Don Nelson has made the Hall of Fame (Ball Don’t Lie)

There are typically two kinds of great coaches in sports: the winners and the innovators — sometimes, as in the cases of Phil Jackson and Bill Walsh, a coach can be both. The winners carve out greatness because they were able to build up their teams, get the most out of their talent, and end the season on top. The innovators typically win lots of games, but they stand out because they change the way their sports are played forever. Don Nelson was pretty clearly an innovator, not a winner. Although he holds the NBA record for most regular-season wins, his best teams petered out in the playoffs, usually for lacking (or not especially caring about) defense. Yet it's impossible to envision the modern NBA without his brand of mad offensive science, replete with big guys who can shoot and a structure so loose that edicts like "Seven Seconds or Less" seem conservative by comparison. The modern NBA would look very different without him. Now, after several years of waiting, Don Nelson has been named to the Hall of Fame. From Jeff Caplan of ESPNDallas.com :