Top 5 coaches in the history of the Boston Celtics
The Boston Celtics have had some of the most historical teams in NBA history and won the most NBA champions. Even though the team has had fantastic players throughout its history, they have been accompanied by great NBA coaches.
The Celtics were founded in 1946, and in those 75 seasons, they have only hired 18 coaches. Having stable coaching, along with the quality players the Celtics have had, helped them reach franchise success. Here are the top five coaches to ever coach the Boston Celtics.
#5 Doc Rivers, Boston Celtics, 2004-13
Doc Rivers coached the Boston Celtics for nine seasons, spanning from 2004-13. His tenure had the Celtics win a magical 2008 NBA finals, while also reaching the finals in 2010, but losing.
Rivers coached the second-most games for the Boston Celtics, 721, and is the third-most wins. Coaching in so many games helped Rivers’ get higher in the all-time Celtic win totals, as he has the lowest winning percentage on this list, at 57%.
Brad Stevens will reportedly replace Danny Ainge as Celtics head of basketball operations.
Stevens has the 4th-most wins in Celtics history behind only Red Auerbach, Tom Heinsohn and Doc Rivers.
However, unlike the top three coaches, Stevens did not lead Boston to a title. https://t.co/ptKsE0ISn9
His 2008 NBA Finals is the only one in his career, but it is the most recent Celtics Championship. It was the first Larry O'Brien trophy for the Celtics since 1986, which makes it a meaningful championship.
#4 K.C. Jones, Boston Celtics, 1983-88
K.C. Jones coached 410 games for the Boston Celtics from 1983-88. In Jones's five seasons, he made four NBA Finals, winning two in 1984 and 1986.
Even though he didn't have the longevity with the Celtics as a head coach, going to the NBA Finals four out of his five seasons is impressive. It sure does help when you have a player like Larry Bird on your team, but Jones was still the head man on the bench guiding the team to success.
K.C. Jones is the only player in NBA history to win an NBA Championship in each of his first 8 seasons as a player.
His .674 winning percentage as a coach is also 3rd-best in NBA history (min. 10 seasons). twitter.com/SportsCenter/s…
Jones also ended his tenure with the highest regular-season winning percentage, winning 75% on the games he coached in for the Celtics. For his career, Jones has the third-highest winning percentage out of any NBA coach.
Jones was inducted into the NBA Hall of Fame as a coach in 2006, after already getting in as a player.