And 1 wins the Fall 2019 Mount Laurel championship, giving Michael Nelson his first title

And 1 after winning the title, led by captain Michael Nelson (11)

Back on August 6, Mount Laurel media associate, Kevin Kolodziej, wrote a story about Michael Nelson, trying to figure out why he had yet to win a championship.

Nelson started playing in the Winter of 2016, the first UH season in Mount Laurel. He had played in 141 career games over the span of 16 seasons without winning a championship. That all changed in his 142nd game last night, as Nelson’s And 1 defeated the Hoyas 58-55 to earn Nelson his first banner.

When asked by Kolodziej back in August what he would do once he finally won a championship, Nelson said, “To finally get one, I’d probably be like Michael Jordan jumping up in the air with a fist pump just thinking that I finally got one.”

Immediately after the final buzzer sounded, Nelson did not celebrate by jumping in the air or fist pumping, he started yelling out David DeShields’ name.

“This is dedicated to David A. DeShields,” Nelson said in a pot-game interview with Kolodziej.

DeShields was quoted in Kolodziej’s story back in August claiming Nelson would never win a championship.

“It’s a shame because he puts in a lot of work, put in a lot of time and puts up a lot of stats,” DeShields said. “I’d like to see him get one, but no he’s not going to get one. He just doesn’t have that championship quality to him. It’s nothing against his play, he’s a great player, he just doesn’t know how to win it.”

People can be motivated in many different ways, but it’s clear a part of Nelson’s motivation was to silence his most vocal hater.

Nelson helped And 1 win in an unorthodox way, putting up a PPR of 18.8 despite scoring zero points on 0-3 shooting. He made a big impact by putting up 11 rebounds, eight assists, two steals and zero turnovers.

Nelson was the captain of And 1, and he went into the draft with the sixth pick out of six teams. He took Mike Martin and Chris Beeler with back-to-back picks in the first and second rounds. They both showed up on the big stage last night, as Martin had a game-high 23 points and added five assists, while Beeler had 19 points and 10 rebounds. Beeler also had the responsibility of guarding league co-MVP Richard Smith. He helped hold Smith to a season-low 14 points on 5-12 shooting form the field.

“MVP of the game…best game he’s played in two seasons with me,” Nelson said about Beeler after the win.

Nelson, the league coordinator in Mount Laurel, will not go to work on getting the winter season up and running. When the league tips off in a few weeks, he’ll come in as a defending champion for the first time. Not a bad way to start a new decade.