.jpeg) Moe with theCarolina Cougars,c. 1970 | |
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1938-09-21)September 21, 1938 Brooklyn, New York, U.S. |
| Died | February 17, 2026(2026-02-17) (aged 87) San Antonio,Texas, U.S. |
| Listed height | 6 ft 5 in (1.96 m) |
| Listed weight | 215 lb (98 kg) |
| Career information | |
| High school | Bullis School (Potomac, Maryland) |
| College | North Carolina (1958–1961) |
| NBA draft | 1961: 2nd round, 22nd overall pick |
| Drafted by | Chicago Packers |
| Playing career | 1965–1972 |
| Position | Small forward |
| Number | 34, 15 |
| Coaching career | 1972–2008 |
| Career history | |
Playing | |
| 1965–1967 | Pallacanestro Petrarca Padova |
| 1967–1968 | New Orleans Buccaneers |
| 1968–1969 | Oakland Oaks |
| 1969–1970 | Carolina Cougars |
| 1970–1972 | Virginia Squires |
Coaching | |
| 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 | |
As player:
As coach: | |
| Career ABA playing statistics | |
| Points | 6,161 (16.3 ppg) |
| Rebounds | 2,560 (6.8 rpg) |
| Assists | 1,197 (3.2 apg) |
Stats atBasketball Reference  | |
| Career coaching record | |
| NBA | 628–529 (.543) |
| Record atBasketball Reference | |
Douglas Edwin Moe (September 21, 1938 – February 17, 2026) was an American professionalbasketball player and coach. A starsmall forward playingcollege basketball for theNorth Carolina Tar Heels, Moe was a two-timeAll-American but was accused ofpoint shaving. He was cleared of fixing games, but was kicked out of school and blackballed from theNational Basketball Association (NBA). Moe played professionally in the Italian leagueLega Basket Serie A in 1965 before signing on with the upstartAmerican Basketball Association (ABA) with theNew Orleans Buccaneers in 1967, where he played with his former Carolina teammateLarry Brown. Moe played five seasons for four teams while being named anABA All-Star three times and winning the ABA championship in 1969 with the Oakland Oaks.
Injuries to his knees forced him to retire at the age of 33 and he immediately became an assistant coach with Brown'sCarolina Cougars in 1972. He joined Brown to theDenver Nuggets in 1974 before being named head coach of theSan Antonio Spurs in 1976 as their very first coach in the NBA era. In four seasons, with a high-scoring offense, the Spurs won their first ever division championships and reached the Conference Finals in 1979 but Moe was fired in late 1980. In 1980, he became head coach of theDenver Nuggets, where he coached the next ten years. They won 432 games in his tenure of run-and-gun offense with nine postseason appearances, two division championships and a Conference Finals appearance in 1985 while Moe was namedNBA Coach of the Year in 1988. He left the Nuggets in 1990 and was hired by thePhiladelphia 76ers in 1992, where they won 19 of 56 games before he was fired. He became a coaching consultant for Denver in 2002 (which retired a "432" banner in his honor that same year) and served as an assistant coach until 2008.
In 2018, he was awarded theChuck Daly Lifetime Achievement Award.
