He said he wished he had left the office earlier that day. Then the reporters wouldn't have found him, wouldn't have asked about Sprewell, who has worn sneakers with the uniform numbers of the departed Webber and Owens written on the back in protest of the moves that were made.
"It's time to move on," Nelson said. "It's time to get past the sadness."
He did not go home. Not directly. He went to Sprewell's house, looking for his All-Star guard, looking to see what was wrong and what had to be made right.
Sprewell was not home. Somehow that figured.