I think the best coaches of all time are Pat Riley, Phil Jackson, Red Auerbach and Larry Brown. What order do I place them in? It wont be by overall record but by championships won. Although Phil Jackson surpassed Auerbach in total championships, the Boston Celtics won 9 championships in a 10 year span from 1957 through 1966, a feat that I would think most likely will never be duplicated. That fact alone puts Auerbach at the top of the list. Phil Jackson is second with an incredible resume. He holds the record for most NBA Championships won as a head coach, most Conference Championships won as a head coach, most wins in NBA Playoffs history and most wins in a season. Pat Riley is a three time NBA Coach of the Year and won 5 NBA Championships as a head coach, 4 with the Los Angeles Lakers and one with the Miami Heat. Last on my list is Larry Brown, who doesn't have a championship as a head coach but has a long resume for many clubs. He always has turned teams from also rans to competitive teams. He was ABA Coach of the Year 3 times and NBA Coach of the Year once and has coached eight NBA teams.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3IK3bvlyzpg

Phil Jackson, Pat Riley are some easy picks to be best coach of all-time. But what about Don Nelson? The guy has the most wins ever in NBA History! Thats good and what about Larry Brown? The only coach to win an NCAA Championship an a NBA Championship.

I guess I would have to answer this question based on the records of the coaches involved. In my opinion that selection would have to come from the following group of men, all of whom have won multiple championships.
Phil Jackson - Chicago Bulls and Los Angeles Lakers - 19 Years of coaching - 12 Conference Championships - 10 NBA championships (Note: he is in his 19th year and could add another Conference and NBA championship to his resume). He has only 3 seasons as coach where his teams won under 50 games. He also has a winning percentage of .700 or better in both the regular season and playoffs. He has been blessed with both great players and teams during his coaching tenures and has used that talent accordingly.
Red Auerbach - Boston Celtics of the NBA, TRI CITIES Blackhawks of the NBA, and Washington Capitals of the BAA - 9 NBA Championships, the last 8 in a row to end his coaching career - a lifetime .662 regular season winning percentage. Unlike Phil jackson, Red didn't always coach the team with the player widely regarded as the best in the NBA, but still produced championships. His wins were based on team play and included by today's standards an undersized center. He didn't take over a championship caliber team; he built the Celtics into one.
Larry Brown - Although not possessing the coaching record and winning the number of championships that Red and Phil did, Larry did win the NBA coach of the year award 4 times. His only championship came while with the Detroit Pistons, a team that was notorious for underperforming and was a group of tough players to coach. He also was not always blessed with the best or even a top-notch group of players but got the best out of them that he could. His major drawback was that the he himself seemed to have psychological drawbacks. He was always looking to move on, even after winning the championship in Detroit and while looked upon as an outstanding head-coach, he was not regarded that way for dependability.
In final retrospect, I would have to pick Red Auerbach in a by the nose finish over Phil Jackson.

I’m a little surprised to see that no one has named Chuck Daly as at least being on the list of best coaches. Perhaps I’m a little partial to him since I grew up a Detroit Pistons fan, but I think he has to at least be in the discussion for best coach ever. Daly built the bad boy Pistons who managed to win quite a few championships despite the fact that while they had quite a few good players, they didn’t really have a guy who could just take over a game.

I saw Phil Jackson mentioned a few times, and find it a little odd that no one points out that Jackson was also the recipient of coaching two of the best players who have ever laced up the high-tops. Michael Jackson and Kobe Bryant (as well as Shaq) can take over games, but while Isaiah Thomas was a very good point guard, and Joe Dumars was a nice piece Daly had to build that team from the ground up and get them playing his style of basketball in order to win.

Phil Jackson is the best all time NBA basketball coach. Phil Jackson not only has the best winning percentage of all time as a coach, he also has the most championship rings. He is also the only coach to have 10 NBA titles. In 2007, he was elected into the Naismith Hall-of-Fame. Also, Jackson was named one of the top 10 coaches in league history in 1999. Learn more about this basketball legend from http://www.best-all-time.com/best-all-time-pro-basketball-coach.html