Remembering Doug Moe: A Maverick Mind Who Changed Pro Basketball

Long time NBA and ABA coach Doug Moe has passed away on February 17, 2026. Coach Moe was a huge innovator of the game of basketball, being the one who implemented the “Run and Gun” Offense. Moe was also known for his player’s first personality who brought the best of his players.

From 1965 to 1972, Moe played 7 seasons as a small forward for several teams in the American Basketball Association including the New Orleans Buccaneers, Oakland Oaks where he won a championship in 1969, Carolina Cougars, and the Virginia Squires. He was a 3× ABA All-Star and won many other accolades such as being named to the All-ABA First Team in 1968 and the All-ABA Second Team in 1969.

After retiring in 1972, Moe became an assistant coach for the Cougars under Larry Brown, his former teammate and roommate in New Orleans. The Cougars were first in their division with a 57–27 record and reached the Eastern Division finals but were eliminated by the Kentucky Colonels.

In 1974, Coach Moe followed Larry Brown and became an assistant coach for the Denver Nuggets. Immediately they made an impact, along with fantastic talent including Dan Issel, Byron Beck, Bobby Jones, and David Thompson.

The Nuggets finished their season with a 65-19 record, reaching the division finals again, but were eliminated after a hard fought of 7 games against the Indiana Pacers. The following season, the Nuggets made a deep playoff run to the ABA finals but were eliminated by the New Jersey Nets in 6 games.

Coach Moe was hired as the head coach of the San Antonio Spurs in 1976, his first head coaching job in his career, and his first coaching job that came after the ABA-NBA merger that same year. Led by George Gervin, the Spurs made the playoffs 3 out of the 4 seasons Moe was there. When Moe was fired halfway through the season in 1980, he had an overall coaching record of 177 wins and 135 losses with the Spurs, as of 2026 is the second most coaching wins in team history, behind Gregg Popovich.

Later in 1980, he returned to the Nuggets organization, now as their head coach, spending 10 seasons with the team. The rosters included Alex English, Kiki VanDeWeghe, Dan Issel, Fat Lever, and T.R. Dunn.

In 1988, he was named NBA’s Coach of the Year for improving the team’s previous record of 37-45 to 54–28. Later that season, the Nuggets made a playoff run into the West Conference semifinals where they faced and lost to the Dallas Mavericks in 6 games.

In 1990, Moe announced his departure from the team due to ongoing back and forth of the new and incoming ownership. At the time of his departure, Coach Moe finished with an overall 432–357 record as the head coach, which was the most in franchise history until Michael Malone surpassed it in 2024.

Coach Moe settled into his 3rd head coaching job with the Philadelphia 76ers in 1992, but the 76ers traded away star forward Charles Barkley, shortly after that, Moe was fired 56 games into the season with the team at 19-37.

“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.” – Moe after his firing from the team.

In 1997, Moe was inducted into the Colorado Sports Hall of Fame and in 1998, he was inducted into the New York City Hall of Fame.

Coach Moe took a long break from coaching but returned to Denver in 2002 as a consultant. He was later named an assistant coach on George Karl’s coaching staff in 2005, where he remained until his retirement in 2008.

After his retirement, he was named the recipient of the Chuck Daly Lifetime Achievement Award in 2018. That same year, Number 432 was retired by the Nuggets; the total amount of regular season wins he had as a head coach.

The “Run and Gun” Offense

Moe heavily used a system called the Run and Gun Offense, which was designed for his teams to shoot the basketball before the opponents’ defense was set, making it a high paced and quick style of play.

Behind the Coaching mourns the loss of Coach Moe and we thank you for your innovation and contributions for the game of basketball, truly one of the greatest and underrated coaches the game has ever seen.