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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
10. Bill Sharman
11. Jerry Sloan
12. Don Nelson

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

Bill Fitch 25 years (9 with Cleveland) / 2x Coach of the Year / 1 championship (Boston)
Career NBA 2050 944 1106 .460

George Karl 21 years (7 with Seatlle) / no championshipos
Career NBA 1575 933 642 .592

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

Mike Fratello 16 years (7 with Atlanta) / No championships
Career NBA 1215 667 548 .549

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

Hubie Brown 15 years (5 with ATL/NYK) / 1 championship (Kentucky ABA)
Career TOT 1087 528 559 .486

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

Billy Cunningham 8 years (all in Philly) / 1 championship
Career NBA 650 454 196 .698

Bill Russell 8 years (5 in Seattle) / 2 championships (as player/coach in Boston)
Career NBA 631 341 290 .540

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

Wilkens has the longevity, Billy C has the win %, Slick Leonard has the most rings . . . I will go with Doug Moe but more than ready to change my mind on a minute's notice.

Am adding Mike Fratello and Bill Fitch to the list from a IM I got.

I've gotta back Ramsay here.

KC Jones?

Jack Ramsay

penbeast0 wrote:But, SB and Marc, do you really think they are the best coaches left? Is Lenny better than Don Nelson among the guys with 30+ years; did Ramsey do more with less than the likes of Nelson or even Doug Moe? How do they compare to the multiple ring coaches like Slick, KC, or Rudy?

Compare them to Flip Saunders and sure . . . I'll take any of them unless Flip gets the Wiz past the second round of the playoffs but that's not who they are being compared to.

From the previous thread - I don't know If Lenny is a better coach than Nelson, but at some point his longevity should put him in front of better coaches, who didn't stick around anywhere near as much.

Coaching in itself, is a very hard thing for anyone not on that team to judge. George Karl was seen as an amazing coach up until a few years back, most people now wouldn't let him touch this top 20 list with a 20 foot pole now (I'm not one of them). Someone like Gregg Popovich, who has always been seen as the best coach forever, looked downright horrible this year. I'm not saying he is horrible, but sometimes the right coaching move can lead to the wrong results.

Isiah Thomas looked like a fairly decent coach with the Pacers, yet looked absolutely unfit for coaching when he was with the Knicks. Everybody on the planet thought Doc Rivers was a downright horrible coach before last years playoffs - yet he significantly out coached one of the supposed greatest coaches of all time in the Finals.

The point being, that just because you or I think Lenny Wilkens (or anyone else for that matter) is not a very good coach should not carry as much weight as it would if we were voting for players. Coaching prowess is much harder (IMO) to ascertain.


A few other points -
1. Hubie Brown taking the Memphis Grizzlies to the playoffs in the Western Conference in back to back seasons has to be one of the greatest achievements for anybody anywhere. That team was not very different than the ones that

2. I know people think George Karl is horrible, but I think he should be added to the list at some point soon.

Having said that I'm going to vote for Lenny Wilkens.

pancakes3 wrote:KC Jones?

+1

2 championships in 11 years (reached finals 5 times). Career wins .643 (quite impressive too). Helped Bill Sharman with Lakers, including 33 wins run.

KC Jones 2
Jack Ramsey 2
Lenny Wilkens 1
Doug Moe 1

Rick Adelman has been an exceptional coach his entire career. Taking Portland to the finals twice, and nearly winning a championship with the Kings. He combines team defense with high octane offense and he is very poised on the sidelines.

Vote: Rick Adelman

I'm going with Adelman too. He would have 1 ring under his belt if it wasn't for the cheating from the refs.

I'd like to change my vote to Adelman, if possible.

Christ almighty, KC Jones is in a freefall!

i like adelman as much as the next guy. heck, i was the one who nominated adelman to be included on the list to begin with. however, how can we ignore the success of KC Jones establishing a Celtics renaissance? Ok, about 80% of that had to do with larry legend being unstoppable, but still - the celtics won 2 championships in one of the most competitive eras of basketball.

2 championships in a league of Isaiah Thomas, Showtime, Don Nelson's bucks, fun and gun nuggets, underrated jazz team... for rick adelman? "dr" Jack Ramsay? if kc jones did crappy commentary for ESPN for 2 seasons, would he have been voted into this list already?

Adelman 3
KC Jones 2
Ramsey 2
Moe 1

Vote Adelman.

He was also part of that 21 game win streak by the Rockets which was pretty impressive.

Rick Adelman

BTW it was a 22 game winning streak

Baller 24 wrote:Rick Adelman

BTW it was a 22 game winning streak

you owed me one from the wes unsled thread.