Doc Rivers of the Milwaukee Bucks is No. 4 with 113 playoff wins.
Like all major sports, NBA coaches are the subject of intense scrutiny. Even the ability to consistently grind out successful regular seasons can fall short of expectations if those campaigns aren’t followed by conference titles and league championships.
With that in mind, who are the top five most successful coaches in NBA postseason history?
1. Phil Jackson – Chicago Bulls, Los Angeles Lakers (229 wins)
The Zen Master followed a 14-year playing career with an unparalleled run as a head coach, ultimately winning 11 NBA championships, one NBA Coach of the Year award and generating an elite 70.4% winning percentage.
Jackson certainly paid his dues on his way up to the coaching ranks, starting with a three-year stint as an assistant coach with the then-New Jersey Nets before putting in time with the CBA’s Albany Patroons, where he secured his first pro championship as a head coach, and Puerto Rico’s National Superior Basketball.
The Bulls finally ended Jackson’s NBA coaching drought in 1987 when they hired him as an assistant to Doug Collins. Jackson would eventually be promoted upon Collins’ firing two years later. His subsequent nine-season run in the Windy City would produce six NBA championships while simultaneously crafting the legacies of both Jackson and Michael Jordan. Following his exit after the 1997-98 season, Jackson returned from a one-year sabbatical for the 1999-00 campaign with the Los Angeles Lakers, where he would eventually garner the final five championships of his unparalleled career.
2. Pat Riley – Los Angeles Lakers, New York Knicks, Miami Heat (171 wins)
Had Pat Riley opted to remain in the coaching ranks longer instead of transitioning to the Miami Heat’s front office, he could certainly have given Jackson a run for his money for the top spot on this list. The Godfather put in 10 seasons as a player before beginning his coaching tenure three years later, starting as an assistant with the Los Angeles Lakers in the 1979-80 campaign. Riley would eventually be promoted to head coach early in the 1981-82 season after Paul Westhead’s firing, and he led the team to four title run before his departure at the end of the 1989-90 season.
Riley would reprise his postseason success during a four-season stint with the New York Knicks beginning with the 1991-92 season. Riley lost to Jackson’s Bulls twice during his Knicks tenure and then saw his 1994-95 team blow a 3-2 Finals lead to the Rockets to wrap up his final season in the Big Apple. Riley would go on to pen a third successful chapter in South Florida, where he served as the Miami Heat’s head coach for two separate stints (1995-2003, 2005-2008).
Miami was unsurprisingly a frequent playoff contender under Riley, and he led the franchise to its first championship with a memorable four-game run against the Dallas Mavericks in the 2006 Finals after dropping the first two games. Riley would step down from coaching for good after the conclusion of the 2007-08 season and retain the duties of team president he still holds to this day.
3. Gregg Popovich – San Antonio Spurs (170 wins)
Like Jackson, Gregg Popovich deliberately worked his way up the coaching ladder; however, in “Coach Pop’s” case, the journey to the top was a lot more painstaking. Popovich first roamed the bench as an assistant beginning in 1973 at his alma mater, Air Force, not reaching the NBA until the 1988-89 season as an assistant with the San Antonio Spurs team he’d eventually garner legendary status with.
Popovich’s tenure in San Antonio wouldn’t be linear, however, as he departed to the Golden State Warriors for a two-year stint in the Bay Area that eventually propelled him to his first and only head-coaching opportunity to date. Popovich actually began what would turn into a Hall of Fame-worthy tenure with the Spurs as the general manager and vice president of basketball operations in the 1994-95 season, eventually naming himself head coach after firing Bob Hill just 18 games into the 1996-97 campaign.
Popovich went on to secure his first NBA title just two seasons later and would go on to add four more titles, the most recent in 2014. While recent years have been lean as the club has rebuilt its roster, Popovich led the Spurs to the playoffs for 22 consecutive years beginning in the 1997-98 postseason.
4. Doc Rivers – Orlando Magic, Boston Celtics, Los Angeles Clippers, Philadelphia 76ers (113 wins)
Doc Rivers had already made quite the name for himself in NBA circles thanks to a successful 13-year playing career when he took on his first coaching job with the Orlando Magic in the 1999-00 season. Despite his rookie status, Rivers quickly found his footing and notably earned Coach of the Year honors that first season in Orlando, when he nearly led the Magic to the postseason.
He would get his team into the playoffs in his subsequent three full seasons there, but he was dismissed early into the 2003-04 campaign after a poor start. Yet, Rivers would resurface in Boston a year later and played an integral role in restoring the Celtics’ past glory, winning an NBA title after the 2007-08 season in an arduous 26-game postseason run. A seven-game rematch with the Lakers in the 2010 Finals saw Rivers come up just short of a second Larry O’Brien Trophy, and the Celtics eventually traded Rivers to the Clippers, where he’d go on to lead Los Angeles to six postseason appearances in seven seasons.
His subsequent stints with the Philadelphia 76ers (2020-23) and Milwaukee Bucks (2024-present) have resulted in four more playoff runs.
5. Erik Spoelstra – Miami Heat (110 wins)
Although he’s the youngest member of this distinguished list, Erik Spoelstra’s journey to head coaching success carries no shortage of intrigue. The Heat’s long-time head coach went undrafted after a college career at Portland, and he initially spent two years as a player-coach in Germany before landing in Miami as a video coordinator during the 1995-96 season, coincidentally also Riley’s first with the team.
An unknown to the legendary coach and team president upon arriving, Spoelstra eventually made such an impression on Riley that he ultimately became the latter’s hand-picked successor upon his retirement from coaching in 2008. Spoelstra got a jump start on his head coaching career by leading the Heat to the playoffs in his first season at the helm, and he’s gone on to accomplish the feat on another 12 occasions since. Along the way, Spoelstra parlayed the presence of LeBron James into four consecutive NBA Finals appearances from 2011-2014, winning consecutive titles in 2012 and 2013 over the Oklahoma City Thunder and San Antonio Spurs, respectively.
