As part of its 75th anniversary celebration, the NBA revealed its top 15 coaches of all-time during TNT’s pregame show Tuesday night. The list sparked plenty of debate with many critical of Doc Rivers’ inclusion as well as Steve Kerr, dismissing the latter for overseeing star-laden “super” teams throughout his Golden State tenure.
Of course, that same argument could be applied to almost anyone on the list—what would Phil Jackson’s legacy have been without Michael Jordan, Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant, or Gregg Popovich had the ping pong balls not gone his way in 1997, allowing San Antonio to draft Hall-of-Famer Tim Duncan?
One of the more notable omissions was Pacers coach Rick Carlisle, who ranks third among active coaches in career victories and won an NBA title with Dallas in 2011, upsetting Miami’s “Big Three” of LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh in six games. Now in his second stint with Indiana, Carlisle has led his team to the playoffs in 14 of 19 seasons, compiling a respectable 855-726 record (.541-win percentage) over that span.
That’s quite the resume, though apparently not enough to crack the top 15, outraging fans on Twitter, who felt Carlisle deserved more respect than voters showed him. Rudy Tomjanovich, who won a pair of championships with Houston, and George Karl (sixth-most coaching wins) also missed the cut, joining the similarly overlooked Carlisle in Snubville.
Condensing 75 years of NBA history into a top 15 is both limiting and highly subjective. For instance, how do we judge someone like Red Auerbach, who last coached in 1966, back when there were only nine teams and the three-pointer hadn’t even been invented yet? Any list of this nature is going to be divisive, an elaborate exercise in hairsplitting bound to hurt feelings.
Regardless, it’s doubtful Carlisle is losing much sleep over this. Being honored as one of the top 15 coaches of all-time would have been cool, but you know what’s even cooler? The diamond-encrusted championship ring in Carlisle’s safe deposit box.
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