Doug Moe

Doug Moe

Moe during his ABA career
Personal information
Born	(1938-09-21) September 21, 1938 Brooklyn, New York
Nationality	American
Listed height	6 ft 5 in (1.96 m)
Listed weight	215 lb (98 kg)
Career information
High school	The Bulllis School (Potomac, Maryland)
College	North Carolina (1958–1961)
NBA draft	1961 / Round: 2 / Pick: 22nd overall
Selected by the Chicago Packers
Position	Small forward
Number	34, 15
Coaching career	1976–1992
Career history
As player:
1965–1967	Pallacanestro Petrarca Padova
1967–1968	New Orleans Buccaneers
1968–1969	Oakland Oaks
1969–1970	Carolina Cougars
1970–1972	Virginia Squires
As coach:
1972–1974	Carolina Cougars (asst)
1974–1976	Denver Nuggets (asst)
1976–1981	San Antonio Spurs
1980–1991	Denver Nuggets
1992–1993	Philadelphia 76ers
Career highlights and awards
As player: ABA champion (1969) 3x ABA All-Star (1968–1970) First-team All-American – USBWA (1961) Second-team All-American – AP, TSN (1961) Third-team All-American – NABC, NEA (1961) 2× First-team All-ACC (1959, 1961) As coach: NBA Coach of the Year (1988) No. 432 retired by Denver Nuggets
Stats at Basketball-Reference.com

Douglas Edwin Moe (born September 21, 1938) is an American former professional basketball player and coach. As a head coach with the Denver Nuggets in the National Basketball Association (NBA), he was named the NBA Coach of the Year in 1988.

Early life

Born in Brooklyn, New York, Moe was a star player at the University of North Carolina where he was a two-time All-American. However, his collegiate career ended in controversy when he admitted to being associated with a point shaving scandal. Moe received $75 from fix conspirator Aaron Wagman to fly to a meeting in New Jersey, arranged by Moe's friend conspirator Lou Brown, but Moe reportedly turned down an offer to throw games. There is no evidence that Moe was ever involved in a fix conspiracy, but his ties to the scandal blemished his reputation.

He was selected in the NBA draft in 1960 by the Detroit Pistons and again in 1961 with the Chicago Packers, but began his pro career in the Federazione Italiana Pallacanestro with the Pallacanestro Petrarca Padova, and later in the American Basketball Association with the New Orleans Buccaneers, Oakland Oaks, Washington Caps, Carolina Cougars and Virginia Squires. He garnered ABA All-Star honors three times in an injury-shortened five-year professional playing career.

Moe became a head coach in 1976–77, after serving as an assistant coach for the Carolina Cougars. Moe worked behind the bench for 15 years, ten of them with the Denver Nuggets. He also had stops in San Antonio and Philadelphia.

In Denver

Moe began his coaching career with the Carolina Cougars in the ABA as an assistant coach to his UNC teammate, Larry Brown from 1972 to 1974. He then followed Brown to Denver, where they coached the Nuggets from 1974 to 1976. During those two seasons, the Nuggets were 125–43 (.744). They advanced to the ABA Finals in 1976, but lost to the New York Nets in six games.

After the ABA–NBA merger in 1976, Moe served as a head coach for the San Antonio Spurs for four seasons (1976–80), leading them to a conference finals appearance in 1979. He returned to Denver in 1980 to take over the head coaching reigns from another UNC alum Donnie Walsh. From 1980 to 1990, Moe compiled a 432–357 (.548) record and led the Nuggets to the postseason nine-straight years—advancing as far as the Western Conference Finals in 1985. He guided the Nuggets to two Midwest Division titles (’84–85 and ’87–88) and a franchise-record 54 wins in 1987–88. He was named NBA Coach of the Year that same year. Under Moe’s direction, the Nuggets high-octane offense led the league in scoring in six of his 10 seasons in Denver. He is honored by the Nuggets with a banner that read "432" for his amount of wins as a Nugget head coach.

Moe also served an unsuccessful stint as a head coach for the Philadelphia 76ers (1992–93). In 1979, he led the Spurs to the conference finals. His overall NBA head coaching ledger stands at 628–529 (.543) and his wins are the 19th-most in NBA history, though he is not in the Hall of Fame.

