Coach: Phil Jackson
Phil Jackson is on the shortlist of candidates for the distinction of greatest coach in NBA history. He has 11 championships as a head coach, a .704 win percentage in the regular season, a .688 win percentage in the playoffs and a total of 1,384 victories.
Five of Jackson’s championships were won with the Lakers. He guided L.A. to a three-peat (2000-02) and then a repeat (2009, 2010), losing two Finals series (2004, 2008) in between.
Jackson’s 2000 squad defeated the Indiana Pacers in the Finals despite star Kobe Bryant missing almost two whole games with an ankle injury.
The 2001 team completed a historic 15-1 postseason run by defeating league MVP Allen Iverson and the Philadelphia 76ers in the Finals.
In 2002, L.A. finished its three-peat by sweeping a New Jersey Nets team led by eventual Hall of Fame point guard Jason Kidd.
With an almost entirely different roster in 2009 (Bryant and Derek Fisher were the only holdovers from the three-peat), Jackson’s Lakers won another title over the Orlando Magic.
In 2010, they edged the star-studded Celtics in a seven-game Finals, avenging their loss in the 2008 Finals.
For much as Jackson accomplished with the Lakers, however, they’re still only No. 2 on his list of most successful stops. He won six titles with the Chicago Bulls and went 6-0 in the Finals.
Jackson got this spot over Pat Riley, who went 4-3 as the Lakers’ coach in five Finals during the 1980s, and John Kundla, who went 5-0 in the Finals coaching the franchises’ first title teams.