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That's the same title Donnie Nelson held with the Mavericks for nearly 20 years. And Nelson, I'm told, was quietly interviewed by the Raptors last summer after Ujiri's departure as part of a search they conducted in the buildup to announcing Webster as Ujiri’s full-time successor in August 2025. Former Raptors coach Dwane Casey, who currently holds an advisory role with Detroit, also featured in Toronto's search.
The scout realized a trait of Brunson’s that day, one that then-Mavericks general manager Donnie Nelson already valued when he insisted on plucking Jalen Brunson with that 33rd overall pick. Brunson, he told colleagues, had “gold dust” on him. The descriptor made its way around the Mavs scouting department. As one person with the organization defined the term, “He just f—ing wins.” Brunson, as plenty around him put it, was covered in gold dust. Especially these days, with a 3-1 lead in the NBA Finals, the New York Knicks are witnessing that powder puff into the air with each step he takes.
Now a player he thought compared to other unconventional all-time greats he had drafted -- Steve Nash and Tim Hardaway -- had somehow fallen to his team at No. 33. "All I know is he had the same things that Hardaway and Nash had -- heart, brains and balls," Nelson told ESPN. "Those are things that generally don't fit into an analytics model."
Behind this undertaking is an investment group led by former NBA official Donnie Nelson, in which the Slovenian superstar Luka Doncic is one of the main investors. The operational part of the deal will be led by Rimantas Kaukenas, while the legendary Valerio Bianchini the creator of the greatest successes of Roman basketball, is also involved in the whole story. "For me, this is not just a simple financial investment. I want to build a club that can compete at the highest level and that will mean something to Roma, because they deserve the best, and we are ready to give them that," Doncic started for Gazzeta Dello Sport.
Did he want to help move a professional basketball team to Rome? The question came from Donnie Nelson, a former Mavericks executive who had brought Mr. Doncic to the National Basketball Association from Europe and was among those celebrating the win. Mr. Doncic barely had to think before answering yes. The pair are now the lead decision makers of an investment group that has bought a northern Italian basketball team, Vanoli Cremona, from a town that is famous for its violin makers. The group plans to move the team to Rome and submitted a bid to be the Roman representative in the N.B.A.’s ambitious plan to create a league in Europe.
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“I think that we’re optimistic and hopeful that the N.B.A. relationship happens,” Mr. Nelson said. “If it doesn’t happen for whatever reason, we’re still excited about moving forward with the Roman opportunity.”
Rome will again have a basketball team at the top European level, and it’s not Virtus Roma, the club that stopped existing in 2021. As “Gazzetta dello Sport” reports, on Tuesday afternoon (12/5), the Italian basketball federation is expected to formally approve the move of Vanoli Cremona Basketball, a club founded in 1999, to the Italian Capital.
Former Dallas GM Donnie Nelson is leading the consortium behind this move. Luka Doncic is among the investors, while former player Rimantas Kaukenas, who competed in Italy for Siena and Reggio Emilia, is also among the club representatives. What’s interesting in the report is that the club is also presented as interested in a wildcard for the EuroLeague or the EuroCup.
One prominent NBA agent told Andscape he wouldn’t be surprised if NBA stars from Europe like Giannis Antetokounmpo and Luka Dončić would be interested in ownership in NBA Europe. Dončić is part of an investor group headed by ex-Dallas Mavericks general manager Donnie Nelson that is seeking to bring a team to Rome as part of NBA Europe, The Athletic has reported. The BAL is also expected to transition to a franchise-based system by 2027, with 10 permanent franchises and two annual qualifiers. An owner of a team playing in the BAL this season told Andscape that the NBA that is having conversations with potential franchise owners for teams that could have a starting price of about $50 million.
Luka Doncic is part of an investor group headed by former Dallas Mavericks general manager Donnie Nelson that is seeking to bring a team to Rome as part of NBA Europe, three sources told The Athletic. Nelson, 63, the son of legendary former NBA coach and executive Don Nelson, has a preliminary agreement in place to purchase an existing basketball team from northern Italy, Vanoli Basket Cremona, to potentially set up a much larger play of entering a team into NBA commissioner Adam Silver’s new European league.
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Marc Stein: Dirk Nowitzki's spokesman Scott Tomlin tells @TheSteinLine that Nowitzki is not part of the reported investor group headed by former Mavericks GM Donnie Nelson that is in talks to buy a basketball franchise in Italy.
Doncic, 26, whom Donnie Nelson acquired in a draft-night trade with the Atlanta Hawks in 2018, is part of his group of investors, sources in American and European basketball with knowledge of Nelson’s plans told The Athletic. While the Milan-based sports publication La Gazzetta Dello Sport reported that Dirk Nowitzki was also a part of Nelson’s group, his spokesman, Scott Tomlin, said that was not the case. According to one of the sources, Rimas Kaukenas, a Lithuanian legend as a player who was a longtime star in Italy, is also part of the group.
While the Lithuanians had hoop skills, they didn’t have enough money to compete as an independent nation four years later in Barcelona. To get his team into the Games, Sarunas Marčiulionis, who signed with the Golden State Warriors in 1989, began fundraising in the Bay Area with then-Warriors assistant Donnie Nelson (son of legendary head coach Don Nelson). The Grateful Dead — formed in Palo Alto, Calif., in 1965 by Weir, Jerry Garcia, Phil Lesh, Ron McKernan and Bill Kreutzmann — saw an article about the fundraising efforts in the San Francisco Chronicle and decided to help. Through the band’s nonprofit, the Rex Foundation, they gave the Lithuanians $5,000 and a box of tie-dye T-shirts.
“The owner comes up to me like, ‘Hey, do you want to coach?’” Barea remembers. After the surprise wore off, he answered with a question. “Man, I would love to, but I don’t know if I can.” Barea called Mavericks owner Mark Cuban and general manager Donnie Nelson to ask if the NBA or the team had any rules against him coaching in a separate league during the offseason. Mayagüez just needed someone to get the team through the end of the schedule. “They called me back, said, ‘You’re good to go,’” Barea recalls. “So I did it.”