Doug Moe: 1938-2026

Photo: Former NBA head coach Doug Moe in his days as an assistant coach. Moe passed away age age 87 on Feb. 17. His 628 victories are 19th all-time. Photo credit: Getty Images.

Cover photo: Doug Moe as head coach of the Denver Nuggets. Photo credit: Getty Images, NBAE.

One of the most innovative and colorful coaches in NBA history has passed away. 

Doug Moe, who was the architect behind one of the NBA’s most potent offenses in the late 1970s with the San Antonio Spurs and in the 1980s with the Denver Nuggets, died Tuesday at age 87. 

A Brooklyn, N.Y. native, Moe was a 6 foot, 5 inch forward at the University of North Carolina during his college days, and was 1st team All-American in 1961 and a 2-time All-ACC 1st team member in 1959 and 1961. From 1968-70, he was an ABA All-Star with the Oakland Oaks (1968-69) and Carolina Cougars (1970). He won an ABA championship with the Oaks in 1969. 

As a coach, Moe was first an assistant with the ABA’s Cougars from 1972-74, before being an assistant with the Denver Rockets from 1974-76. From 1976-80, he was the head coach of the Spurs, and guided the George Gervin-led team to 44, 52, and 48 wins. In 1978-79, the Spurs, with a talented trio of Gervin, Larry Kenon, and James Silas, made the Eastern Conference Finals. The Spurs went 33-33 under Moe’s watch in 1979-80. Twice under Moe, the Spurs had the top scoring offense in the NBA (1976-77 and 1978-79). 

Moe spent the 1980-81 season as an assistant in Denver with the Nuggets, and coached the team for 51 games that season, going 26-25. The Nuggets won 46 and 45 games in 1981-82 and 1982-83. Moe guided the team to 52 wins in 1984-85 and 47 wins in 1985-86, and in the 1987-88 season led the Nuggets to a 54-28 record, the best of his coaching career. In his last two full seasons at the helm of the Nuggets, the team won 44 and 43 games. Moe was head coach of the Philadelphia 76ers for 56 games in the 1992-93 season, and from 2003-04 to 2007-08 was a Nuggets’ assistant coach. 

Moe’s 432 wins in Denver are second in franchise history only to Michael Malone’s 471. In his first four seasons as head coach of the Nuggets, the team had the No. 1 ranked offense in the NBA, and the offense never finished below fourth in points per game under Moe. The team also finished tops in the NBA in offense in 1987-88. For the first four seasons of the 1980s, supreme scoring wings Alex English and Kiki VanDeWeghe provided Moe with the NBA’s most potent offensive wing duo. English poured in more points in the decade than any other player. 

Compiling a record of 628-529, Moe was the NBA’s Coach of the Year for 1987-88, and Coach of the Month in November 1984 and March of 1988. Moe was a 1998 inductee into the New York City Basketball Hall of Fame. He is also a member of the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame and the San Antonio Sports Hall of Fame.

“Doug was my big brother,” fellow North Carolina alum and Nuggets’ head coach George Karl said on X. Moe served as Karl’s assistant coach in the mid 2000s. 

RIP, Doug Moe.