Nuggets Greatest Coaches First Doug Moe

My labor of love for the Denver Nuggets is coming to a close with this post as I have come to the greatest coach in Nuggets history and with that….Drum Roll Please…The greatest coach in Denver Nuggets history is the one and only….Doug Moe!

Moe coached the Nuggets for 10 full seasons from 1980 to 1990 and before the George Karl era began in 2004, this was far and away the longest span of legitimate success in franchise history.  Moe was known for his flamboyant personality, his unique and fun to watch offense called “The Passing Game”, and for being the worst dressed coach in the history of mankind!  (See picture above….)  Moe was something of a renaissance man because of the unique nature of the offense he chose to run.  The Passing Game is really not an offense at all as there are no set plays.  It is a motion offense that leads players into areas of space that gives them open shots by moving the ball around the perimeter quickly and finding the open man.  It was a brilliant strategy for the roster that Moe coached for most of the 80’s.  He had lean, fast, good shooting and good passing players like Alex English who is still the Nuggets career assist leader.  Dan Issel, who is still considered one of the best passing centers in NBA history.  TR Dunn an underrated offensive player especially as a passer.  Fat Lever who embodied the perfect game for Moe’s Passing Game and excelled in his year’s in Denver, even leading the team in rebounding in 4 seasons even though he was only 6′ 2″ tall.

Moe is the Nuggets all time leader in coaching wins with 432 in his 10 seasons as head coach.  He also coached in more total games than any other coach in Nuggets history by coaching 789 games on the Nuggets bench.  He is always remembered for his crazy antics on the sideline and also for his rather unconventional choice in clothing while coaching in Denver.  But lost in all of the fun in watching Moe coach and the enjoyable way his teams played, Moe was a very good NBA coach.  He learned the passing game from Dean Smith at North Carolina and is considered an innovator in patterning the offense to the strengths of his players.  He led the Nuggets to 50 wins twice in his 10 years on the bench and made the playoffs in every season as Nuggets Head Coach except for his first season in 1980-1981.  He also led them to more than 45 wins 3 other seasons and led the team to their first ever Western Conference finals in the 1984-1985 season against the Lakers after a 52 win season.

The things I remember about Moe are many and varied.  I remember him as being one of the most quotable people in all of sports.  He was not like many other people in the sports business because he chose not to temper his answer to reporters questions and he was widely loved by beat reporters for every team in the league.  They knew if Doug was coming to town, they would get some quotable stuff from him for the morning paper.  I also remember that he had a running feud with Bill Hanzlik the entire time Hanzlik played for the Nuggets.  He noted in later years that he really loved Hanzlik but he knew he was tough enough to take the badgering and sometimes he used Hanzlik to get his point across to another player that he thought was too soft to handle the berating.  I also remember the time in 1986 when he told his team to quit playing defense against the Portland Trailblazers in a game in Portland.  He was so upset at how bad his team was playing that he told them during a 4th quarter time out not to play any defense and if they did, they would be fined.  I also remember that he called his wife “Big Jane” and understood that she wore the pants in the Moe family.

I met Doug Moe when I was working for AM950thefan here in Denver and had the opportunity and honor of interviewing him for a story on the 20th anniversary of the Nuggets 1984-1985 season when he led the team to the Western Conference Finals.  He was engaging, funny and could tell stories like no other.  This guy had more fun stories rattling around in his head than almost anyone I have ever met in my life.  He came off as genuine and treated me with the utmost respect.  I came away from that interview with an even higher impression of Doug Moe than I did when he was coaching the team!

Doug Moe was the coach in a time when I was becoming a bigger and bigger fan of the team and is one of the reasons I enjoy writing for NuggLove so much.  He was the face of the franchise along with Alex English and Dan Issel in the 80’s and there could not have been a better place for him to coach than this dusty old cowtown called Denver.  He was a free spirit like many who live here.  He was honest almost to a fault and he was a helluva basketball coach!

So there it is……my journey through the greatest players and coaches in Nuggets history comes to a close with my greatest coach in Nuggets history, the incomparable one……….Douglas Edwin Moe!