Doug Moe

Doug Moe

Moe during his ABA career
Personal information
Born	(1938-09-21) September 21, 1938 Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
Listed height	6 ft 5 in (1.96 m)
Listed weight	215 lb (98 kg)
Career information
High school	The Bullis School (Potomac, Maryland)
College	North Carolina (1958–1961)
NBA draft	1961: 2nd round, 22nd overall pick
Selected by the Chicago Packers
Playing career	1965–1972
Position	Small forward
Number	34, 15
Coaching career	1972–2008
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 (assistant)
1974–1976	Denver Nuggets (assistant)
1976–1980	San Antonio Spurs
1980–1990	Denver Nuggets
1992–1993	Philadelphia 76ers
2003–2008	Denver Nuggets (assistant)
Career highlights and awards
As player: ABA champion (1969) 3× ABA All-Star (1968–1970) All-ABA First Team (1968) All-ABA Second Team (1969) Lega Basket Serie A Top Scorer (1966) First-team All-American – USBWA (1961) Second-team All-American – AP, SN (1961) Third-team All-American – NABC, NEA (1961) 2× First-team All-ACC (1959, 1961) As coach: NBA Coach of the Year (1988) Chuck Daly Lifetime Achievement Award (2018) No. 432 honored by Denver Nuggets
Career ABA playing statistics
Points	6,161 (16.3 ppg)
Rebounds	2,560 (6.8 rpg)
Assists	1,197 (3.2 apg)
Stats at Basketball Reference
Career coaching record
NBA	628–529 (.543)
Record at Basketball Reference

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

Douglas Edwin Moe was born on September 21, 1938, in Brooklyn, New York.

College career

Moe was a star player at the University of North Carolina, where he was a two-time All-American.

Once, in 1961, Moe was on the same flight as former Vice President Richard Nixon for the Tar Heels. Noted for his fear of flying, Moe tried to read a book to distract himself; when Nixon was introduced to Moe by a coach, he stated Moe must be the student in the group and Moe (unfamiliar with the person making the remark) remarked, "What are you, a wise guy?"

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.

Professional career

Pallacanestro Petrarca Padova (1965–1967)

Moe was selected in the NBA draft in 1960, by the Detroit Pistons, and again in 1961, this time by the Chicago Packers,

When he went to sign with the Packers, the scandal broke out involving Moe, who was quoted as saying what he had done wrong "was to accept $75 from Aaron Wagman, a gambler, the summer before my senior year. He was after me to shave points but I refused." (Moe did not report the incident at the time). Moe subsequently spent time in the Army and sold insurance.

In 1965, he began his professional career in Italy's Lega Basket Serie A with the Pallacanestro Petrarca Padova.

New Orleans Buccaneers (1967–1968)

Moe, alongside fellow former Tar Heel and roommate Larry Brown, joined in with the newly formed American Basketball Association with the New Orleans Buccaneers in 1967 for $5,000. Moe played a season for the team, which reached the ABA Finals that saw him along with Brown to be named ABA All-Stars. In 78 games, he averaged 24.2 points with 10.2 rebounds and 2.6 assists. He finished second in the ABA MVP race, receiving three of the 22 first-place votes (Connie Hawkins received the rest of the vote). Just a few months after the season ended, Moe and Brown were traded to the Oakland Oaks for Ronald Franz, Steve Jones and Barry Leibowitz.

Oakland Oaks (1968–1969)

Moe, alongside Brown, was traded to the Oakland Oaks. In 75 games, he averaged 19.0 points with 8.2 rebounds and 2.0 assists and received small MVP consideration to go along with All-Star honors. They played for the Oaks during what became a magic run that saw them go from worst to first to reach the playoffs. They made it all the way to the ABA Finals against the Indiana Pacers. In Game 5, Moe made two free throws late to give the Oaks a three-point lead late in overtime before his teammate Brown made two more to give them an insurmountable 135-131 lead to clinch the game and the series.

