Six of those coaches won NBA championships: Phil Jackson won five of his NBA-record 11 championships while coaching the Lakers; John Kundla also won five championships while coaching the Lakers; Pat Riley won four while coaching most of the Showtime years; and Bill Sharman had the best streak in NBA history with 33 consecutive wins during the same era as Phil Jackson. The other coach, Paul Westhead, lost three straight finals under pressure of being a rookie manager.
Jackson's 5 championships are tied for second all time with Red Auerbach, Bob Cousy, Chuck Daly and Tex Winter. He is only behind Larry Bird with 6 championships.
He is also one of just 10 men to win an Olympic gold medal as a player and a championship as a head coach. The others are George Mikan, Wilt Chamberlain, Moses Malone, Hakeem Olajuwon, Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Kobe Bryant and LeBron James.
Jackson replaced Kurt Rambis who was fired after going 102-80 over two seasons. Before that, the Lakers had not made the playoffs since 2001 when they went 69-93 under Mike Dunleavy. During that period, the Lakers never had more than 2 players selected to an all-star game.
Eleven NBA players Former Los Angeles Lakers head coach Phil Jackson is on the list, having won eleven NBA titles, the most in NBA history.
| Coach | Phil Jackson* | |
|---|---|---|
| Team(s) won with (years) | Chicago Bulls (1991, 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 1998) Los Angeles Lakers (2000, 2001, 2002, 2009, 2010) | |
| GC | Playoffs | 333 |
| W | 229 |
Eleven NBA titles. When it comes to rings as a player and a coach, one name stands out above all others: Phil Jackson. No other coach comes close to what the former Chicago Bulls coach possesses. He owns a record 11 NBA titles as a coach and two as a player.
Jackson is the winningest coach in NBA history and one of the best of all time. Under his leadership, the Chicago Bulls won six championships from 1991 to 2010. The franchise he played for during its championship run was named in his honor - the Chicago Bulls.
As a player, Jackson was an eight-time All-Star who helped lead the Bulls to their first title in 1990. He also won two gold medals with the United States men's national basketball team.
He entered the league straight out of college in 1979 at the age of 21. He played only one season before becoming a full-time coach, which he did not want to do. He said that he wanted to be a player instead because he didn't see himself as a head coach. However, the Bulls hired him anyway and he has never looked back.
As a coach, he has a reputation for developing talent and building strong teams. During his tenure with the Bulls, he brought in such players as Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, and Dennis Rodman. He also drafted future stars such as Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah.
Jackson coached Bryant and the Lakers to five NBA Championships, including three in a row from 2000 to 2002. Jackson handed Bryant the book "Blink" by Malcolm Gladwell in 2009-2010, the last season the Lakers won a championship. "Phil doesn't coach a player for a season; he coaches him for a lifetime," Buss stated. "Kobe is going to keep getting better because that's what great players do."
Bryant has said that when he sits down with Jackson for a weekly meeting they talk about psychology and management more than basketball. He believes this helps him and the team understand each other better.
When Jackson was hired as the Los Angeles Lakers president of basketball operations on April 24, 2014, many people believed he would push Bryant out of his position as the team's star player. But under Jackson's leadership, Bryant helped recruit Steve Nash from Phoenix and Pau Gasol from Chicago. They all signed contract extensions with the Lakers in 2015.
In July 2016, after losing to the Cleveland Cavaliers in the 2016 NBA Finals, Bryant announced that he would retire at the end of the season. He finished his career with more than 200 victories in the NBA and earned several awards, including the MVP trophy in 2001.
After retiring from playing basketball, Bryant became involved in politics as a national ambassador for the Human Rights Campaign (HRC).
The Lakers' popularity skyrocketed in the 1980s, when they won five more championships in nine years, thanks to Hall of Famers Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, James Worthy, and coach Pat Riley, the franchise's all-time leader in both regular season and playoff games coached and victories. The Lakers also have the best record in NBA history at 1250-491 (.710 winning percentage).
For the first six seasons of their existence, the Lakers had no name players as they tried to find their way under the leadership of founding fathers George Mikan and Joe Dumars. In 1960-61, however, the Lakers made their first of eight appearances in the NBA Finals, losing 4-3 to the Boston Celtics led by former St. Louis Bill Russell. The following year, they lost again, this time to Jerry West's Cincinnati Royals (now Sacramento Kings). But by 1964, when they finally managed to win it all, they had a young superstar in Phil Jackson who would go on to become one of the greatest coaches in NBA history.
Jackson took over for the fired Fred Schaus after that season and went 46-36 over two years before leading his team to the 1985 championship. He was given the title of "Coach of the Year" each season from 1984-89, which is an award given out by the league after each season.
Phil Jackson declares himself the NBA's GOAT. He is widely regarded as the best head coach in NBA history. Jackson has won eleven championships as a coach and has had the honor of mentoring Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant over his tenure. He has also received several other awards, including the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama.
He first gained attention for his work with Chicago's professional basketball team, the Bulls. Under his leadership, the franchise went from being a mediocre team to one of the most successful in NBA history. The Bulls won more than half their games during each of Jackson's seasons there, including six in a row at one point. They made the playoffs every year and won three division titles during that period. In addition, they reached the conference finals twice and the NBA Finals once.
After leaving the Bulls following the 1998-99 season, he returned to Chicago in 1999 as head coach of the newly formed New York Knicks. Under his guidance, the Knicks reached the playoffs for the first time in 18 years but were eliminated by the Indiana Pacers in four games. Jackson then moved on to coach Los Angeles Lakers, where he restored some prestige to the franchise and led them to the playoffs for the first time since 2001.
He resigned from the Lakers after three seasons to become president of the New York Knicks, but was fired just five months into his job interview.
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