The 10 Greatest NBA Coaches of All Time

Critical Consensus: Ranking the Greatest NBA Coaches

This table ranks the greatest NBA coaches based on their achievements and accolades. Comparatively, it indicates the ranking made by NBA.com and that which is based on clutch points. 

SportsBoom MetaScale: Ranking the Greatest Coaches

MetaScale Calculation

• Championships (40%): Weighted based on total titles.
• Win Percentage (30%): Regular season and playoffs combined.
• Longevity (20%): Total seasons and games coached.
• Coach of the Year Awards (10%): Recognition as top coach.

The following is MetaScale-oriented ranking guided by varying metrics: championships, win percentage, longevity, and Coach of the Year awards

This overview illuminates the careers of the NBA’s greatest coaches. It highlights their coaching strategies and philosophies, championship success, and landmark legacies, underscoring their impact on the game.

1. Phil Jackson

Phil Jackson is the greatest coach to have graced the NBA. In his 20 seasons in the league, Phil won a record 11 NBA championships as a coach. He has three three-peat to his name: two with Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls, from 1991 to 1993 and from 1996 to 1998.  The third one is with the dominant duo of Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant from 2000 to 2002. 

Jackson finished his career after a further back-to-back titles with the Lakers. He is the most winning head coach in NBA history, with a regular-season winning percentage at .704 and has 1,155 wins in his career.

Phil Jackson’s teams were perennial NBA contenders, and deservedly so. Some of that was due to the talent on the roster, but plenty was down to Jackson’s basketball philosophy, psychological prowess and ability to connect with superstar players.

He contained egos such as Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Kobe Bryant, and Shaquille O'Neal, while also dealing with eccentric personalities like Dennis Rodman and Metta World Peace.

3. Gregg Popovich

No name is synonymous with the word culture than Gregg Popovich. He has won five NBA titles and is a three-time Coach of the Year. He has been the San Antonio Spurs head coach since 1996 and had led the Spurs to 22 consecutive playoff appearances. Popovich was the league's most consistent coach.

His insistence on the importance of the collective, working for the team over individual accolades, is what has made the Spurs have such sustained success. His influence in the NBA is reflected by the fact that eleven of his former assistants have gone on to be head coaches. 

After Popovich's success with dominant big men David Robinson and Tim Duncan, fans are in anticipation of what Popovich can accomplish with the generational talent of Victor Wembanyama who’s the league’s latest sensation. 

4.Pat Riley 

The true style icon among coaches, Riley was a celebrity and culture icon. He has an image befitting the Showtime Los Angeles Lakers, whom he led to four NBA Championships in the 1980’s.

In the 1990s, he took control of the New York Knicks and guided them to an NBA Finals appearance, before losing to the Houston Rockets. He won his last title as coach, when with the Miami Heat in 2006.

Riley is a brilliant basketball mind whose greatest strength is his ability to adapt. He ran a run-and-gun style with the Showtime Lakers team that included Magic and Kareem. He played bully-ball with the Knicks and Ewing, then perfected the half-court offense in Miami, with superstar duo Dwayne Wade and Shaquille O’Neal.

5. Steve Kerr

Steve Kerr//Getty Images

A student of both Phil Jackson and Gregg Popovich, Steve Kerr has won four NBA titles. Kerr led the Warriors dynasty to five-straight NBA Finals appearances. Had it not been for heroic performances by LeBron James in 2016 and injuries to Kevin Durant and Klay Thompson in 2019, he would have had more titles. 

Kerr emphasis is on ball movement. His use of Draymond Green as a playmaker on offence and a center on defense, has made the Warriors beautiful to watch as well as effective.

Kerr currently has the third-highest, regular-season winning percentage, among coaches who have coached at least 700 games, just trailing behind Jackson and Jones.

Although long gone, Kerr built arguably the greatest team in NBA history with a core of Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green and Kevin Durant. The franchise player, Curry, is still around though. With proper personnel around him, Kerr and the team appear to be capable of winning at least one more championship.

6. K.C. Jones

Jones' coaching career wasn't as long as the others on this list, but he made the most of his time with the Celtics. He won two NBA titles and took them to five Eastern Conference Finals. 

He has the second-best winning percentage among coaches with over 700 games.

Jones played for the Auerbach Celtic’s in the 1960s and was a key defensive cog. This in addition to his humility, which was essential to his philosophy, as he thrived as a true players’ coach.

7. Larry Brown

Larry Brown, a legendary personality in the NBA is celebrated for proving to be an impeccable coach who taught the game, earning him recognition as the only coach who ever won both an NBA championship and an NCCA. 

During his tenure with the Philadephia 76ers, he led the team to the NBA finals in 2001, whike in 2004, he won the NBA title with the Detroit Pistons, which elevated his crown above Phil Jackson’s. 

His achievements trail his legacy, which encompasses accolades of Multiple Coach of the Year awards and becoming an inductee in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.

8. Chuck Daly

Although unheralded than other names on this list, one can’t deny that Chuck’s methods worked effectively. His hard-nosed, bully-ball style yielded two back-to-back NBA titles in 1989 and 1990.

Daly was a masterful motivator, who cared less whether people would be upset, and clearly encouraged his team’s notorious physical approach.

In spite of the hate that Daly’s Detroit “Bad Boys” Pistons team generated, he left an inerasable imprint on the defensive aspect of the game. This element remains a strong point of reference even to this day.

9. Jerry Sloan

Sloan is best known for his tenure as the coach of the Utah Jazz, whom he led to 15 consecutive playoff appearances from 1989 to 2003. This was an extraordinary feat, considering the Jazz are a small-market franchise.

Notwithstanding his feisty character and strife nature, Sloan maximized the talent at his disposal. This was majorly because he was armed with John Stockton and Karl Malone, who were one of the most dynamic duos in the NBA. 

Sloan compiled 1,221 wins and a .603 winning percentage and is one of two coaches to win 1,000 games with one franchise.

Sloan’s phenomenal career would, however, lack the achievement of championships, largely due to the presence of Michael Jordan, whose Chicago Bulls handed him a pair of NBA Finals losses.

10. Lenny Wilkens

Lenny Wilkens coached in the NBA for 35 seasons, playing almost 2500 games. He garnered 1,332 wins in his career and made the playoffs 20 times, an astonishing feat considering that he never had the pleasure of coaching a Hall-of-Fame player.

He was a great motivator, who rallied his teams through adversity. Wilkens led the Seattle Supersonics to their first and only NBA title in 1979. They defeated the Washington Bullets, avenging their loss to the same opponents in the Finals, 12 months prior.

Wilkens remained in Seattle for several years, before recording stints with Cleveland, Atlanta, Toronto and New York, winning NBA Coach of the Year in 1994.