List Of NBA Championship Head Coaches
The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a major professional basketball league in North America. It was founded in 1946 as the Basketball Association of America (BAA). The league adopted its current name at the start of the 1949–50 season when it merged with the National Basketball League (NBL). The league consists of 30 teams, of which 29 are located in the United States and one in Canada. In the NBA, a head coach is the highest ranking coach of a coaching staff. They typically hold a more public profile and are paid more than the assistant coaches.
Former Los Angeles Lakers head coach, Phil Jackson, won 11 NBA championships, the most in NBA history. He is the only coach who has won multiple championships with multiple teams. He won 6 titles with the Chicago Bulls and 5 titles with the Lakers. Red Auerbach won 9 championships with the Boston Celtics. He won his first title in 1957 before winning 8 consecutive titles from 1959 to 1966. John Kundla and Pat Riley each won 5 championships. Kundla won all of his titles with the Lakers, while Riley won 4 titles with the Lakers and 1 with the Miami Heat. Current San Antonio Spurs head coach, Popovich, is the only other coach who has won more than 2 championships; he won 4 titles with the Spurs. Boston Celtics head coach, Doc Rivers and Dallas Mavericks head coach, Rick Carlisle are the only other active coaches who have won a championship.
Among championship head coaches, 13 of them (Auerbach, Larry Brown, Carlisle, Bill Fitch, Tom Heinsohn, Red Holzman, Jackson, Dick Motta, Popovich, Riley, Rivers, Bill Sharman, Lenny Wilkens) have all won Coach of the Year Award and 11 of them (Auerbach, Brown, Chuck Daly, Alex Hannum, Holzman, Jackson, Kundla, Jack Ramsay, Riley, Sharman, Wilkens) have been inducted to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as a coach. Several more have been enshrined as players or contributors.
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