In sport, we tend to value the greatest players to the extreme. And that’s normal. They are the ones we see playing, getting the job done, making the big plays in the important moments. But we must not forget the contribution of the strategists behind all this, namely the coaches.
On Tuesday evening, the NBA made a point of honoring the best people to have held this position in the league, by publishing a list of the 15 most illustrious coaches of the association.
Not all names mean something to everyone, especially when they are older coaches, but we can still sum it all up with a few numbers.
First, the first curiosity of this list: two coaches, Don Nelson and Jerry Sloan, did not win a championship during their career. How are they among the best, then? Probably a matter of longevity. Nelson spent 31 seasons behind the bench, and Sloan, 26.
Then the names that jump out at you: Phil Jackson, Red Auerbach, Gregg Popovich, Pat Riley. If there was a Mount Rushmore of NBA coaches, they are the ones who should logically be there, they who have accumulated a total of 30 championships between them four.
There are also coaches who have marked the history of the NBA by, once again, their longevity, without necessarily winning titles in spades: Lenny Wilkens, Larry Brown, Red Holzman, KC Jones and Jack Ramsay.
Then, those who are known to the general public today, since they are still active coaches: Doc Rivers (Celtics in 2008) and Erik Spoelstra (Heat in 2012 and 2013). And even though he’s only been head coach since 2015, Steve Kerr deserves his place for having steered the Warriors dynasty through the end of the decade.
