List of Sacramento Kings head coaches explained

The Sacramento Kings are an American professional basketball team based in Sacramento, California. The Kings play in the Pacific Division of the Western Conference in the National Basketball Association (NBA). The team was founded as the Rochester Royals by Lester Harrison and his brother Jack Harrison in Rochester, New York in 1945.^[1] The Royals won the National Basketball League (NBL) championship during their inaugural season by defeating the Sheboygan Red Skins 3–0.^[1] In 1948, the team joined the Basketball Association of America (BAA), which merged with the NBL to become the NBA a year later.^[2] The franchise won its first NBA championship in the 1951 NBA Finals under the coaching of Lester Harrison.^[2] The Harrison brothers moved the team to Cincinnati, Ohio in 1957 due to poor attendance.^[2] After spending 15 years in Cincinnati, the team was purchased by a group of businessmen from Kansas City, who moved the team to Kansas City and renamed it to the Kings in 1972. The team was briefly named the Kansas City-Omaha Kings from 1972 to 1975 when home games were split between two cities. In 1983, the franchise was bought by a Sacramento-based group, and in 1985, moved to Sacramento, becoming the Sacramento Kings.^[2]

There have been 28 head coaches for the franchise since joining the NBA. Rick Adelman is the franchise's all-time leader in regular season games coached (624), regular season games won (395), playoff games coached (69), and playoff games won (34). Phil Johnson and Cotton Fitzsimmons have won NBA Coach of the Year with the Kings, in the and seasons respectively.^{[3] [4]} Harrison, Bobby Wanzer, Ed Jucker, Bob Cousy, Draff Young, Jerry Reynolds, Reggie Theus, and Kenny Natt have spent their entire NBA head coaching careers with the Kings.^{[5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11]} Wanzer, Tom Marshall, Jack McMahon, Cousy, Larry Staverman, Adelman and Theus formerly played for the Kings.^{[12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17] [18]} The Kings are currently owned by Vivek Ranadivé, with former Rockets executive Monte McNair as the general manager and Mike Brown is the head coach.

Key

GC	Games coached
W	Wins
L	Losses
Win%	Winning percentage
	Number of coaches
	Spent entire NBA head coaching career with the Kings	-		Elected into the Basketball Hall of Fame as a coach -->

Coaches

Note: Statistics are correct through the end of the . The list does not include NBL seasons.

	Name	Term	GC	W	L	Win%	GC	W	L	Win%	Achievements	Reference
			Regular season				Playoffs
1		–	476	296	181	.620	38	19	19	.500	1 Championship (1951)	^[19]
2		– (as player-coach) –	234	98	126	.418	2	0	2	.000
3		(as player-coach)	129	35	94	.271	—	—	—	—		^[20]
4		–	239	118	121	.494	16	7	9	.438		^[21]
5		–	321	187	134	.583	23	8	15	.348		^[22]
6		–	164	80	84	.488	—	—	—	—
7		(as player-coach) –	350	141	209	.403	—	—	—	—
8			3	0	3	.000	—	—	—	—
9		–	340	155	185	.456	6	2	4	.333	NBA Coach of the Year	^[23]
10			45	18	27	.400	—	—	—	—		^[24]
11		–	492	248	244	.504	26	9	17	.346	NBA Coach of the Year	^[25]
12			9	1	8	.111	—	—	—	—		^[26]
—		–	201	81	120	.403	3	0	3	.000
13			60	22	38	.367	—	—	—	—
14			58	17	41	.293	—	—	—	—		^[27]
—		–	110	34	76	.309	—	—	—	—
15		–	161	48	113	.298	—	—	—	—		^[28]
16			57	22	35	.386	—	—	—	—		^[29]
17		–	395	159	236	.403	4	1	3	.250		^[30]
18		–	97	33	64	.340	—	—	—	—		^[31]
19		–	624	395	229	.633	69	34	35	.493		^[32]
20			82	33	49	.402	—	—	—	—		^[33]
21		–	106	44	62	.415	—	—	—	—
22			58	11	47	.190	—	—	—	—		^[34]
23		–	171	51	120	.298	—	—	—	—		^[35]
24		–	141	48	93	.340	—	—	—	—		^[36]
25		–	106	39	67	.368	—	—	—	—		^[37]
26			28	7	21	.250	—	—	—	—		^[38]
27		–	112	44	68		—	—	—	—		^[39]
28		–	246	98	148		—	—	—	—		^[40]
29	Luke Walton	–	161	68	93		—	—	—	—		^[41]
30	Alvin Gentry		65	24	41		—	—	—	—
31	Mike Brown	–present	164	94	70		7	3	4		NBA Coach of the Year	^[42]

Notes

• A running total of the number of coaches of the Royals/Kings. Thus, any coach who has two or more separate terms as head coach is only counted once.
• Each year is linked to an article about that particular NBA season.

