List of San Antonio Spurs head coaches
The San Antonio Spurs are an American professional basketball team based in San Antonio, Texas. They are a member of the Southwest Division of the Western Conference in the National Basketball Association (NBA). The franchise was founded as the Dallas Chaparrals of the American Basketball Association (ABA) in 1967.[1] The team suffered from poor attendance and general disinterest by fans in Dallas, and the name "Dallas" was dropped in favor of "Texas" during the 1970–71 season in an attempt to make the team regional. This also proved to be a failure, and the team returned full-time to use "Dallas" for the 1971–72 season.[2] The team was put up for sale after missing the playoffs in the 1972–73 season.[1][2] The team was acquired by a group of 36 San Antonio businessmen, led by Angelo Drossos and Red McCombs, who relocated the team to San Antonio, Texas and renamed it to Spurs.[1][2] In 1976, the ABA folded, threatening the future of San Antonio's sole professional sports franchise.[1] The NBA, however, decided to admit four ABA teams into the league, including the Spurs, along with the Denver Nuggets, the Indiana Pacers and the New York Nets.[1]
There have been 18 head coaches for the San Antonio Spurs. The franchise won their first NBA championship in the 1999 NBA Finals coached by Gregg Popovich.[1] The Spurs won four additional NBA championships in 2003 NBA Finals, 2005 NBA Finals, 2007 NBA Finals and 2014 NBA Finals under Popovich.[1] Popovich is the franchise's all-time leader in both regular season and playoff games coached and wins.[3] He also won the NBA Coach of the Year award for 2002–03 season.[4] Larry Brown is the only member of the franchise that has been inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame as a coach.[5] Bob Bass, who has coached with the Spurs for four terms, leads the franchise in most terms coached.[6] Cliff Hagan, Max Williams, Bill Blakeley, Dave Brown, Morris McHone, Jerry Tarkanian and Popovich spent their entire coaching careers with the Spurs.[3][7][8][9][10][11][12]
Key
GC | Games coached |
W | Wins |
L | Losses |
Win% | Winning percentage |
# | Number of coaches[a] |
* | Spent entire NBA head coaching career with the Spurs |
† | Elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame as a coach |
*† | Elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame as a coach and spent entire NBA head coaching career with the Spurs |
Coaches
Note: Statistics are correct through the end of the 2023–24 season.
# | Name | Term[b] | GC | W | L | Win% | GC | W | L | Win% | Achievements | Reference | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Regular season | Playoffs | ||||||||||||||
Dallas/Texas Chaparrals | |||||||||||||||
1 | Cliff Hagan* | 1967–1970 | 199 | 109 | 90 | .548 | 15 | 7 | 8 | .467 | [7] | ||||
2 | Max Williams* | 1970 | 60 | 28 | 32 | .467 | 6 | 2 | 4 | .333 | [8] | ||||
3 | Bill Blakeley* | 1970–1971 | 65 | 25 | 40 | .385 | 4 | 0 | 4 | .000 | [9] | ||||
4 | Tom Nissalke | 1971–1972 | 84 | 42 | 42 | .500 | 4 | 0 | 4 | .000 | [13] | ||||
5 | Babe McCarthy | 1972–1973 | 72 | 24 | 48 | .333 | — | — | — | — | [14] | ||||
6 | Dave Brown* | 1973 | 12 | 4 | 8 | .333 | — | — | — | — | [10] | ||||
San Antonio Spurs | |||||||||||||||
— | Tom Nissalke | 1973–1974 | 112 | 63 | 49 | .563 | 7 | 3 | 4 | .428 | [13] | ||||
7 | Bob Bass | 1974–1976 | 140 | 83 | 57 | .593 | 13 | 5 | 8 | .385 | [6] | ||||
8 | Doug Moe | 1976–1980 | 312 | 177 | 135 | .567 | 22 | 9 | 13 | .409 | [15] | ||||
— | Bob Bass | 1980 | 16 | 8 | 8 | .500 | 3 | 1 | 2 | .333 | [6] | ||||
9 | Stan Albeck | 1980–1983 | 246 | 153 | 93 | .622 | 27 | 13 | 14 | .481 | [16] | ||||
10 | Morris McHone* | 1983 | 31 | 11 | 20 | .355 | — | — | — | — | [11] | ||||
— | Bob Bass | 1983–1984 | 51 | 26 | 25 | .510 | — | — | — | — | [6] | ||||
