Winning in the NBA is hard. Winning over an extended period of time is much, much harder. That’s why it’s so difficult for coaches to keep their job, and why even good leaders only win big for a few years at a time. Even so, there are some exceptions to that rule.
There are a couple of unique coaches throughout NBA history who have managed to win year after year. They all achieved that in different ways, with different franchises, in different time periods, and with different players.
While no coach currently has more wins than Gregg Popovich, anyone who put together more than 1,00 victories throughout the course of their career is in a small and elite club. Those who went beyond that are truly special.
1. Gregg Popovich (1,388 Wins)
There have been many great coaches throughout NBA history, but it’s hard to match what Gregg Popovich has achieved during his time with the Spurs. He doesn’t just have the most wins of all-time, he did it by putting together one of the league’s best dynasties.
Though there have been some road bumps as of late, Popovich is best known for heading the dominant Spurs team that won five rings throughout the 2000’s and early 2010’s. They also strung together an incredible 18 straight 50-win seasons.
That mark is more than enough to put Popovich among the winningest coaches of all time, but the fact that he’s still coaching at a high level is why he has more wins than anyone else. He also has quite a few more years left in him, which means that number will only go up with time.
2. Don Nelson (1,335 Wins)
Popovich is the current all-time wins leader, but he only recently passed Don Nelson for that title. That’s because Nelson put together many great seasons with five different teams.
He started his career with the Milwaukee Bucks, who he led to seven straight 50-win seasons. He did that by employing “Nellie Ball,” where he would put a small forward at point or keep the opposing center at midcourt to neutralize the other team’s defense.
Such moves worked quite well, allowing Nelson to get more than 500 wins during his time with the Bucks. After that stint, he went to the Warriors where he fielded another postseason team and earned his third coach of the year award.
He also put together more than 300 wins as the head coach of the Dallas Mavericks, and saw one Finals appearance. While Nelson never won a ring during his time in the NBA, he’s easily one of the best coaches to fall short of that goal.
3. Lenny Wilkens (1,332)
Not all great players make great coaches. In fact, many winning coaches only saw moderate success during their athletic career. That’s not true of Lenny Wilkens, who is one of the only athletes to make the hall of fame as both a player and a coach.
After dominating the game while on the court, he continued to thrive while off it. Wilkens began his coaching career as a player-coach with the Sonics in 1969. That then laid the foundation for his post-playing career when he retired in 1975.
Wilkens then took over as full-time coach in 1977, when he rejoined the Sonics. As Seattle’s coach, he went to back-to-back Finals in 1978 and 1979. He lost the first and won the second, giving the team their only championship in franchise history.
From there, Wilkens amassed plenty of wins with the Cavaliers, Hawks, Raptors, and Knicks. He coached for 28 seasons, giving him ample time to amass wins and become one of the most prolific coaches of all time.
4. Jerry Sloan (1,221 Wins)
A lot of the coaches on this list managed to earn their wins with a wide number of different teams. Jerry Sloan, however, did almost all of his winning with one. After three relatively lackluster seasons as the Bulls head coach, he took over the Utah Jazz in 1988.
That would be the start of one of the longest coaching runs with a single team in NBA history. Sloan stayed with Utah for the next 23 years, putting together many incredible seasons during that time.
Not only did he lead the John Stockton/Karl Malone teams that routinely challenged Jordan’s Bulls during the 90’s, but he also headed the strong 2000’s Jazz who went all the way to Western Conference Finals in 2006.
A fiery personality with a strong mind for the game, Sloan managed many superstars and created a winning culture. The Jazz made the playoffs twenty times under him, which is why he has so many wins and how he stuck around for so long.
5. Pat Riley (1,210 Wins)
Though now known more for his impressive off-court work as an executive, Pat Riley has seen success at all levels of the game. He was a great player, smart administrator, and also an incredible coach. So incredible, in fact, he led one of the greatest teams of all time.
Riley coached three different teams while on the sidelines, but by far the biggest was the Showtime Lakers in the 1980’s. Under his guide, Los Angeles won four rings from 1982 to 1988 and had several strong playoff pushes as well.
He saw similar success with the Knicks, stringing together multiple successful years, and with the Heat. While Riley didn’t win in New York, he did get another one in 2006 with Miami. That cemented him as one of the greats and rapidly expanded his win total.
6. George Karl (1,175 Wins)
George Karl is one of the longest tenured coaches in NBA history, reaching an incredible 1,175 Wins during his nearly three-decade-long career. During that time he coached six different teams, leading many of them to the playoff multiple times.
While Karl never earned a ring, he had a ton of success in a range of situations. During his first NBA coaching stint (1984 to 1988) he led both the Cleveland Cavaliers and Golden State Warriors to the playoffs. However, after a rough exit he moved to the CBA.