References

General

• Web site: Sacramento Kings Coach Register. Sports Reference LLC. basketball-reference.com. November 20, 2008.

Specific

Notes and References

1. Web site: The Rochester Royals: The Story of Professional Basketball. www.rochester.lib.ny.us. Rochester Public Library. November 21, 2008. Cook. Kevin. https://web.archive.org/web/20090320014913/http://www.rochester.lib.ny.us/~rochhist/v58_1996/v58i1.pdf. March 20, 2009. dead. mdy-all.
2. Web site: Sacramento Kings History. NBA.com. Turner Sports Interactive, Inc. November 21, 2008. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20100108121428/http://www.nba.com/kings/history/team_history.html. January 8, 2010.
3. Web site: Coach of the Year. NBA.com. Turner Sports Interactive, Inc. November 20, 2008. https://web.archive.org/web/20100915001144/http://www.nba.com/history/awards_coachofyear.html. September 15, 2010. dead.
4. Web site: Sacramento Kings Media Guides 2008-09 p.348. NBA.com. Turner Sports Interactive, Inc. November 22, 2008. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20081226231117/http://www.nba.com/media/kings/0809guide11_miscellaneous.pdf. December 26, 2008.
5. Web site: Bobby Wanzer Coaching Record. basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. November 20, 2008.
6. Web site: Ed Jucker Coaching Record. basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. November 20, 2008.
7. Web site: Bob Cousy Coaching Record. basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. November 20, 2008.
8. Web site: Draff Young Coaching Record. basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. November 20, 2008.
9. Web site: Jerry Reynolds Coaching Record. basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. November 20, 2008.
10. Web site: Reggie Theus Coaching Record. basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. November 20, 2008.
11. Web site: Kings fire coach Theus. ESPN Internet Ventures. ESPN.com. 15 December 2008. December 15, 2008.
12. Web site: Bobby Wanzer Playing Record. basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. November 20, 2008.
13. Web site: Tom Marshall Playing Record. basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. November 20, 2008.
14. Web site: Jack McMahon Playing Record. basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. November 20, 2008.
15. Web site: Bob Cousy Playing Record. basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. November 20, 2008.
16. Web site: Larry Staverman Playing Record. basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. November 20, 2008.
17. Web site: Rick Adelman Playing Record. basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. November 20, 2008.
18. Web site: Reggie Theus Playing Record. basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. November 20, 2008.
19. Web site: Lester Harrison Coaching Record. basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. November 20, 2008.
20. Web site: Tom Marshall Coaching Record. basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. November 20, 2008.
21. Web site: Charles Wolf Coaching Record. basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. November 20, 2008.
22. Web site: Jack McMahon Coaching Record. basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. November 20, 2008.
23. Web site: Phil Johnson Coaching Record. basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. November 20, 2008.
24. Web site: Larry Staverman Coaching Record. basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. November 20, 2008.
25. Web site: Cotton Fitzsimmons Coaching Record. basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. November 20, 2008.
26. Web site: Jack McKinney Coaching Record. basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. November 20, 2008.
27. Web site: Bill Russell Coaching Record. basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. November 20, 2008.
28. Web site: Dick Motta Coaching Record. basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. November 20, 2008.
29. Web site: Rex Hughes Coaching Record. basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. November 20, 2008.
30. Web site: Garry St. Jean Coaching Record. basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. November 20, 2008.
31. Web site: Eddie Jordan Coaching Record. basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. November 20, 2008.
32. Web site: Rick Adelman Coaching Record. basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. November 18, 2008.
33. Web site: Eric Musselman Coaching Record. basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. November 20, 2008.
34. Web site: Kenny Natt Coaching Record. basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. April 28, 2010.
35. Web site: Paul Westphal Coaching Record. basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. January 8, 2012.
36. Web site: Keith Smart Coaching Record. basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. December 18, 2012.
37. Web site: Mike Malone Coaching Record. basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. April 17, 2014.
38. Web site: Tyrone Corbin Coaching Record. basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. February 12, 2015.
39. Web site: George Karl Coaching Record. basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. February 12, 2015.
40. Web site: Dave Joerger Coaching Record. basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. May 9, 2016.
41. Web site: Luke Walton Coaching Record . Basketball-Reference.com . November 22, 2021.
42. Web site: Kings coach Mike Brown named NBCA Coach of the Year . 2023-04-14 . NBA.com . en.