Honorary Warriors For Life? Jordan Bell and Don Nelson

Relax, this is for reminiscence of good players and coaches.

Honorary Warriors For Life

The concept is simple. There are some people who are not in the Warriors organization, but Warriors fans will still root for anyway (as long as no Warriors interests are at stake). So they are not a part of Dub Nation, but they still are welcomed into Dub Nation. This is very often because they are former Warriors players, but not always.

More details are included in our master list of all those voted Honorary Warriors For Life so far. More details are included in our master list of all those voted Honorary Warriors For Life so far. In short, getting >75% support achieves Honorary Warrior For Life; >50% support of voters who know them achieves Honorary Warrior.

Jordan Bell

A 2017 second-round draft steal, famously traded by the Bulls for Cash Considerations. In his rookie year, his bounce, energy and court vision seemed to put him on track to be in the next generation of Warriors players.

A lot of his Warriors time was covered at my Emergency Jordan Bell Memorial Post: Irrationally Good Feelings post (and the good comments in that thread) after he was waived by the Grizzlies and his NBA career was put in question.

Here are some highlights of the highlights.

Jordan Bell played important spot minutes in the playoffs with mixed but ultimately positive results. The peak was in the big comeback in 2018 WCF Game 7, the greatest game no one talks about. 

Eric Apricot @EricApricot

Poll 22. Dub Nation, imagine you see Jordan Bell in a game with no practical implications for the Warriors. (So not against GSW, ignore draft picks, playoff seeding, etc.) Do you want him to do well or poorly?

Well 71.9% / Poor 0.7% / Don’t care either way 27.4% / Don’t know who they are 0%.

Despite his short tenure, Dub Nation remembers him well, and we award him the status of Honorary Warrior! Give that man some honorary Hennessy!

Coach Don Nelson

The eccentric genius coach Don Nelson was one of the first coaches to play up-tempo smallball. He invented Nellie Ball at GSW from 1988-1995, overseeing the Run-TMC lineup and the Chris Webber point forward attack (before his feud with Webber led CW to force a trade). His teams were fun to watch, defense optional, and he made the playoffs four out of six years. After he left, a long drought would follow where no other GSW coach would make the playoffs before 2013’s Mark Jackson.

After he raised Nellie Ball to a higher level with the Steve Nash - Dirk Nowitzki Dallas Mavericks, he made a surprising return to GSW as head coach from 2006-2010, brought back by his old C in Run-TMC, Chris Mullin as general manager. To everyone’s shock, his first team made the playoffs. We Believe. The team was in upheaval after that, but Nellie did manage to ensure that GSW drafted Stephen Curry.

Eric Apricot @EricApricot

Poll 20. Dub Nation, imagine you see Coach Don Nelson in a game with no practical implications for the Warriors. (So not against GSW, ignore draft picks, playoff seeding, etc.) Do you want him to do well or poorly?

Well 72.6% / Poor 2.8% / Don’t care either way 22.6% / Don’t know who they are 1.9%.

Dub Nation still appreciates Coach Nellie, and he comfortably qualifies as an Honorary Warrior. Give that man some honorary pot!