Summary
Legendary coaches like Phil Jackson have secured their legacy with multiple NBA Championship wins.
Longevity, honors, and legacy are crucial factors in determining the best coaches in NBA history.
Consistency in coaching performance and success in the playoffs are key attributes found in the top-ranked coaches.
Another season of the National Basketball Association is coming to a close, as the Conference Finals decide who will face off in a seven-game series to take the crown in June - marking the 79th campaign of the competition.
Many have claimed the famous trophy, including 18 wins for the Boston Celtics, with the Los Angeles Lakers breathing heavily down their necks with 17 wins to their name - and although a long-awaited title still awaits for 10 current franchises, each of them harbour hopes of taking that glory at the start of every campaign.
In order to do that, a strong roster is paramount to success - but equally, a pioneering head coach is often the deciding factor in creating stretches of success, or even dynasties, as we've seen throughout the years. With that being said, GIVEMESPORT takes a look at the 10 best coaches in NBA history, who will have their names in the Hall of Fame for decades and centuries to come.
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Ranking factors
Many varying differences have been considered in this list, including...
Longevity - It's all well and good winning one title, but how many years can a coach perform at a consistent level?
Honours - The crowning factor between success and failure.
Legacy - How iconic each coach in the list was is a massive factor in becoming a household name.
10 Jerry Sloan
Jerry Sloan
The late Sloan was incredible as a player, being selected as an All-Star twice in the late sixties after a decade with the Chicago Bulls - but his managerial career was more successful.
Taking over the Illinois-based outfit in 1979, Sloan coached the Bulls for three years, making the Eastern Conference semi-finals in his second year - though he was fired after a sub-par showing in 1981/82.
Returning to the sideline at the Utah Jazz six years later, it was here that Sloan became a legend - embarking on an outstanding and remarkable 23-year campaign with the Salt Lake City team.
Although they never won the Championship, the Jazz reached the Finals twice in consecutive years, in 1997 and 1998 - finishing in the play-off region in all but three of his seasons as boss, which saw Sloan elected as a top-15 coach during the NBA's 75th anniversary.
9 Don Nelson
Don Nelson
Credit: © Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports
Nelson, like Sloan, was a superb player and even won five NBA Championships with the Celtics over a ten-year span.
And again, his coaching was equally brilliant, taking charge of the Milwaukee Bucks, Golden State Warriors, New York Knicks and Dallas Mavericks over a 34-year spell.
One of only three coaches to win the trophy three times, it's written his name in history - but a lack of a Championship sees Nelson fail to break into the upper echelons of the list.
8 Pat Riley
Pat Riley
Credit: © Jasen Vinlove-Imagn Images
Similar to Nelson, Riley is one of the famed trio to have won the trophy on three separate occasions.
What separates him from his counterpart is that Riley achieved the feat with three separate teams - taking the gong with the Lakers, Knicks and Miami Heat throughout the 1990's.
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Further to the point, he won the NBA Championship five times and was appointed the All-Star Game's head coach on nine occasions, before bringing a 27-year span as coach to an end in 2008.
7 Chuck Daly
Chuck Daly coaching the Detroit Pistons
We spoke about consistency in the earlier parts of the article - and Daly is the epitome of consistent performances when it comes to being a head coach.
A two-time Championship winner with the Detroit Pistons in their 'Bad Boys' area, Daly also won qualification to the play-offs in 12 of the final 13 years of his coaching career - including an outstanding win percentage of .768 and .720 in his two title-winning seasons - the former being followed up by a .882 record in the play-offs.
That record meant that the Pistons were only beaten a collective 49 times in 201 games across the two years - an incredible achievement.
6 Lenny Wilkens
Lenny Wilkens
Credit: © Joe Nicholson-USA TODAY Sports
Achievements mean a lot, but Wilkens' longevity means that he's instantly regarded as one of the best of all time.
Beginning his coaching career with the Seattle SuperSonics in 1969, he had a tenure on the sidelines that spanned over five decades - taking control of Portland Trail Blazers, the SuperSonics again, Cleveland Cavaliers, Atlanta Hawks, Toronto Raptors and the Knicks before retiring in 2005, at the age of 68.