Karl then came back to coach the Sonics in 1992, where he led them on multiple playoff runs including a Western Conference Finals berth in 1993. He then followed up that with a range of playoff runs for Seattle, as well as the Milwaukee Bucks and Denver Nuggets.
Though his final stint with the Kings did not go as well, it still gave him the final few wins he needed to be in the all-time conversation. Few coaches have been able to stay as relevant for as long as Karl did.
7. Phil Jackson (1,155 Wins)
Phil Jackson is one of the most unique coaches in NBA history due to the fact that, not only did he win, but he did it without ever having down time. He wasn’t just a regular season winner either. He has the most championships of any coach in NBA history.
That started during his first job with the Bulls, where he teamed up with Michael Jordan during the late 80’s and dominated the 90’s. The pair put together six rings and created perhaps the most consistent dynasty the league has ever seen.
After Jordan retired, Jackson then moved onto the Lakers with Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant. That duo, backed up by Jackson’s patented “triangle offense” created another dynasty. They trio won three rings and were almost unstoppable.
Jackson then earned his final rings in Los Angeles during the 2009 and 2010 seasons. With more than two decades of consistent playoff appearances and Finals wins under his belt, it’s easy to see why he won so much during his career.
8. Doc Rivers (1,113 Wins)
Though his postseason success is far below some of the other coaches on this list, Doc Rivers has built himself an impressive resume by leading a series of different franchises on deep playoff runs multiple times during his extended career.
Rivers first took over the Magic in 1998, where he turned the team into a real threat and earned a Coach of the Year Award. While his time in Orlando was short-lived, it did get him the head coaching job of the Boston Celtics a few years later.
There, Rivers thrived. He put together a series of winning seasons, and eventually assembled “The Big Three” of Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, and Ray Allen to push Boston over the edge and earned him the first (and only ring) of his career.
However, the winning didn’t stop there. In order to make the all-time list, Rivers also saw a lot of sustained success with the Lob City Clippers during the 2010’s, as well as with the 76ers from 2020 to 2023.
While those campaigns didn’t end in rings, they did end in a lot of postseason appearances. That type of winning just doesn’t happen very often, especially in the NBA. Rivers hopes to add to it with his new stint with the Milwaukee Bucks.
9. Larry Brown (1,098 Wins)
When it comes to the NBA coaches with the most wins, a lot of them find themselves in favorable positions or with already strong teams. That was rarely the case with Larry Brown, who put together almost all of his 1000+ wins by turning around struggling squads.
The longtime coach headed nine different franchises during his extremely long career, and he saw success with almost all of them. His best run, however, occurred with the Detroit Pistons between 2003 and 2005.
After several deep playoff runs with the Indiana Pacers and Philadelphia 76ers, Brown got over the hump when hired by Detroit in 2003. He immediately took home his first ring that season, cementing him among the greatest coaches of all time.
He then went to several other teams, amassing more and more wins until reaching his final tally with the Charlotte Bobcats at the end of his career. While he didn’t go out as strong as he started, Brown still saw continued success that is extremely hard to achieve in the NBA.
10. Rick Adelman (1,042 Wins)
While last on this list, Rick Adelman still put together over 1,000 wins with five different teams during his extremely successful 25 year career. He started off strong when he took over the Portland Trailblazers in 1989 and immediately led them to the playoffs.
He then turned that first postseason appearance into immediate triumph. The Trailblazers made two Finals appearances in 1990 and 1992, and reached the Western Conference Finals in 1991.
After that run ended, Adelman moved onto the Warriors. He only lasted two years in Golden State before taking a year off and getting hired by the Kings in 1998. There, he once again saw the same success he achieved in Portland and turned Sacramento into one of the league’s best.
Under Adelman they made several deep playoff runs and threatened the Lakers across multiple seasons. While the Kings came up short a few times, Adelman did a great job until Sacramento decided not to renew his contract in 2006.
From there he went onto the Rockets, who he also took to the playoffs, and then the Timberwolves. While he retired without a ring, those successful deep postseason runs were good enough to put him amongst the winningest coaches in NBA history.
Conclusion
The above coaches were all extremely talented in one way or another, and they each knew how to win games. Taking a team to the postseason is a tough task, and doing it for multiple years (or even decades) is something only a few have ever been able to achieve.
Though not all of them took home a ring, they each left their mark on the game in one way or another. All of the winningest coaches in NBA history did something unique, which then paved the way for those that came after them.
Coaching continues to be an important aspect of any successful team. While it may not have the spotlight like it once did, no winning franchise can continually make the playoffs or bring home rings without a strong coach at the helm.
