Don Nelson has been 'smoking some pot' in retirement

Don Nelson was a legendary NBA coach — and he is remaining legendary in retirement.

Nellie, who last coached the Golden State Warriors from 2006-10, returned to Oracle Arena on Thursday and spoke with the media before the game on what he’s been doing post-basketball in Hawaii:

“Yeah, I’ve been smoking some pot,” Nelson said, without hesitation. “It’s legal now! But I never smoked when I played nor coached. It’s new to me. It’s more legal now than it’s ever been.”

This shouldn’t come as a surprise to those keeping tabs on the Hall of Fame coach. In an interview with The New York Times last year, Nelson talked about how he grows pot at his farm in Maui and that it was the country singer Willie Nelson who introduced him to marijuana a few years ago.

“Usually you’re smoking with your friends, sitting around, telling stories, you smoke a bowl,” Nelson said to The Times. “It’s not that I smoke all the time. I usually just smoke at night during poker games. Like Willie told me, it’s hard to be depressed when you’re smoking pot.”

But it is still hilarious to hear the 78-year-old Nelson casually drop that in, eliciting a celebratory reaction from Stephen Jackson, who played for Nelson on the “We Believe” Warriors.

Nelson, the all-time winningest coach in NBA history, spent more than four decades on the sidelines with the Milwaukee Bucks, New York Knicks, Dallas Mavericks and the Warriors for two stints. He holds a special place in the hearts of Warriors fans for leading the team that upset the top-seed Mavericks in a first-round playoff series in 2007.

And as long as he keeps making iconic cameos as he did on Thursday, he will remain a legend in basketball circles.

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