Just one Championship to his name means that Wilkens may not have been the most prolific coach, but 2,487 regular league games trumps other coaches by a long stretcs - with only Don Nelson coming within 400 games of that outstanding total.
5 Larry Brown
Top 5 College Coaches That Transitioned to The NBA Larry Brown
Into the top half of the list, and coaches of underdogs may be overlooked for their relative achievements in the game - especially if their rosters haven't been able to lay a glove on the best teams on paper.
Not Larry Brown, though. The New Yorker is the only man to lead eight different franchises to the play-offs - showing his versatility across the board.
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But it was his 2004 Championship win over the Lakers that really got people talking. The Lakers had won three of the last four Championships available, with a dynasty that involved the likes of Kobe Bryant, Karl Malone, Shaquille O'Neal and Derek Fisher.
But that was no problem for Brown's men, taking a stunning series 4-1 despite being massive underdogs to shock the basketball world without breaking a sweat. That's the sign of a true head coach.
4 Steve Kerr
Steve Kerr Team USA
The most modern-day coach on the list, Kerr has a lot of statistics going his way to put him right near the very top of this list.
The main standout, however, is his relentless nature in the play-offs. Taking over the Warriors in 2014, he won three trophies in his first five years, as well as reaching the finals in the other two.
2016/17 was an exceptional highlight, seeing the Warriors lose just one of their 17 games in the playoffs - winning 12 games in a row for three 4–0 sweeps coming into the final. And it was only game four of the finals against the Cavs, where they lost for the first time that summer, before taking the crown in game five in Oakland. They've dropped off since, but Kerr's coaching record coming into the California side is certainly the marker for a number of new bosses.
3 Gregg Popovich
Becky Hammon and Gregg Popovich
You could make an extremely strong case for Popovich to be higher up this list - that goes to show the strength of the candidates above him.
Five NBA Championships as a head coach, spread across 17 years, is an outstanding tally, and he is the third member of the aforementioned trio to have won three NBA Coach of the Year awards.
But again, longevity counts for a lot. Taking charge of the San Antonio Spurs in 1996, he spent 29 years at the helm and holding a winning record in the first 22 of those.
He's won the most games as a coach in NBA history, taking 1,388 wins from 2,209 games to record a win percentage of .628 in the regular season - as well as 170 wins from 284 games in the play-offs, with a win percentage of .599. He's undoubtedly one of the greatest ever.
2 Red Auerbach
Bill Russell and Red Auerbach
Credit: © Dick Raphael-USA TODAY Sports
The first real dynasty in NBA history fell under Auerbach's control - where he led the Boston Celtics to esteemed glory.
He'd already had a taste of late-tournament basketball in the final season of the Basketball Association of America (BAA) before it became the NBA - and once he got his hand on the Championship in 1957, there was no looking back.
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A loss the following season to the St. Louis Hawks saw the Massachusetts outfit go again, and eight Championship wins on the trot saw them become the most feared outfit of an entire generation.
It was only in 1967 - after last losing in 1958 - that the entire competition saw a different winner at all, with Auerbach being the winning head coach as a constant over that near-decade. It's tough to beat those credentials, but there is one coach who takes the top spot.
1 Phil Jackson
Phil Jackson Lakers
Who else?
Jackson won six Championships as Bulls coach, each coming in successive three-peats from 1991-1993, before a two-year hiatus from the title saw him do the same again from 1996-1998 with Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Dennis Rodman and co delivering the accolades.
But he wasn't done there. Taking to the Western Conference, he led the Lakers to five trophies across ten years, including another three-peat from 2000-2002 - marking nine wins in just 12 years - before completing a double in 2009 and 2010.
That's the most Championships of any coach in history, and Jackson will be immortalised in league history for quite some time. Of the current coaches, Kerr is the closest with four wins, whilst Erik Spoelstra is on two - and only a huge dynasty from either coach will topple the Montana native in wrestling him away from the top spot.
All stats are fromBasketball Referenceand are correct as of 17/05/2025.