In celebration of the NBA’s 75th Anniversary season, a blue ribbon panel of current and former coaches selected by the league named the Top 15 coaches of all-time, including Warriors Head Coach Steve Kerr and former Dubs coach Don Nelson on the elite list.
In his eighth season coaching the Warriors, Head Coach Steve Kerr recently eclipsed his 400th career coaching victory in 576 regular season games, the fifth-fewest games to reach 400 coaching wins in NBA history. Kerr joins Alvin Attles (557) and Don Nelson (422) as the only Warriors coaches with at least 400 wins.
Kerr is an eight-time NBA Champion, three times as a coach and five times as a NBA player (1996-99, 2003). In his eight seasons with the Warriors, Kerr guided the Dubs to the NBA’s single-season wins record (73-9), five straight Western Conference Championships (2015-18) and three NBA Championship titles (2015, 2017, 2018).
Kerr, who was recently named the head coach to the USA Basketball Men’s National Team, is one of three coaches in Warriors history to earn NBA Coach of the Year Award, joining Alex Hannum (1963-64) and Don Nelson (1991-92).
Former Dubs coach and Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Famer Don Nelson was also named as one of the the Top 15 NBA coaches of all-time.
As of this Top 15 announcement, Nelson is the winningest coach in NBA history. He spent 11 seasons over two separate stints with the Warriors, and in his 31st and final season as an NBA head coach in 2010, Nelson surpassed Lenny Wilkins for the most coaching victories in NBA history. In fact, over 46 years in the NBA, Nelson participated in a total of 3,451 games in the capacity of a player, coach, general manager or consultant.
Nelson is one of only three coaches in league history to earn NBA Coach of the Year honors on three different occasions. He was a member of five NBA Championship teams as a player (1966, 1968, 1969, 1974 and 1976) and led the Warriors to the playoffs in four of his six seasons as a Head Coach, including in 2007 when the ‘We Believe’ Warriors became the first eight seed in NBA history to beat a No. 1 seed in a best-of-seven series.