Shaquille O’Neal once called Don Nelson’s coaching style as “clown basketball.” Well, who’s clowning around now, Shaq?

Nelson became the winningest coach in NBA history after his Golden State Warriors defeated the Minnesota Timberwolves on Wednesday, April 7. The victory gave Nelson 1,333 victories for his career, surpassing Lenny Wilkens (1,332).

“My idol, Lenny Wilkens, I wished we could have stayed tied forever. I would have been very happy just to stay tied with that guy,” an appreciative Nelson said on NBA TV.

Golden State players showered Nelson with water and soda during a postgame celebration in the locker room. Warriors forward Anthony Tolliver said they didn’t have champagne so they went for the next best thing: Sprite and Mountain Dew.

“He said the other night that he hadn’t had a championship yet, so that was like his championship. So we wanted to make it as special as possible,” Tolliver told NBA.com.

Despite not winning a NBA championship, Nelson should be recognized as one of the top coaches in the Association. He is a basketball innovator and his unconventional ways is what separates him from the rest of his peers. He introduced “small-ball” to the league and was responsible for the invention of the Hack-a-Shaq. And even though Nellie was a bit quirky, he had an amazing eye for talent.

“We’ve never had a championship team but we’ve built good teams. They were solid and we won a lot of games,” said Nelson, one of two coaches with more than 1,000 victories without an NBA title.

“All the players who played for me and all my assistant coaches, they all had something to do with achieving this goal. I give my thanks to them,” Nelson said. “Four different times in my career I inherited a team that won 20 games, so it’s your job to get that team to win. You started at the bottom and you move that team along and eventually, if you’re lucky, you get a chance to build that team and you start winning 40, 50 and sometimes 60 games.

“It’s very difficult to win games in the NBA. I don’t care who you are. There are lot of great players and a lot of great coaches in this league.”

Nelson’s Milwaukee teams in the 1980s won 50 games or more seven times in 11 seasons, led by Marques Johnson, Bob Lanier, Sidney Moncrief, Ricky Pierce and Paul Pressey. It was in Milwaukee where Nelson came up with the unique concept of the point-forward, and Pressey was his prize pupil.

Nellie popularized “small-ball” in Golden State during the late 1980s and early ’90s, putting together a terrific trio in Tim Hardaway and Mitch Richmond and Chris Mullin – aka Run TMC.

“I could never figure out why 7-footers couldn’t dribble and why 5-foot-10 guards couldn’t post up. I never saw a reason for that. So I gave everyone the benefit of the doubt. You don’t have to be a traditional player,” Nelson explained the origin of small-ball. “As a coach, you always want your best players on the court as much as you possibly can and when those guys are small, guess what, you better play small-ball or you’re gonna lose a lot of games. That’s been kind of my philosophy.”

When he got to Dallas in 1997, he rebuilt the Mavericks into a playoff team in four seasons by trading for a then unproven point guard in Steve Nash and acquired an 18-year-old prospect from Germany named Dirk Nowitzki in 1998.

Nowitzki is just one of many gems Nelson has scooped up over the years. Hardaway was the 14th overall selection in 1989 out of UTEP and he turned out pretty good. Latrell Sprewell was a relative unknown out of Alabama, but Nellie saw something in the 6-5 guard and selected him with the 24th pick in 1992.

In 2005, Nelson took a chance on a high school guard named Monta Ellis, using a second-round pick on him (40th overall). Five years later, Ellis is considered one of the best lead guards in the league.

Last June, six teams passed on Stephen Curry. Nellie nabbed the former Davidson sharp-shooter and the son of former NBA player Dell Curry with the seventh pick. Stephen Curry is well on his way to being named to the 2010 All-Rookie team.

Like him or not, Don Nelson has his fingerprints all over the NBA and his contributions to the game far outweigh all the clownish things he has been associated with.

Winning 1,333 games is no small feat.

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Apparently, Stephen Jackson is not done talking.

After his much publicized blow-up during an exhibition game earlier this month against the Los Angeles Lakers where he picked up five personal fouls and one technical in less than 10 minutes, the former captain of the Golden State Warriors claims that Kobe Bryant is being allowed to play a certain way that affords him an unfair advantage.

“To beat a dead horse, (Bryant) was just playing dirty,” Jackson told the San Francisco Chronicle. “He was getting favoritism out there. I’m not saying the refs were cheating. I’m not saying that at all. I think he was getting away with stuff that I couldn’t get away with, and I didn’t think it was fair.

“So I reacted on it, and if it happens again, I’m going to react the same way.”

Stephen Jackson, left, is not a big fan of Kobe Bryant these days. (GETTY IMAGES)

Jackson added: “I’m not a fan of Kobe. I’m not somebody who looks up to him. I’m a grown man, so when I go out there and play the game, I play the game. I feel like I’m just as good as him. I might not get the publicity or the notoriety he gets, but I feel like I can play with anybody in the NBA.

“I think everybody should feel like that. Everybody should be a competitor, and I don’t back down from anybody. I’ve never been like that, and I’m not going to start today.”

This makes for an interesting Jackson-Bryant rematch next week when the Warriors play the Lakers again Tuesday in Ontario, Calif.

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Golden State head coach Don Nelson recently suspended forward Stephen Jackson for conduct detrimental to the team after the “stunt” he pulled during a preseason game against the Los Angeles Lakers.

Jackson, who has gone public with his trade demands and has not been discreet about his displeasure with the direction the Warriors are heading, committed five personal fouls and was hit with a technical foul in less than 10 minutes. Jackson voiced his anger at the coaching staff when he was taken out of the game at the 2:50 mark of the quarter. Nelson eventually sent him to the locker room to cool off. Jackson never returned.

This is just the latest in a long line of very poor conduct demonstrated by Jackson. The nine-year vet has a rap sheet that would make T.I. jealous.

Stephen Jackson wants to get traded, but the Warriors are not budging.

In 2004, Commissioner David Stern suspended Jackson for 30 games for his involvement in the Palace Brawl that saw him go up in the stands and threw punches at fans. In 2006, there was a published report that Jackson and three other Indiana Pacers teammates were involved in a heated argument with patrons at Club Rio in Indianapolis. Jackson was punched by one of the patrons and was hit by a car, rolling onto the hood. His injuries were considered minor. Jackson says he fired several gunshots from a 9-mm pistol as an act of self-defense. However, prosecutors later said he fired first. He was charged with a felony count of criminal recklessness. He served a seven game suspension at the beginning of the 2007-08 season.

Jackson said he was upset because the coaches left him in the game despite his foul trouble, and he felt they didn’t stick up for him with the replacement referees.

“I felt like I didn’t get handled right in the game,” Jackson told the San Jose Mercury News. “I know I did what I’m supposed to do, being a man. I’m not going to let Kobe throw elbows at me.

“(Things are) always made out to make me look bad. At the end of the day, I wouldn’t disrespect Coach like that. But I was mad at our staff for not having my back. If I’m going to go out there and bust my (butt) for you, I expect you to have my back.”

Jackson reiterated that all of his frustrations stem from his desire to win and his hope that the organization wants to win as much as he does.

“My whole thing is I want to win,” Jackson said. “They should be able to respect that. I want to win. That’s just me. I’m still going to go out there and play hard and do what I do. But I want to win.”

Rumors are swirling that Jackson prefers a trade that would send him to the Cleveland Cavaliers. The question is, do the Cavaliers want a loose cannon on the team?

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