Basketball

List of NBA Coaches with Most Career Wins

Every NBA head coach ranked by total career regular season wins throughout their coaching career.

10 itemsUpdated Mar 20, 2026

Coaching longevity combined with sustained winning is extraordinarily rare. Gregg Popovich stands as the modern gold standard, winning five championships while building one of the longest winning records in league history. Don Nelson holds the all-time wins record but never captured a championship.

#	Name	Career wins	Championships	Seasons coached
1	Gregg Popovich San Antonio Spurs Popovich won 5 championships and over 1,344 regular season games, widely considered the greatest NBA head coach in history.	1,344	5	28
2	Don Nelson Milwaukee Bucks / Golden State Warriors / Dallas Mavericks Nelson retired with 1,335 regular season victories across 31 seasons, the most wins without a championship in NBA coaching history.	1,335	0	31
3	Lenny Wilkens Seattle SuperSonics / Atlanta Hawks / Toronto Raptors Wilkens was inducted into the Hall of Fame as both a player and coach, winning 1,332 games and one championship across 32 seasons.	1,332	1	32
4	Jerry Sloan Utah Jazz Sloan coached the Jazz for 23 consecutive seasons and amassed 1,221 career wins with John Stockton and Karl Malone.	1,221	0	26
5	Pat Riley Los Angeles Lakers / New York Knicks / Miami Heat Riley won 5 championships and 1,210 career games, defining the culture of winning across three different franchises.	1,210	5	24
6	George Karl Cleveland Cavaliers / Golden State Warriors / Seattle SuperSonics / Denver Nuggets Karl won 1,175 games and the 2013 Coach of the Year award but never captured an NBA championship.	1,175	0	27
7	Larry Brown Kansas City Kings / San Antonio Spurs / Indiana Pacers / Detroit Pistons Brown is the only coach to win both an NBA and NCAA championship, accumulating 1,098 wins across 27 seasons.	1,098	1	27
8	Doc Rivers Orlando Magic / Boston Celtics / Los Angeles Clippers / Philadelphia 76ers Rivers won one championship with the 2008 Celtics and surpassed 1,000 career wins while coaching multiple franchises.	1,100	1	25
9	Rick Adelman Portland Trail Blazers / Sacramento Kings / Houston Rockets Adelman won 1,042 games across 23 seasons, consistently overachieving with limited roster resources throughout his career.	1,042	0	23
10	Red Auerbach Boston Celtics Auerbach built the most successful dynasty in NBA history, winning 9 championships and 938 regular season games with the Celtics.	938	9	20

This list is compiled from verified public records and reference sources. Last verified: March 20, 2026.

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