The NBA coach's Presidential Hill is hardly an argument. Honorable John Kundera, who led the Minneapolis Lakers to five championships during his first six seasons as coach in 1948-54, should definitely be included in the list of the 15 greatest coaches in league history. Phil Jackson and Gregg Popovich are the top coaches you'll find in any major sport.
Popovich won his 1336th career regular season win against the Utah Jazz on Friday, outpacing old Nelson Sr., so it's time for us to check out that the 73-year-old Spurs coach is one of the greatest coaches.
You can think of Auerbach, Riley or Jackson as the best players, but none of them are like Popovich in San Antonio. His views are the most comprehensive of these four in terms of talent assessment, player development, cultural stability, motivation, internal game adjustments, and overall adaptability.
Cardinal Auerbach
Teams: Washington Congress (1946–49), Tri-Cities Blackhawks (1949–50), Boston Celtics (1950–66)
Regular season wins: 938 (12th)
Regular season wins: 662 (11th)
Playoff wins: 99 (Game 5)
Playoff wins: 589 wins (16 wins)
Overall Winners: 10 (2nd)
NBA Championships: 9 times (2nd)
Hall of Fame: 9 (Bill Russell, Bob Cush, John Havlicek, Tom Heinson, Sam Jones, Bill Charmaine, Frank Ramsey, Ed Macaulay, KC Jones)
Auerbach created his own luck. In his heyday, when he coached nine Hall of Fame players, Auerbach traded two of them and signed five of them, including Bill Russell, who was inextricably linked to his legend. They have won 9 titles in their 10 years together, a feat that no player or coach can replicate.
In a league where there were fewer than 10 teams at the time, it was impressive to win so consistently, and there was debate and debate about it. We can all recognize that it was a different era, but the gap between Auerbach's success and his peers was too great to ignore.
In the seventh game of your coaching career, you won't unexpectedly end the game with an 8-0 finish, even if the greatest winner in team sport history is at the center of your team.
Before Russell came to Boston, Auerbach had been in charge for more than a decade, shooting a record of 384 wins and 263 losses in the regular season. 594 wins), 19 wins and 28 losses (404 wins) in the playoffs. In 1949, he led the Washington Capitol, which had no superstars, to a dynasty-style Minneapolis Lakers in Game 6 of the Finals.
Auerbach's other seven championships during his tenure as executive may not count as his coaching career, but they have enhanced his ability to identify and manage talent. After Russell retired, Auerbach twice rebuilt the Celtic dynasty, gathering more Hall of Famers around Dave Cowens in the 1970s and Larry Bird in the 1980s.
No other non-player has enjoyed more success than he has, but the fact that Russell won two more championship rings as a player-coach after Auerbach retired makes you rethink how much of that credit belongs to Red.
Pat Riley
Teams: Los Angeles Lakers (1981–90), New York Knicks (1991–95), Miami Heat (1995–2003, 2006–08)
Regular season wins: 1210 (Game 5)
Regular Season Wins: 636 (14)
Playoff wins: 171 (2)
Playoff wins: .606 (12th)
Overall: 9 (3rd place)
Overall Winners: 5 (3)
Hall of Fame: 8 (Karim Abdul Abdul Abdal, Magic Johnson, Shaquille O'Neal, Patrick Ewing, Dwyane Wade, James Worthy, Alonzo Morningn, Jamal Wilkes)
In 11 games in the 1981-82 season, Riley took over a Lakers team that won a championship two years earlier and led them to another championship. His Showtime Lakers reached the Finals seven times and won titles four times until he withdrew in 1990 after being eliminated in the second round.
In the final season before Magic Johnson's first retirement, head coach Mike Dunllivi took over the Lakers and led them back to the 1991 Finals.
Riley joined the Knicks in 1991 and canceled the show time in favor of a bully ball. Three of his four seasons in New York ended in a seventh loss — the 1992 Eastern Conference Semifinals against Michael Jordan's Bulls, the 1994 Finals against Hakim Olajuwon's Rockets, and the 1995 playoffs second round against Reggie Miller's Pacers.
In 1995, the Heat selected New York in the first round of the draft, making Riley the team's head coach and team president. His first 8 seasons in Miami were mixed. In 1997, the Heat, starring Alonzo Morning and Tim Hardaway, won 61 in the Eastern Conference Finals, but Riley again lost to Jordan's Bulls.
Miami lost four of Riley's first six seasons at the helm, two cleaners, lost to the Knicks as no. 2 seed in 1998 and another as top seed before failing to qualify for the playoffs in 1999-2002 and 2003.
In 2003, Riley retired from the 25-win Heat, entered the team management full-time, and selected Wade. A year later, he traded Shaquille O'Neal and played 21 side games in 2005-06, eliminating Stan Van Gundy, who led the Miami Heat to game seven of the 2005 Eastern Conference Finals.
Riley won the team's first championship in his first year in charge of the Heat. A year later, they were swept in the first round and won 15 games until the end of the 2007-08 season when he resigned again.
Miami as panel chair, Riley has been transforming into an NBA premier franchise, attracting James and Wade Bosh to join a team, four consecutive finalists from 2011-14 and assembling the roster for two or three seasons in the East.
As he has done in Los Angeles and New York, Riley has proven in Miami that he is capable of succeeding in any style of play in any era. However, as the greatest coach in NBA history, his situation took a hit when you considered he was tired of welcoming the Lakers and left the Knicks to return to Miami to fight for the championship.
In his first season (twice) with the Lakers, Knicks and Heat, Riley's new team averaged 4.5 wins in the regular season. In the first year since his departure, both teams have won an average of 8 games higher than him.
