What it takes to be an NBA coach has always left me guessing. I understand that it is some combination of being able to motivate people, understanding the game and being able to see skills in players, and more things, but there has to be more. There must be hundreds of people who could handle an NBA coaching job, but what exactly makes a coach successful?
To answer this question, I quickly dug up a list of the coaches with the highest win percentages of all time, but only included those past 1979-80 (the year the 3-point line was introduced, and usually taken as the beginning of the modern NBA.) That gave this list of coaches with their career winning percentages, after adding in Larry Brown and Don Nelson for good measure.
Phil Jackson .705
Gregg Popovich .675
Pat Riley .636
Rick Adelman .616
Jerry Sloan .602
Flip Saunders .597
Don Nelson .567
Larry Brown .553
It can be quickly seen that most of these coaches have one thing in common.
Out of the eight of them, half of them had won championships as players with Jackson, Riley and Nelson winning in the NBA and Brown in the ABA.
Popovich never player professionally, instead heading to the military for 5 years before studying under Larry Brown at Pomona-Pitzer in 1985-86.
Flip Saunders played his college basketball with Kevin McHale and was roommates with Tony Dungy.
Jerry Sloan was a two time all-star and was named to a NBA All-Defnesive team six times.
Rick Adelman was once compared to Hitler by Phil Jackson, and if that doesn't say something about him as a coach then I don't know what will.
So what makes a good coach? It isn't dependent on the system, whether they prefer defense to offense or if they yell at or coddle their players. Most of the successful coaches have felt what it takes to win, know how to work hard and maximize what they have in themselves and in those around them. They are used to winning, are surrounded by winners and expect success.
Based on this, I looked through the list of some current coaches who have a chance at joining the ranks above.
Scott Brooks has led this year's young OKC team to a 45 wins so far this year, and are currently jockeying for home court advantage in the playoffs. A 23-win team last year, Scott Brooks has come in and coached this team to work hard every night on both ends of the court. All of these players believe in their team and their talents and believe they can win every single night. The team is constantly motivated, and have had their eyes set on winning, no matter the opponent, ever since the outbreak of the season. It was this motivation and desire that allowed a 5'11" Scott Brooks to stay in the league for ten years and win a championship with the Rockets in 1994. Brooks had the taste of winning early in his life and it seems he hasn't looked back since.
Mike Brown has gathered more wins than any other coach over the last two seasons. A lot of this could of course be accounted towards Lebron, but there are no doubts that Mike Brown has extracted the most he could have out of the team he has. Instilling defense first, last years Cavaliers were able to post the highest defensive rating while possessing probably the best offensive player in the league (and well, he might be the best defensive player as well.) Mike Brown learned his craft under Popovich, after being hired as an assistant coach. The Spurs had three consecutive 58+ win teams while Brown was an assistant coach and after winning the title in 2003, he set himself up for his head coaching job in Clevland. The point here is that Brown learned early to expect to win, and learned how to win from a great coach.
Mike D'Antoni played in the Italian League for a dozen years, piling up five championships there and two Euroleague championships. D'Antoni was Kobe Bryant's motivation to pick number 8 for his jersey, after he piled up win after win along his way to being named one of 50 Greatest Euroleague Contributors. D'Anotni's Suns averaged 58 wins a season, and if not for a crazy call on a Horry hip-check, they could have won a championship. D'Antoni took his winning ways he learned playing and coaching in Italy and applied them to the NBA to bring the Suns franchise to some high heights.
What separates a good coach from a serviceable coach is this precedent of winning, the expectation and desire to win. This Muhammad Ali quote sums things up nicely "Champions aren't made in the gyms. Champions are made from something they have deep inside them -- a desire, a dream, a vision." These coaches have surrounded themselves with winning in their lives since a young age and I think you can expect to see one of these three to be hoisting the Larry O'Brien in the near future.
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