Legendary NBA Coach Dead at 87

There was a game, back in November of 1983, when the Denver Nuggets appeared to be taking the night off. They’d won three straight games, and scored 130-plus points in each of the wins. With an offense like that, the Nuggets played their next game as if they did not need to play defense. So coach Doug Moe, trying to send a message to his team, ordered them to stop playing defense, to just let the Blazers go in and score.

And they did. Portland scored a franchise-record 156 points that night, as the Nuggets simply stopped defending late in the game and allowed the Blazers to rack up layups. Moe delivered his point. But the NBA office wasn’t so happy about Moe’s stunt. “I got in some trouble with the league for that one,” Moe later recalled.

But such was Moe’s career as an NBA coach. He was a pioneer and an original, coaching for 15 seasons with a 628-529 record, spending four years with the Spurs, 10 with the Nuggets and one partial season with the Sixers.

Moe died this week at 87. Per the AP: “Moe’s son, David, notified several of the coach’s friends that his father had died after a long bout with cancer, Ron Zappolo, a longtime Denver TV personality and good friend of Moe’s, told The Associated Press.”

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Doug Moe: ‘Had One Play–The Passing Game’

It was once said that Moe was bilingual–he spoke English and profanity. That harkened back to his origins as a player in Brooklyn, and it was a trait he brought with him to the University of North Carolina. He playing career was cut short, though, by a point-shaving scandal–though Moe was never found to have fixed any games–and he was forced to play overseas before finally landing in the ABA at age 29, he was an All-Star three times as as player.

But it was Moe’s tenure as a head coach where he made his mark. He began with the Spurs, coaching their first season after the NBA-ABA merger, in 1977-78. He won 44, 52 and 48 games in his first three seasons, but was fired in his fourth year.

In Denver, Moe’s fame grew, as he began running a high-powered offense he dubbed, simply, “the passing game.”

Former Nuggets coach George Karl said of Moe’s offense: “Doug was crazy. He had one play—the passing game.”

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Nuggets Led the NBA in Scoring Four Times

But within the structure of the Nuggets’ “passing game” was a certain subtlety and discipline that helped Denver play their style better than anyone in the league could play it–the ball distribution, the cutting, and the play calls after the initial fast break were part of his genius.

The Nuggets led the NBA in scoring four straight seasons from 1981-85.

Former Nuggets star Fat Lever said there was a simplicity to the Moe philosophy. “When I got to Denver, Doug would say, if the ball comes back to you, you got the shot, take it,” Lever said. “If you can get to the basket, beat your guy. But if we got down to an isolation, everybody knew it was going to be a three-down. Alex (English) was going to the post, and throw him the ball.”

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Doug Moe Not in Hall of Fame

But only seeing Moe as a one-trick pony obscured the fact that he had a polished offensive mind.

Explained Lever: “Doug Moe was the most creative-minded coach that I ever played for. And here’s why I say that: he could design a play in the middle of a game, that we had never run in practice. Something he would come up with in the course of the game, and he would say, ‘Hey, run this play.’ And each of those plays that he had drawn up and designed at the time worked.

“I was always amazed how many times he would come up with a play just because of the way the game was going and the way his mind was thinking. He would come and say, ‘OK, we’re not gonna do this anymore.’ … And each time he would come up with these plays, we would be like, ‘We haven’t practiced this.’ He’d say, ‘Just go out and do it.’”

The Nuggets were never able to break through against the Lakers and their dominance in the West in the mid-80s, and that’s the big reason Moe is not in the Hall of Fame. He is, though, a legend in coaching nonetheless.

Sean Deveney is a veteran sports reporter covering the NBA, NFL and MLB for Heavy.com. He has written for Heavy since 2019 and has more than two decades of experience covering the NBA, including 17 years as the lead NBA reporter for the Sporting News. Deveney is the author of 7 nonfiction books, including “Fun City,” “Before Wrigley became Wrigley,” and “Facing Michael Jordan.” More about Sean Deveney