Coaching style

Moe used a run-and-gun offense which had his team shoot before the opponent's defense had set up. He ran almost no plays, instead relying on ball movement, screens and constant cuts to the basket. Players were not to hold onto the ball for longer than two seconds. The movement of the ball was predicated on what the defense allowed. "You can't diagram it, you can't put a pencil and paper to it. If you do, you're doing an injustice to the system," said former Nuggets assistant Allan Bristow. Moe simply said, "The passing game is basically doing whatever the hell you want."

Moe's passing strategy was adopted from North Carolina head coach Dean Smith. Smith, normally a conservative coach, thought that the passing game could work with the right players, but he did not believe players would be smart enough to execute it at all times.

Though his offensive strategy led to high scores, Moe's Denver teams were never adept at running fast breaks. His teams at times appeared to give up baskets in order to get one. He disputed the fact that his teams did not play defense, attributing the high scores to the pace of the game.

On coming to the NBA after the NBA-ABA merger

"One of the biggest disappointments in my life was going into the NBA after the merger. The NBA was a rinky-dink league—listen, I'm very serious about this. The league was run like garbage. There was no camaraderie; a lot of the NBA guys were aloof and thought they were too good to practice or play hard. The NBA All-Star Games were nothing—guys didn't even want to play in them and the fans could [sic] care less about the games. It wasn't until the 1980s, when David Stern became commissioner, that the NBA figured out what the hell they were doing, and what they did was a lot of stuff we had in the ABA—from the 3-point shot to All-Star weekend to the show biz stuff. Now the NBA is like the old ABA. Guys play hard, they show their enthusiasm and there is a closeness in the league. Hell, the ABA might have lost the battle, but we won the war. The NBA now plays our kind of basketball."

Head coaching record

NBA

Legend
Regular season	G	Games coached	W	Games won	L	Games lost	W–L %	Win-loss %
Post season	PG	Playoff games	PW	Playoff wins	PL	Playoff losses	PW–L %	Playoff win-loss %

Team	Year	G	W	L	W–L%	Finish	PG	PW	PL	PW–L%	Result
SAS	1976–77	64	44	38	.537	3rd in Central	2	0	2	.000	Lost in First Round
SAS	1977–78	82	52	30	.634	1st in Central	6	2	4	.333	Lost in Conf. Semifinals
SAS	1978–79	82	48	34	.585	1st in Central	14	7	7	.500	Lost in Conf. Finals
SAS	1979–80	66	33	33	.500	(fired)	—	—	—	—	—
DEN	1980–81	51	26	25	.510	4th in Midwest	—	—	—	—	Missed Playoffs
DEN	1981–82	82	46	36	.561	2nd in Midwest	3	1	2	.333	Lost in First Round
DEN	1982–83	82	45	37	.549	2nd in Midwest	8	3	5	.375	Lost in Conf. Semifinals
DEN	1983–84	82	38	44	.463	3rd in Midwest	5	2	3	.400	Lost in First Round
DEN	1984–85	82	52	30	.634	1st in Midwest	15	8	7	.533	Lost in Conf. Finals
DEN	1985–86	82	47	35	.573	2nd in Midwest	10	5	5	.500	Lost in Conf. Semifinals
DEN	1986–87	82	37	45	.451	4th in Midwest	3	0	3	.000	Lost in First Round
DEN	1987–88	82	54	28	.659	1st in Midwest	11	5	6	.455	Lost in Conf. Semifinals
DEN	1988–89	82	44	38	.537	3rd in Midwest	3	0	3	.000	Lost in First Round
DEN	1989–90	82	43	39	.524	4th in Midwest	3	0	3	.000	Lost in First Round
PHI	1992–93	56	19	37	.339	(fired)	—	—	—	—	—
Career		1157	628	529	.543		83	33	50	.398

See also

National Basketball Association portal

External links

• Basketball-Reference.com: Doug Moe (as coach)
• Basketball-Reference.com: Doug Moe (as player)