performance of our team. 

In the past couple of years, however, we've seen the other side of having Nelson as your coach. In these two nightmare seasons we've returned to our role as the laughingstock of the NBA, injuries have piled up (arguably a side effect of the run-and-gun nature of Nellie Ball), and Nellie's been screwing the younger guys around.

These are all occupational hazards when you have the man my dad once referred to as "basketball's MacGyver" as your coach. At least we were always fun to watch.

At the end of the season, however, there were some bright spots. The play of Stephen Curry was obviously the biggest one, but we also managed to get Nellie the record for most wins by an NBA coach.

The team achieved this while rumours have been swilling around Nellie all season. Will he retire now that he has the record? Will Cohan or whoever owns the team next year buy him out? Will he allow them to buy him out?

I got one answer to all the rumours: Nelson is not going anywhere.

He will coach Golden State next year. If the new owners try to fire him, he'll make such a massive fuss about it that they'll essentially be forced to keep him. And there's no way he willingly agrees to a buyout.

Why would this be the case? Pride. Plain and simple.

Nellie is a proud man. He knows that his legacy is a complex and interesting one, full of peaks and troughs. The past two years have been a massive trough. 

However, he's no fool. He can see the roster that the Warriors have right now and who they might have a shot at drafting. He knows he's dealing with an incredibly talented young team that, if they can stay fit, have a real shot at the playoffs next year even in the West.

Stephen Curry will be one year older and more experienced. Anthony Randolph will return and Nellie will see how he fits into the team. Whether Monta Ellis plays nicely or not, he's still a 20-25 ppg guy when he's in form. Same with Maggette. Add a big like Derrick Favors or DeMarcus Cousins, or a wing player like Evan Turner or Wes Johnson, or even the elephant in the room that is John Wall, and this is a young, athletic, exciting team that could be anything.

Anyone who was watching the Warriors bench in the later stages of the season could see it in Nellie's demeanour. In the early part of the season he seemed bored and mailing games in. Towards the end, both before and after getting the record, he was all fire and brimstone, arguing with referees and even trying to motivate his players.

It even showed off the court when he said he would coach the Warriors summer league team instead of delegating the job to his assistants. This is a man who has rediscovered his love of coaching and basketball, a man who sees what this team could be capable of and who wants one last part of it before riding off to Hawaii in the sunset.

Remember this column come the 2011 playoffs, when the No. 2 seed LA Lakers are about to face-off against the seventh seeded Golden State Warriors. The national media will be writing the Warriors off. The fans in the Roaracle will guardedly believe. The beautiful people in LA will be doing all they can to get on the Jumbotron for Game One.

And in the middle of it all will be the scrapper, the innovator, the idiosyncratic idiot savant that is Don Nelson. Relishing every moment of his last dance.