Don Nelson is one of many NBA players born on May 15.
With over 5,000 players in NBA history, at least one player was born on every day of the calendar year – including three leap day ballers. Our day-by-day breakdown of the players born on each day of the year continues.
Below are the most notable NBA players born on May 15.
Don Nelson (1940)
There aren’t many people who were successful as a player and as a coach, but “Nellie” is one of them. It all started when the Chicago Zephyrs selected Nelson with the 19th overall pick in the 1962 NBA Draft. He spent his rookie season in Chicago and joined the Los Angeles Lakers the following year. Nelson only spent two seasons in L.A. before finding his footing when he signed with the Boston Celtics in 1965. He spent the final 11 years of his playing career in Beantown, winning five titles with that organization. Nellie retired from playing in 1976, averaging 10.3 points, 4.9 rebounds and 1.4 assists per game.
That winning culture in Boston paved the way to a successful coaching career, with Nelson becoming a head coach for the Milwaukee Bucks in 1976. He spent the next 11 seasons with the Bucks, making them a perennial contender throughout the 80s. Nelson then took over the Golden State Warriors coaching gig in 1988, spending the next seven seasons with the Warriors. He spent one season with the New York Knicks in 1995, and then closed his coaching career with eight years in Dallas and four more years with the Warriors. That 31-year coaching career has Nelson ranked second all-time with 1,335 wins. That’s why he was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2012.
Want to see every NBA player born on May 15? Here is the rest of the list in chronological order:
- Joe Fabel (May 15, 1917)
- Virgil Vaughn (May 15, 1918)
- John Clawson (May 15, 1944)
- George Adams (May 15, 1949)
- Greg Bunch (May 15, 1956)
- Freeman Williams (May 15, 1956)
- Gene Banks (May 15, 1959)
- Keith Tower (May 15, 1970)
- Antonio Lang (May 15, 1972)
- Torraye Braggs (May 15, 1976)
- Hiram Fuller (May 15, 1981)
- Jamal Simpson (May 15, 1983)
- Ersan Ilyasova (May 15, 1987)
- Nate Wolters (May 15, 1991)
- Sam Merrill (May 15, 1996)
- Cole Anthony (May 15, 2000)
- Tristan Da Silva (May 15, 2001)