Douglas Edwin Moe was born on September 21, 1938, inBrooklyn, New York.[1] Growing up in the playground of Foster Park in the Flatbush section of town, he would play games six days a week in the place once called the "Stars' Park".[2] He loved basketball so much that he would play in various church leagues under various assumed names (whether it was Protestant or Jewish). Moe attended and graduated fromErasmus Hall High School and attracted enough attention to be recruited to theUniversity of North Carolina at Chapel Hill despite playing just one year of high school ball.[3]
Moe was a star player for theNorth Carolina Tar Heels, earningAll-American honors twice.[3]
Once, in 1961, Moe was on the same flight as formerVice PresidentRichard Nixon while Moe played 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?"[3]
However, Moe's collegiate career ended in controversy due toa point shaving scandal in 1961.[4] In the summer of 1960, before hissenior year, he received $75 from fix conspirator Aaron Wagman to fly to a meeting in New Jersey, arranged by Moe's teammate and friend, conspirator Lou Brown, but Moe turned down an offer to throw games.[5][6][7] He was cleared of fixing games,[5][6] but was suspended from North Carolina by ChancellorWilliam Brantley Aycock for initially denying any knowledge of the scandal.[8]
Moe was selected by theDetroit Pistons in the seventh round of the1960 NBA draft in 1960, and was re-drafted by the Chicago Packers (nowWashington Wizards the1961 draft.[1] He signed with the Packers, but they refused to honor the contract after the point-shaving scandal broke.[3][7] He was also blackballed by the NBA.[6][9] Moe subsequently spent time in the Army and sold insurance. He graduated fromElon College in 1965 in education.[3]
In 1965, he began his professional career in Italy'sLega Basket Serie A with thePallacanestro Petrarca Padova.[10]
Moe, alongside fellow former Tar Heel and roommateLarry Brown, joined in with the newly formedAmerican Basketball Association with theNew 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 namedABA 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).[11] Just a few months after the season ended, Moe and Brown were traded to the Oakland Oaks forRonald Franz,Steve Jones andBarry Leibowitz.[12]
Moe, alongside Brown, was traded to theOakland 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 theplayoffs. They made it all the way to the ABA Finals against theIndiana 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.[13]
Moe played for theCarolina Cougars in1969–70, when he was named the team's MVP. Though he was hampered much of the season by injury, he averaged 17.4 points per game and led all ABAforwards in assists, ranking seventh overall.[14]
Moe played for theVirginia Squires from 1970 to 1972. He garnered ABA All-Star honors three times in an injury-shortened five-year professional playing career.[9]
By 1972, his knees were in bad shape, and he elected to retire after the end of the season at the age of 33.[15]
Moe began his coaching career with theCarolina Cougars in the ABA as an assistant coach to his former college teammateLarry Brown from 1972 to 1974.[3]
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).[16] They advanced to the ABA Finals in 1976, but lost to the New York Nets in six games.[17]
On June 30, 1976, Moe was named head coach of theSan Antonio Spurs, who were to be members of the NBA after theABA–NBA merger that year; he replacedBob Bass.[18] 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, asGeorge 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 theWashington Bullets, who beat them in six games.[19]
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 defending NBA champions.[20]
The Spurs sputtered in the following season. They were 33–33 when Moe was fired by team ownerAngelo Drossos with sixteen games remaining in the1979–80 season; he was replaced by Bass, who by then was the team's general manager.[21]
Moe returned to Denver in 1980 to take over the head coachingreins from anotherUNC alum,Donnie Walsh. From 1980 to 1990, Moe compiled a 432–357 (.548) record and led the Nuggets to the postseason nine-straight years[22]—advancing as far as the Western Conference Finals in 1985.[23] He guided the Nuggets to two Midwest Division titles (1984–85 and '87–88) and a franchise-record 54 wins in1987–88. He was namedNBA 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.[22]
Moe used arun-and-gun offense which had his team shoot before the opponent's defense had set up.[24] 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 assistantAllan Bristow. Moe simply said, "The passing game is basically doing whatever the hell you want."[3]