11 | Cotton Fitzsimmons | 1984–1986 | 164 | 76 | 88 | .463 | 8 | 2 | 6 | .250 | [17] | ||||
12 | Bob Weiss | 1986–1988 | 164 | 59 | 105 | .360 | 3 | 0 | 3 | .000 | [18] | ||||
13 | Larry Brown† | 1988–1992 | 284 | 153 | 131 | .539 | 14 | 7 | 7 | .500 | [5] | ||||
— | Bob Bass | 1992 | 44 | 26 | 18 | .591 | 3 | 0 | 3 | .000 | [6] | ||||
14 | Jerry Tarkanian*† | 1992 | 20 | 9 | 11 | .450 | — | — | — | — | [12] | ||||
15 | Rex Hughes | 1992 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1.000 | — | — | — | — | [19] | ||||
16 | John Lucas II | 1992–1994 | 143 | 94 | 49 | .657 | 14 | 6 | 8 | .428 | [20] | ||||
17 | Bob Hill | 1994–1996 | 182 | 124 | 58 | .681 | 25 | 14 | 11 | .560 | [21] | ||||
18 | Gregg Popovich*† | 1996–present | 2,209 | 1,388 | 821 | .628 | 284 | 170 | 114 | .599 | 2002–03, 2011–12, 2013–14 NBA Coach of the Year[4] 5 championships (1999, 2003, 2005, 2007, 2014) |
[3] |
-
Gregg Popovich has been the head coach for the Spurs since 1996.
Notes
- a A running total of the number of coaches of the Chaparrals/Spurs. Thus, any coach who has two or more separate terms as head coach is only counted once.
- b Each year is linked to an article about that particular NBA season, except for the seasons spent in the ABA.
References
- General
- "San Antonio Spurs Coach Register". basketball-reference.com. Sport Reference LLC. Retrieved June 11, 2008.
- "San Antonio Spurs history site". NBA.com. Turner Sports Interactive. Retrieved June 29, 2008.
- Specific
- ^ a b c d e f g "San Antonio Spurs History". NBA.com. Turner Sports Interactive, Inc. Retrieved June 12, 2008.
- ^ a b c "Dallas Chaparrals History". RememberTheABA.com. Retrieved June 12, 2008.
- ^ a b c "Gregg Popovich Coaching Record". basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved May 14, 2010.
- ^ a b "Coach of the Year". NBA.com. Turner Sports Interactive, Inc. Archived from the original on September 15, 2010. Retrieved June 12, 2008.
- ^ a b "Larry Brown Coaching Record". basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved June 11, 2008.
- ^ a b c d e "Bob Bass Coaching Record". basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved June 11, 2008.
- ^ a b "Cliff Hagan Coaching Record". basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved June 8, 2008.
- ^ a b "Max Williams Coaching Record". basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved June 8, 2008.
- ^ a b "Bill Blakely Coaching Record". basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved June 8, 2008.
- ^ a b "Dave Brown Coaching Record". basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved June 8, 2008.
- ^ a b "Morris McHone Coaching Record". basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved June 11, 2008.
- ^ a b "Jerry Tarkanian Coaching Record". basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved June 11, 2008.
- ^ a b "Tom Nissalke Coaching Record". basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved June 11, 2008.
- ^ "Babe McCarthy Coaching Record". basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved June 11, 2008.
- ^ "Doug Moe Coaching Record". basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved June 11, 2008.
- ^ "Stan Albeck Coaching Record". basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved June 11, 2008.
- ^ "Cotton Fitzsimmons Coaching Record". basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved June 11, 2008.
- ^ "Bob Weiss Coaching Record". basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved June 11, 2008.
- ^ "Rex Hughes Coaching Record". basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved June 11, 2008.
- ^ "John Lucas Coaching Record". basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved June 11, 2008.
- ^ "Bob Hill Coaching Record". basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved June 11, 2008.