The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a major professional basketball league in North America. It was founded in 1946 as the Basketball Association of America (BAA). The league adopted its current name at the start of the 1949–50 season when it merged with the National Basketball League (NBL). The league consists of 30 teams, of which 29 are located in the United States and one in Canada. In the NBA, a head coach is the highest ranking coach of a coaching staff. They typically hold a more public profile and are paid more than the assistant coaches.
Former Los Angeles Lakers head coach Phil Jackson won eleven NBA championships, the most in NBA history. He won six titles with the Chicago Bulls and five titles with the Lakers, and is the only coach who has won multiple championships with more than one team. Red Auerbach won nine championships with the Boston Celtics and won 8 consecutive titles from 1959 to 1966. John Kundla, Pat Riley, and current San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich have each won five championships. Kundla won all of his titles with the Lakers, and Popovich has won all of his titles with the Spurs, while Riley won four titles with the Lakers and one with the Miami Heat. Current Miami Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra has won two titles with the Heat. Los Angeles Clippers head coach Doc Rivers, Dallas Mavericks head coach Rick Carlisle, Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr, and Cleveland Cavaliers head coach Tyronn Lue are the only other active coaches who have won a championship, Rivers having won while with the Boston Celtics in 2008.
Among championship head coaches, thirteen of them (Auerbach, Larry Brown, Carlisle, Bill Fitch, Tom Heinsohn, Red Holzman, Jackson, Dick Motta, Popovich, Riley, Rivers, Bill Sharman, Lenny Wilkens) have all won Coach of the Year Award and 11 of them (Auerbach, Brown, Chuck Daly, Alex Hannum, Holzman, Jackson, Kundla, Jack Ramsay, Riley, Sharman, Wilkens) have been inducted to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as a coach. Several more have been enshrined as players or contributors. Fourteen of the head coaches also won championships as players, with both Buddy Jeannette and Bill Russell having won their only manager titles as player-coach. Two of them, Riley and Lue, are along with Paul Westhead the only three coaches who led teams to titles having only arrived in mid-season.
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Note: Statistics are correct through the end of the 2015–16 season.