Moe's passing strategy was adopted fromNorth Carolina head coachDean 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.[3]
Though his offensive strategy led to high scores, Moe's Denver teams were never adept at runningfast 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.[3]
Moe announced his dismissal from the Nuggets on September 6, 1990, at apress 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 OfficerRobert Wussler was most critical of his coaching.[25] Moe is honored by the Nuggets with a banner that reads "432" for his number of wins as a Nuggets' head coach.[22]
On May 27, 1992, Moe was hired by thePhiladelphia 76ers.[26] He was hired to a five-year contract. He had his sonDavid Moe serve as an assistant coach. Less than two months after he was hired, the 76ers traded away star power forwardCharles Barkley to thePhoenix 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."[27][28][29]
Moe joined the Nuggets as a coaching consultant in 2002. He was moved to being an assistant coach in February 2005.[30]
"One of the biggest disappointments in my life was going into theNBA 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. TheNBA 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, whenDavid 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."[31]
Moe died inSan Antonio on February 17, 2026, at the age of 87.[32][33]
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 untilMichael Malone passed him on November 23, 2024, much to Moe's approval.[34][35]
In 1997, Moe was inducted into theColorado Sports Hall of Fame.[36] He was inducted into theNYC Basketball Hall of Fame in 1998.[37] In 2015, he was inducted into the San Antonio Sports Hall of Fame.[38]
In 2018, he received theChuck Daly Lifetime Achievement Award.[9]
| GP | Games played | GS | Games started | MPG | Minutes per game |
| FG% | Field goal percentage | 3P% | 3-point field goal percentage | FT% | Free throw percentage |
| RPG | Rebounds per game | APG | Assists per game | SPG | Steals per game |
| BPG | Blocks per game | PPG | Points per game | Bold | Career high |
| † | Denotes seasons in which Moe's team won anABA championship |
Source[39]
| Year | Team | GP | GS | MPG | FG% | 3P% | FT% | RPG | APG | PPG |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1967–68 | New Orleans | 78 | 39.9 | .413 | .136 | .795 | 10.2 | 2.6 | 24.2 | |
| 1968–69† | Oakland | 75 | 33.7 | .431 | .357 | .811 | 8.2 | 2.0 | 19.0 | |
| 1969–70 | Carolina | 80 | 33.4 | .427 | .235 | .762 | 5.5 | 5.3 | 17.3 | |
| 1970–71 | Virginia | 78 | 29.4 | .456 | .200 | .853 | 6.1 | 3.5 | 13.0 | |
| 1971–72 | Virginia | 67 | 22.0 | .422 | .111 | .806 | 3.6 | 2.2 | 6.8 | |
| Career | 378 | 32.0 | .428 | .213 | .800 | 6.8 | 3.2 | 16.3 | ||
| All-Star | 3 | 1 | 30.3 | .419 | .000 | .625 | 7.0 | 5.7 | 12.0 | |
| Year | Team | GP | MPG | FG% | 3P% | FT% | RPG | APG | PPG |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1968 | New Orleans | 17 | 42.1 | .416 | .364 | .718 | 9.9 | 2.4 | 23.5 |
| 1969† | Oakland | 16 | 37.1 | .405 | .000 | .784 | 7.8 | 1.9 | 19.8 |
| 1970 | Carolina | 4 | 42.0 | .329 | .000 | .750 | 6.9 | 6.3 | 15.5 |
| 1971 | Virginia | 12 | 35.1 | .508 | .333 | .756 | 4.8 | 3.1 | 17.7 |
| 1972 | Virginia | 11 | 22.3 | .435 | .000 | .880 | 3.9 | 2.5 | 8.7 |
| Career | 60 | 35.7 | .425 | .217 | .757 | 7.0 | 2.7 | 18.1 | |
| 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 | 82 | 44 | 38 | .537 | 3rd in Central | 2 | 0 | 2 | .000 | Lost inFirst Round |
| SAS | 1977–78 | 82 | 52 | 30 | .634 | 1st in Central | 6 | 2 | 4 | .333 | Lost inConf. Semifinals |
| SAS | 1978–79 | 82 | 48 | 34 | .585 | 1st in Central | 14 | 7 | 7 | .500 | Lost inConf. 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 inFirst Round |
| DEN | 1982–83 | 82 | 45 | 37 | .549 | 2nd in Midwest | 8 | 3 | 5 | .375 | Lost inConf. Semifinals |
| DEN | 1983–84 | 82 | 38 | 44 | .463 | 3rd in Midwest | 5 | 2 | 3 | .400 | Lost inFirst Round |
| DEN | 1984–85 | 82 | 52 | 30 | .634 | 1st in Midwest | 15 | 8 | 7 | .533 | Lost inConf. Finals |
| DEN | 1985–86 | 82 | 47 | 35 | .573 | 2nd in Midwest | 10 | 5 | 5 | .500 | Lost inConf. Semifinals |
| DEN | 1986–87 | 82 | 37 | 45 | .451 | 4th in Midwest | 3 | 0 | 3 | .000 | Lost inFirst Round |
| DEN | 1987–88 | 82 | 54 | 28 | .659 | 1st in Midwest | 11 | 5 | 6 | .455 | Lost inConf. Semifinals |
| DEN | 1988–89 | 82 | 44 | 38 | .537 | 3rd in Midwest | 3 | 0 | 3 | .000 | Lost inFirst Round |
| DEN | 1989–90 | 82 | 43 | 39 | .524 | 4th in Midwest | 3 | 0 | 3 | .000 | Lost inFirst Round |
| PHI | 1992–93 | 56 | 19 | 37 | .339 | (fired) | — | — | — | — | — |
| Career | 1157 | 628 | 529 | .543 | 83 | 33 | 50 | .398 |
Source:[40]
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