Gregg Popovich is EASILY the best coach of all time.

[aboss4real24]

[Clyde]

Not better than PJax.

/thread

Phil is obviously great, but the talent on his teams has been by far better than any other coach.

It's a tough subject, Phil, Red, Pat, Pop.....it's hard to say one's better than the other

[kamil]

Because he shuts down a superstar who can't shoot? Nah.

LOL.

I've got Pops at second best of all time, not far behind Phil Jackson.

[sportjames23]

The truth.

Red Auerbach, Phil Jackson and Pat Riley sai "Hi".

[Clyde]

Red Auerbach, Phil Jackson and Pat Riley sai "Hi".

Pat stole Stan Van Gundy's thunder.

Still in the conversation as one of the best though

[Marlo_Stanfield]

Fresh Kid aka Fresh Shit is back

[sportjames23]

Pat stole Stan Van Gundy's thunder.

Still in the conversation as one of the best though

LOL, Pat put Stan in position to win and he couldn't do it. The Godfather took the reigns back and got Miami dat ring.

[red1]

LOL.

I've got Pops at second best of all time, not far behind Phil Jackson.

pops

[gts]

Phil is obviously great, but the talent on his teams has been by far better than any other coach.

It's a tough subject, Phil, Red, Pat, Pop.....it's hard to say one's better than the other

You probably got them in the right order there, maybe move pops in front of riles..

a bit hard for me to gauge pops and red because they've been/were with one team for their careers and in pops case with sort of the same squad with tweeks but he never made those strong back to back runs, always took at least a couple years to get back on track after a title run.. not saying you need to win back to back but at least make that second trip to the finals... but it could be pops years to break through that barrier.

red... he was the gm coach head scout with resources no one else really had, great coach obviously took advantage of what he had but he was working with a stacked deck... still at least the second best ever

Phil did it with two different teams and essentially 3 different lineups, the last a ground up rebuild he nurtured from it's infancy so to speak.

Riles the same and add in the success in NY but even being a lakers fan i'll admit he was given a championship team to work with, he had no place to go but up... Riles true master strokes have been in Miami

[INDI]

The truth.

Totally agree. I've been saying this for at least 5 seasons. He runs a system that can thrive without their top players. I can see them getting a top 4 seed in the west even if duncan and parker missed the entire season.

They have been contenders since 1999. Think about that for a sec.

[Cold soul]

One of the greatest without a doubt. But last years finals hurts him somewhat especially game 6 epic failure and choke job.

[brandonislegend]

Did you want Pop to get out of his chair and walk over and guard him?

[sportjames23]

No back to back titles, never coached a team without Duncan (I don't think).

Granted, the other three coaches had talented teams, so you can't penalize Pop for that, but I think he tends to get overrated, especially when dudes call him the GOAT coach.

[toxicxr6]

No back to back titles, never coached a team without Duncan (I don't think).

Granted, the other three coaches had talented teams, so you can't penalize Pop for that, but I think he tends to get overrated, especially when dudes call him the GOAT coach.

Never coached a team without Duncan? Better off not thinking then.....

[K.Koscik]

Popovich is the greatest out of bounds play designer I can think of, and while he does run a beautiful offense that very well could be the best of all time, the truth is he is not the best.

X's and O's wise Pop might be that guy, but he's never been able to win two in a row despite being "a contender since 1999" as someone mentioned. During that time, Phil Jackson won a 3 peat and a repeat with two totally different Lakers teams. He has 11 NBA championship wins to Pop's 4.

The two's careers started at the same time. Phil Jackson entered the NBA in 1987 as an assistant coach under doug collins. Pop entered on the Spurs as an AC under larry brown. In 1992 Phil Jackson was working on a repeat and Popovich was in Golden State after having had gotten fired along with the rest of the staff in SA. In 94 Pjax had the first threepeat in 30 years under his belt and Popovich returned to SA as the general manager. In 1998, Phil Jackson had just finished his second threepeat in 8 years with Jordan in Chicago and left to Los Angeles to coach. Meanwhile, Pop made himself head coach of the spurs 18 games into the season.

Popovich drafts Duncan with the #1 overall pick after David Robinson broke his leg and then in his first full season as head coach Spurs beat the Lakers coached by Pjax in his first season with LA. Then, Lakers beat the Spurs on their repeat chance and proceed to win a threepeat and the Spurs get the win in 2003(3 rings for PJ 2 for Pop by 2002) and then 2004 happened and the Lakers got blown up (but not before spoiling the Spurs repeat hopes, again). After that they both won 2 more impressive titles each. The Spurs lost their shots at repeats again though first to the Mavs in 2006 and then in 2008 to Kobe and the Lakers. Those Lakers lost in the finals that year but won a repeat in 2009 and 2010.

Every time Phil Jackson was given a championship caliber squad, he delivered multiple championships in dominant fashion. 3 out of those 4 sequences were threepeats with 3 finals in a row for a chance at a 4th. Popovich's Spurs never made the finals twice. His basketball is pretty but pro sports are about results, and Phil Jackson has the results. There is no luck in 11 pro sport championships.