Good-bye Don _ ESPN: Nelson says Cuban still mum on situation

DALLAS -- Dallas Mavericks coach Don Nelson said Tuesday that he hasn't spoken to Mark Cuban about the owner's plan to extend his coaching contract by three years.


"I haven't heard anything. I really don't want to talk about issues in the press, we haven't talked about it,'' Nelson said by phone from his home in Maui, Hawaii. "I'll wait until I'm rested up, and we'll get together and discuss these things.''


Nelson's contract to coach the team expired after this season, which ended May 29 when Dallas was eliminated by San Antonio in Game 6 of the Western Conference finals. He had said before the season ended that he wanted to keep coaching the Mavericks.


Cuban didn't address Nelson's coaching future publicly until last week when he said the job was Nelson's if he wanted it. Cuban confirmed Tuesday, by e-mail, that he will offer Nelson a three-year coaching extension. That will run concurrently with the three years Nelson has remaining as the team's general manager.


"Nothing has changed. The three years come from the number of years he has left on his GM deal,'' Cuban wrote.

"It sounds like it's going to get done,'' said Nelson, who still doesn't plan to talk to Cuban until after returning to Dallas at the end of next week.


Nelson signed a unique 11-year deal three years ago, soon after Cuban bought the team. That contract called for Nelson to coach through this season and remain as GM for three more years, with five years as a consultant beyond that.


The Mavericks are coming off a franchise-best 60-22 record this season. By beating Portland and Sacramento in a pair of seven-game series, Dallas made it to the Western Conference finals for only the second time in the team's 23-year history.

"He did a great job this year and has earned some R&R time,'' Cuban said last week. "When he gets back from Hawaii, we will sit down and take care of things. It was a great year. We had a blast, but now it's time to start working on the coming season.''

 

Good bye Don as in one less coach on the Rocket's list - I thought you guys would be able to figure that out