Carolina Cougars (1969–1970)

Moe played for the Carolina Cougars from 1969 to 1970.

Virginia Squires (1970–1972)

Moe played for the Virginia Squires from 1970 to 1972. He garnered ABA All-Star honors three times in an injury-shortened five-year professional playing career.

By 1972, his knees were in bad shape, and he elected to retire after the end of the season at the age of 33.

Coaching career

Carolina Cougars (1972–1974)

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.

Denver Nuggets (1974–1976)

Moe 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.

San Antonio Spurs (1976–1980)

On June 30, 1976, Moe was named head coach of the San Antonio Spurs, who were to be members of the NBA after the ABA–NBA merger that yea; he replaced Bob Bass. The Spurs started off slow that year but were ten games over .500 by February and managed to win 44 games with a high-scoring average of 115 points a game to go with allowing a league-worst 114 points a game; described as a "player's coach", the team captivated the town. They lost in the first round of the playoffs in two games. The following season was better for the team, as George Gervin won his first scoring title and the team won their first ever division title with a 52-30 record that was good enough for 2nd best in the Eastern Conference. They were shocked by the Washington Bullets, who beat them in six games.

They repeated as division champions in 1979 and beat the Philadelphia 76ers in the semifinals that year for their first ever playoff series win since moving to San Antonio. In the Conference Finals, they faced the Bullets and took three of the first four games but could not finish the deal, losing the decisive seventh game 107-105 to the eventual world champion.

The Spurs sputtered in the following season. Moe was fired by team owner Angelo Drossos with sixteen games to go in the 1979-80 season; he was replaced by Bass, who managed to get the team to finish at 41-41.

Denver Nuggets (1980–1990)

Moe returned to Denver in 1980 to take over the head coaching reins 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 (1984–85 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.

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.

Moe announced his dismissal from the Nuggets on September 6, 1990, at a press conference where he and his wife Jane had a Champagne toast. He had three years remaining on his contract but was caught in the middle of a front-office restructure initiated by Comsat Video Enterprises, Inc. which had purchased the franchise eleven months earlier. Comsat Chief Executive Officer Robert Wussler was most critical of his coaching. Moe is honored by the Nuggets with a banner that reads "432" for his number of wins as a Nuggets' head coach.

Philadelphia 76ers (1992–1993)

On May 27, 1992, Moe was hired by the Philadelphia 76ers. He was hired to a five-year contract. He had his son David Moe serve as an assistant coach. Less than two months after he was hired, the 76ers traded away star power forward Charles Barkley to the Phoenix Suns. On March 7, 1993, Moe was fired 56 games into the season with the team at 19-37 (in one game prior to his firing, the 76ers lost by 56 points). He stated his regrets upon the firing as one that failed to live to his vision, "I knew a few guys were going to have to play at a higher level than they'd ever played, but I believed that, if we played to the max, it was possible to get to 50 wins. But it was unrealistic. That probably hurt us. The expectations were too high. We underachieved."

Denver Nuggets (2002–2008)

Moe joined the Nuggets as a coaching consultant in 2002. He was moved to being an assistant coach in February 2005.

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."

Legacy

Moe's overall NBA head coaching ledger stands at 628–529 (.543), the 19th most in NBA history. His win total was the most in Nugget history until Michael Malone passed him in November 23, 2024, much to Moe's approval.

In 1997, Moe was inducted into the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame. He was inducted into the NYC Basketball Hall of Fame in 1998. In 2015, he was inducted into the San Antonio Sports Hall of Fame.

In 2018, he received the Chuck Daly Lifetime Achievement Award.

Head coaching record

NBA

Legend

Regular season	G	Games coached	W	Games won	L	Games lost	W–L %	Win–loss %
Playoffs	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

Sports portal

External links

• Basketball-Reference.com: Doug Moe (as coach) Archived February 8, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
• Basketball-Reference.com: Doug Moe (as player)