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The 20 Greatest NBA Coaches Poll
1. Red Auerbach
2. Phil Jackson
3. Pat Riley
4. Greg Popovich
5. Larry Brown
6. Chuck Daly
7. Red Holzman
8. John Kundla
9. Alex Hannum


Lenny WIlkens 32 years (8 with Seattle) / 1x Coach of the Year / 1 championship (Seattle)
Career NBA 2487 1332 1155 .536

Don Nelson 29 years (11 with Milwaukee) / 3x Coach of the Year / no championships
Career NBA 2316 1309 1007 .565

Jerry Sloan 23 years (20 with Utah) / no championships
Career NBA 1888 1137 751 .602

Jack Ramsay 21 Years (10 with Portland) / 1 championship (Portland)
Career NBA 1647 864 783 .525

Rick Adelman 18 years (8 with Sacramento) / no championships
Career NBA 1397 860 537 .616

Doug Moe 15 years (10 with Denver) / 1x Coach of the Year
Career NBA 1157 628 529 .543

Slick Leonard 14 years (12 with Indiana)/ 3 championships (Indiana ABA)
Career TOT 1107 573 534 .518

Rudy Tomjanovich 13 years (12 with Houston)/ 2 championships (Houston)
Career NBA 943 527 416 .559

K.C. Jones 11 years (5 with Boston) / 2 championships (Boston)
Career TOT 858 552 306 .643

Bill Sharman 10 years (5 with LA Lakers) / 2x Coach of the Year (1 ABA) / 2 championships (1 Utah ABA, 1 LA Lakers)
Career TOT 819 466 353 .569


Anyone else that people feel strongly enough about to vote for as their choice for one of the greatest coaches of all time?

I will vote for Bill Sharman. On the downside, he only coached 10 years. On the upside, his players speak well of him and he won titles in both the ABA and the NBA. . . .

Longevity . . . Nelson, Wilkens, or Sloan . . . anyone want to do a comparisom of the three?

K.C. Jones has to go here.

Bill Sharman

Bill Sharman but its close with K.C. Jones, COY brakes the tie.

Dang, where did all the Sloan and Nelson fans go?

I was surprised by KC's stellar stats too. I remember him being competent but never showy as a coach for both the Wiz and the Celtics . . . but more King Log than King Stork. He basically picked his starting lineup and ran it long minutes unless there were injuries; and had enough talent to carry him a long way.

penbeast0 wrote:Dang, where did all the Sloan and Nelson fans go?

I was surprised by KC's stellar stats too. I remember him being competent but never showy as a coach for both the Wiz and the Celtics . . . but more King Log than King Stork. He basically picked his starting lineup and ran it long minutes unless there were injuries; and had enough talent to carry him a long way.

But that could be considered good coaching. Remember, coaching is about getting your TEAM to win. If it means running your stars down, then you do it. They are paid to get wins.

Generally speaking running your stars down, especially in today's era is not a good strategy, but that did work for those Celtics teams. Having said that I still think a guy like Sloan deserves to go here. Forget that he hasn't won a championship yet. He's been to the finals, and had to face a team that was simply better than the one he was coaching. His offense hasn't changed much in 20 years of coaching, and it still works well. How many times have the Jazz missed the playoffs in the past 20 years?

Coaches today get fired all the time, and some teams have gone through 10 coaches in the time that Sloan has stayed in Utah.

Vote Sloan.

Vote: Bill Sharman

it's hard to argue against rings. I think between KC Jones and Bill Sharman, they'll take the 10 and 11 spots on this poll.

I'll go with KC Jones on this one since he had to compete against stacked Sixers and Lakers teams (though he did have an ultra-talented squad in his own right). Sharman won his ring in a perfect storm when the celtics lost Russell and KAJ/ABA stars had yet to take over.

Sharman's ABA ring was more impressive than his NBA ring since it was more competitive - relatively speaking, but nowhere near the pressure cooker that KC Jones was coaching in the mid 80's.

It's hard to argue against rings, but not so much against coach of the year awards.

Two words: Sam Mitchell

And in regards to Sloan, I know he's a good enough coach to win a championship. I just think that soo much relies on exterior factors. He's come close so many times, and there is really not much any coach can do to solidify their team as a champion. That is my argumetnt against rings. Rings are won by players not by coaches. Coaches implement systems, and have their player prepared for whatever games they are in. Sloans winning percentage over the course of his career is too much to overlook IMO. That to me shows consistency from his teams and his ability to win basketball games year in and year out.

I mean I can think of many coaches who have rings that are not even close to the caliber of coach that Sloan is. I respect KC Jones as a coach, but the only thing that seperates his rings from Sloan having none is fortune.

Oh definitely not sloan. Adelman or Nelson should be the top non-ringed coach. Sloan had 2 of the GOATs over a 15 year period to work with. The lockout '99 season when they lost to the Blazers 4-2 imo forever blemishes Sloan, Malone, and Stockton's reputations.

Given that sloan had Stockton/Malone to work with against Duncan/Robinson, Hakeem/Clyde, Payton/Kemp and couldn't sneak in a championship in the MJ-baseball years or post-MJ years really takes away my vote of confidence.

KC Jones took his core of good players in Bird/Parish/McHale and went toe to toe with Showtime, Dr. J/Moses, Houston's Twin Towers, and Nelson's run/gun Bucks and came away with 2 rings in 10 years is more impressive than 2 close calls in 15 tries against lesser competition from Sloan.