He graduated in 1986. NBA beginnings Nelson's first works with the NBA were in his father's teams, first as a regional scout of the Milwaukee Bucks between 1984 and 1986, and then as the top assistant to Don in the Golden State Warriors from 1986 to 1994. During this time, Nelson also worked as a part-time scout starting in 1987. While playing in Lithuania SSR capital Vilnius, Nelson met Šarūnas Marčiulionis, with whom he struck a friendship despite the language barrier. Once Donnie told his father about Marčiulionis and his skills, the Warriors would draft him in the sixth round of the 1987 NBA draft. After the 1988 Summer Olympics, Marciulionis invited Nelson to Lithuania, where for three months he lived in the player's apartment in Vilnius, staging a series of basketball clinics around the increasingly restive republic. Eventually, Nelson would fly to Moscow to sign Marčiulionis in 1989, leading him to become the first Soviet Union player in the NBA. As Don Nelson resigned from Golden State in 1995, Donnie also left the organization. From 1995 to 1998, Nelson was an assistant coach with the Phoenix Suns. He was a major influence in getting the team to pick Steve Nash, who he met while Nash played in high school, and would later befriend as Nash became the star of Santa Clara University. Dallas Mavericks In 1998, Nelson rejoined his father, who was a coach and general manager of the Dallas Mavericks, as assistant general manager. In the 1998 NBA draft, Nelson arranged for the Mavericks to draft little-known German Dirk Nowitzki and bring in Nash, who saw limited minutes in Phoenix, through a three-team trade. Both players would win the Most Valuable Player Award. The draft-day trades for Nowitzki and Nash is the first time in NBA history two future MVPs were acquired in the same transaction. Like with Marčiulionis and Eastern Europe in the late 1980s, Nelson opened the league to a traditionally closed market when he made the Mavericks draft the first Chinese player to ever play in the NBA, Wang Zhizhi, in 1999. Donnie Nelson's efforts to rebuild the Mavericks occurred following the team's decade-long playoff drought. During his tenure, the Mavericks have won 66% of their games, including five 50-win seasons, two 60-win seasons, and a franchise-record 67-win season in 2007. The 2007 season was tied for the sixth-best regular season in NBA history. The