Doug Moe, who became one of the winningest coaches in Nuggets history by orchestrating a high-speed, high-scoring style of basketball that was ahead of its time in the 1980s, died on Tuesday. He was 87.
In 10 years as head coach, Moe led the Nuggets to 432 regular-season wins, a number immortalized today in the rafters of Ball Arena. The franchise record stood until Nov. 23, 2024, when Michael Malone surpassed it in his 10th season. A three-time ABA All-Star during his playing career, Moe also coached the San Antonio Spurs and Philadelphia 76ers. He ranks 26th in NBA history with 628 total wins as a head coach.
A run-and-gun pioneer
Moe first came to Denver in 1974, working as an assistant coach for Larry Brown for two seasons and reaching the ABA Finals in 1976. After the ABA and NBA merged that summer, he spent a four-year stint in San Antonio, then returned to Denver in 1980 and replaced Donnie Walsh at the helm in the middle of the season. The Nuggets led the NBA in scoring six times in the next decade, made the playoffs nine consecutive years and won their division twice.
Their deepest playoff run under Moe was in 1985, when they reached the Western Conference Finals but lost in five games to the Los Angeles Lakers. Moe’s entire tenure coincided with the Lakers’ stranglehold on the West. The Nuggets were perennially competitive, but they never overcame Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to make the NBA Finals.
“Coach Moe was a one of a kind leader and person who spearheaded one of the most successful and exciting decades in Nuggets history,” the team said in a statement. “He will forever be loved and remembered by Nuggets fans, and his banner commemorating his 432 career victories as head coach will hang in the rafters to forever honor his incredible legacy.”
Moe will be remembered for his gregarious, mercurial personality and his distinct strategy more than any results. In gymnasiums and hotel lobbies across the country, he held court with anybody willing to indulge in a conversation, from his assistant coaches to the reporters covering the team to the ball boys. Players were fond of his sense of humor. His refusal to take himself too seriously. He could hurl light-hearted insults at anyone, including himself.
“He would sort of dig an argument out of you, a viewpoint,” said Allan Bristow, Moe’s longtime friend who played for him in San Antonio and coached with him for six years in Denver. “And whatever viewpoint I had, he went against it.”
Most of those conversations, even later in his life, were about sports. Moe always remained an avid follower of the NBA and other leagues after his NBA career was over. He never carried a notebook while coaching, but he did while managing his fantasy baseball roster, Bristow says. “I don’t think Doug ever made a sandwich,” his friend joked.
Before the “Seven Seconds or Less” Suns of the 2000s or the “pace and space” movement of the 2010s NBA, there was “The Passing Game” in Denver. Moe helped pioneer a run-and-gun style of offense that often produced final scores in the 120s and beyond. Three of his Nuggets teams still rank in the top seven in league history for points per game, led by the record-holding 1981-82 team (126.5). On Dec. 13, 1983, Denver lost a 186-184 triple-overtime thriller to the Pistons in what remains the highest-scoring NBA game ever. That was Moe’s vision for the sport.
“Organized chaos,” Bristow said.
“We had no plays,” said Bill Hanzlik, a former Nugget who played eight seasons for Moe. “I think we had one out-of-bounds play. He would tell us to call it ‘orange’ one time. Call it ‘red’ another time. Call it ’84.’ Whatever.”
Running and passing were non-negotiables to Moe. He didn’t want players to hold the ball for more than two seconds. He held short practices, about an hour at most, to compensate for the amount of full-court sprinting his drills required. He wanted to use the time scrimmaging 5-on-5, simulating the feel of a real game. He wanted to run a fast break even after the opposing team made a shot. He wanted Denver’s visitors to succumb to the altitude, to run out of breath and motivation by the end of four quarters. He had the mouth of a sailor and the attitude of a teenager at times, even in his own huddles.
Hanzlik remembers one in Washington. The Nuggets had fallen behind by double digits, and Moe was fuming as he called a timeout. Frustrated by their lack of passing, he gave them new instructions. “I want the first person over half-court with the ball to shoot it,” Hanzlik recalls him saying. “You’re coming out of the game if you don’t shoot it.” The Nuggets obeyed his orders for a handful of possessions. Washington increased the lead even more, until Moe felt that he had proven his point enough to stop the game with another timeout. “Move the basketball!” he barked in the huddle this time. The Nuggets came back to win.
“It was classic Doug coaching,” Hanzlik said. “There were tons of stories like that.”
Another time, Moe was fined and suspended by the league for ordering his team to stop trying on defense in a 156-116 loss to Portland. Annoyed by the Nuggets’ lack of effort, he had decided the Trail Blazers should be allowed to break their franchise scoring record with a parade of easy layups for the last two minutes.
When the Nuggets fired Moe in 1990, he wore a Hawaiian shirt to a press conference and popped champagne with his wife, Jane, in a nod to the remaining years he was owed on his contract.
“In his own way,” Bristow said, laughing, “he was lovable guy.”
‘Doug’s in another galaxy’
Defense was always the area where Moe’s teams were scrutinized. Hanzlik says they never practiced it. Bristow maintains that the point totals Denver allowed were related to an abundance of offense rather than a lack of defense.
“People were only looking at how many points the other team scored and not looking at other things that Doug looked at that said, that’s OK for the other team to score,” he said. “We’ve just gotta get more points than them.”
Moe returned to Denver again later in his career as an assistant coach for George Karl, who posted a message on social media Tuesday that “Doug Moe was my big brother. I am sad today. I will miss him. Love you forever Doug.”
Moe was inducted into the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame in 1997. A Brooklyn native, he was honored by the New York City Sports Hall of Fame in 1998 and the San Antonio Sports Hall of Fame in 2015 for his four years with the Spurs. He has not been enshrined by the Naismith Hall of Fame.
Hanzlik says his originality as a coach transcended such classification anyway.
“Most coaches, they’re in the same sort of (philosophical) circle,” he said. “And different parts of the circle do different things different ways. Doug’s in another galaxy. Like, a couple of galaxies over. There’s nobody like him. Nobody. Zero. Other coaches tried to do certain things like Doug, but you can’t copy what Doug did.”
