Suffolk University Alumni Magazine 2008/2009 - (Page 32) buT hE haSN’T always been Coach. In his corner office on the second floor of the ridgeway Building, Nelson, 66, leans back in his chair with his arms folded across his chest, recalling a time when he went by another name: dmitri Nestios. Nestios was Nelson’s alias, adopted six years after taking the assistant athletic director and assistant basketball coach jobs at Suffolk. Nelson had been a standout guard at Boston College, and—after graduating and taking his first job at Suffolk—had been playing semi-professional basketball around Boston. When a friend brought a recruiter from a Greek league team to check out Nelson’s talents, Jim wowed the scout with his famous dribbling routine: Lying on his back, he dribbled with two hands, then with just one finger on each hand, then just the pinky, and then while doing situps. The team offered him a contract and renamed him dmitri Nestios, which translated to “Jim from the Islands.” Because, as Nelson was told, you had to be Greek to play. When Jim, his wife Joan, and their three children (the couple eventually had five) arrived in Greece, they were greeted with a king’s reception. Stepping off the plane at 10pm, Nelson was met by his teammates, and a speeding motorcade led them from the airport and through the streets of Piraeus, horns honking, fans cheering. “So here’s this American, coming to be a savior,” recalls Nelson, with a thick Boston accent. “The first thing my coach said was, ‘Lie down and start dribbling.’” The decision to leave his perfect job at Suffolk and make a bid for professional play was the culmination of a boyhood dream born in 60-cent seats in “The heavens” of the Boston Garden, front row of the second balcony, center court. There, Nelson spent nights watching red Auerbach, Bill russell, and Bob Cousy—his future coach at Boston College—make the Celtics a dynasty. The same dream kept him in virtual residency at the Cambridge yMCA throughout his adolescence, working as a [32] SUFFOLKARTS+SCIENCES//2008/2009 ALUMNI MAGAzINE
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