Former NBA player and coach Doug Moe has died at the age of 87, former NBA player Bill Hanzlik shared on X Tuesday. Hanzlik played under Moe for eight seasons with the Denver Nuggets.
The Nuggets later confirmed the news with a post in memoriam:
Moe is credited with revolutionizing the “passing game offense” in the NBA, emphasizing constant movement and a notorious “two-second rule” — pushing players to either pass the ball or shoot as quickly as the rule’s name would imply.
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Moe spent four years as an assistant coach before earning his first job as a head coach with the San Antonio Spurs, leading the team to a 117-135 record over four seasons before heading to Denver as an assistant coach. He was then promoted to interim head coach and spent 10 seasons with the team.
Moe led the Nuggets to a 432-357 record over 10 seasons; those 432 wins made him the winningest coach in franchise history, prior to Michael Malone earning his 433rd win with the team in 2024. The Nuggets made the playoffs in each of his nine seasons as a full-time head coach, though the Nuggets failed to ever make it past the conference finals.
Moe earned NBA Coach of the Year honors in the 1987-88 season. That year, the Nuggets finished first in the NBA Midwest with a 54-28 record, leading the league with 116.7 points per game. After defeating the Seattle SuperSonics in the first round of the Western Conference playoffs, they fell in the semifinals to the Dallas Mavericks.
Despite leading the team to two Midwest Division titles in his tenure, Moe was fired by the Nuggets after the 1989-90 season as the team looked toward its future under new leadership. Bernie Bickerstaff — the first African American president and GM in franchise history — was hired in the summer of 1990 and fired Moe not long after.
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Moe was a two-time All-American out of UNC, selected first by the Detroit Pistons in the 1960 draft, followed by the former Chicago Packers (now Washington Wizards) in the second round of the 1961 draft. Despite having been drafted, his connection to a point-shaving scandal in college followed him, an d he was eventually blackballed by the league for his connection to the alleged scheme, despite later being cleared of any wrongdoing.
Moe went on to earn the Chuck Daly Lifetime Achievement Award from the league in 2018.