Former Warriors coach Don Nelson added another accolade to his already impressive resume on Sunday evening.

The Hall of Fame coach and general manager received the 2025 Chuck Daly Lifetime Achievement Award by the National Basketball Coaches Association before Game 2 of the NBA Finals between the Pacers and Thunder.

“Chuck was an absolute genius in all facets of the game and life. I’m glad I had the opportunity to coach against him, learn from him, and benefit from his knowledge,” Nelson said in a press release from the coaches association. “To say that I’m deeply touched to receive an award that bears his name would be an understatement. This is special.”

The award’s selection committee includes legendary coaches such as Phil Jackson, Gregg Popovich, Lenny Wilkens and Pat Riley, as well as executives such as Donnie Walsh and Joe Dumars.

Nelson is second all-time in coaching wins with 1,335 victories, and coached for 31 seasons, beginning his career by leading strong Milwaukee teams in the 1980s, and also coaching the Knicks and Mavericks.

The Hall of Famer was best known for his two stints with the Warriors. He helped guide the Run TMC Warriors to four playoff appearances between 1988 and 1994.

Over a decade later, Nelson returned to the Bay Area for the 2006-07 season, when the “We Believe” Warriors upset the top-seeded Mavericks in the first round of the Western Conference playoffs.

The man who pioneered the “small ball” concepts that would come to define the league retired from coaching after the 2009-10 season, having coached Steph Curry in his rookie season.

Canadian showdown in Finals

The NBA Finals. East vs. West. Indiana vs. Oklahoma City. Canada vs. ... Canada?

It sure seemed like it at times in the first two games of the series, anyway — and odds are, there will be more of those moments throughout the rest of this matchup between the Pacers and Thunder.

There are four Canadians in the series, and two of them — NBA MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander for the Thunder and Andrew Nembhard for the Pacers — went head-to-head plenty in Game 1. Gilgeous-Alexander scored 38 points; Nembhard scored eight of his 14 in the fourth and was on the floor for the entirety of Indiana’s 32-16 run that ended the game and turned a 15-point deficit into a one-point win.

“He’s a competitor. He’s a winner,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “Plays the game the right way on both ends of the floor. Really good player. Yeah, he’s a winner for sure. No doubt.”

They have been playing alongside each other since they were kids and were teammates on Canada’s national team at the Paris Olympics in 2024. And they saw plenty of each other on both ends of the floor in Game 1, plus weren’t afraid to mix it up with a little extra push here or choice words there. Nothing over the line, but enough to remind the other that it’s all business right now.

“Nothing more than two guys wanting to win,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “No malicious intent behind it, just wanting to win.”

Oklahoma City’s Lu Dort and Indiana’s Bennedict Mathurin are the other two Canadians in the finals. The four Canadian players combined for 72 points in Game 1; that’s the most ever in any finals game by players from any individual country other than the U.S.

— The Associated Press