When his team didn't have two of the greatest 30 players of all time — Johnson and Abdul-Abdul-Wade and O'Neal — Riley played a playoff record of 57 wins and 58 losses and missed the playoffs twice. No NBA coach can overcome the lack of talent alone, but you'd think the greatest coach of all time can win more than 50 percent.
Phil Jackson
Teams: Chicago Bulls (1989–98), Los Angeles Lakers (1999–2004, 2005–11)
Regular season wins: 1155 (7th)
Regular season win rate: .704 (1st)
Playoff wins: 229 (1st)
Playoff wins: 688 wins (3)
Overall: 13th place (1st place)
Overall winners: 11 (1st)
Hall of Fame: 6 (Michael Jordan, Shaquille O'Neal, Kobe Bryant, Scotty Pippen, Paul Gasol, Dennis Rodman)
Jackson has the highest regular-season win rate, 58 more playoff wins than any other coach in league history, and the most championships in his name. That alone was enough to make him the best coach of all time.
Jackson won 6 championships alongside Michael Jordan, the greatest player in basketball history, and Scotty Pippen, the top 25 player of all time. The Zen master has won three championships alongside Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant, two of the 10 best players of all time.
No one would say they would have won all nine games without Jackson, but they would have won a lot, which complicates the discussion about Jackson's actual coaching ability.
Winning three consecutive championships on two different teams is an incredible feat, regardless of your impact on Jackson. He did a lot of self-massage in Chicago and Los Angeles.
For all his successes, Jackson's highest accomplishment as a coach may be leading the Bulls to a 55-win and seventh game in the Eastern Conference semifinals, his only full season without Jordan in Chicago. Or without O'Neal, lead Bryant to back-to-back championships.
Both teams have star-studded frontcourts, including future Hall of Famer Paul Gasol, but they're not big names like Jordan or Shaq or Kobe Bryant.
In two seasons without O'Neal or Gasol and Bryant together, Jackson played an 87-77 record, twice exiting the first round of the playoffs. However, he coached for 20 seasons, 13 of which reached the Finals and 11 championship rings. It's hard to ask the coach for more.
Jackson's tenure as Knicks president has proven his coaching prowess. He didn't hold that role in New York, but his decision raised questions about his ability to identify genius and adapt to a new era of basketball.
He insisted his coach used a triangle offense, and he had success in Chicago and Los Angeles, but the results were disastrous. Jackson's lineup was even worse. The primary motivator is not a major evaluator.
Popovich
Team: San Antonio Spurs (1997–2022)
Regular season record: 1,336 wins (1st place)
Regular season win percentage: 659 (12th)
Playoff wins: 170 (3rd)
Playoff wins: 599 (13th)
Overall: 6 (4)
Hall of Fame players: 5 (Tim Duncan, David Robinson, Kawhi Leonard, Tony Parker, Manu Ginobili)
In 1996, as spurs general manager, Popovich sacked Bob Hill, self-styled coach, and in 1997 led the team directly to a top pick. He chose Tim Duncan and achieved the equivalent of 50 wins in 20 consecutive seasons and a record 22 consecutive playoff appearances.
Popovich won his first championship in 1999 and his fifth in 2014. Popovich picked Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker before handing over GM's day-to-day work to Buford in 2002. Popovich went on to serve as president of basketball operations and oversaw the selection of Kowy Leonard in 2011.
Duncan took it for granted, but Popovich selected Leonard with the 15th pick, Parker with the 28th pick and Ginobili with the 57th pick. He groomed them all as Hall of Famers, though no one considered them stars.
Unable to attract big-name free agents to San Antonio, Popovich instead raised the salary cap for most of the players he coached. Duncan and David Robinson were his twin towers, Stephen Jackson was his third choice, and he won a championship.
He beat the Phoenix Suns in less than 7 seconds to win his third and fourth championship rings. He won his fifth victory against the two-time defending champion Heat, commanding a symphonic offense and playing the prettiest basketball ever.
There are hardly any flaws on Popovich's résumé. He identifies talents, develops them, and maximizes them to compete against any style of competition. He built a culture of respect and responsibility that put the San Antonio Spurs at the center of the NBA for 20 years.
When it comes to building a dynasty, Auerbach is his only opponent, and we should all agree that in the free agent era, it was a much more difficult task for Popovich.
Fisher's miracle had 0.4 seconds left in the fifth game of the 2004 Western Conference Semifinals, Nowitzki forced overtime in the seventh game of the 2006 semifinals and Ray Allen's corner splashed in the 2013 Finals in game 6 Popovich cost three shooting championships.
Popovich almost always pushed his team to the edge of a cliff when he had a contender. Perhaps the greatest example is the 2017 Western Conference Finals, when his 61-win Spurs led the Golden State Warriors by 21 points in the middle of the third quarter of the first game. Leonard sprained his ankle and the series was over.
We never saw Popovich's tip, which is a shame because that was his best chance to prove his Spurs' ability without Duncan. The first two rounds of 2017 were popovich's only series to win without Duncan.
When Duncan was injured in 2000, he lost in the first round, Duncan lost twice since he retired, and the Spurs hadn't made the playoffs for the past two seasons. Leonard's injury has ruined his relationship with the team, and his 2018 trade request dashed almost any chance Popovich could rebuild the team before retiring.
We've never seen Auerbach coach the Celtics of the post-Russell era, Riley coach the Lakers of the post-Magic era, and Jackson coach the bulls of the post-Jordan era. Before the road was bumpy, they left. Popovich stayed, and he enjoyed Murray's development like chasing the championship.
He loves the job more than the glory of mastering it, which is a great example for Popovich, who is coaching the Goats.
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