List of Sacramento Kings head coaches
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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, Cotton Fitzsimmons, and Mike Brown have won NBA Coach of the Year with the Kings, in the 1974–75, 1978–79, and 2022–23 seasons respectively.[3][4][5] 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.[6][7][8][9][10][11][12] Wanzer, Tom Marshall, Jack McMahon, Cousy, Larry Staverman, Adelman and Theus formerly played for the Kings.[13][14][15][16][17][18][19] The Kings are currently owned by Vivek Ranadivé, with former Knicks General Manager Scott Perry as the general manager and Doug Christie as the head coach.
Key
| GC | Games coached |
| W | Wins |
| L | Losses |
| Win% | Winning percentage |
| # | Number of coaches[a] |
| * | Spent entire NBA head coaching career with the Kings |
Coaches
Note: Statistics are correct through the end of the 2025–26 season. The list does not include NBL seasons.
| # | Name | Term[b] | GC | W | L | Win% | GC | W | L | Win% | Achievements | Reference |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Regular season | Playoffs | |||||||||||
| 1 | Les Harrison* | 1948–1955 | 476 | 296 | 181 | .620 | 38 | 19 | 19 | .500 | 1 Championship (1951) | [20] |
| 2 | Bobby Wanzer* | 1955–1957 (as player-coach) 1957–1958 |
234 | 98 | 126 | .418 | 2 | 0 | 2 | .000 | [6] | |
| 3 | Tom Marshall | 1958–1959 (as player-coach) 1959–1960 |
129 | 35 | 94 | .271 | — | — | — | — | [21] | |
| 4 | Charles Wolf | 1960–1963 | 239 | 118 | 121 | .494 | 16 | 7 | 9 | .438 | [22] | |
| 5 | Jack McMahon | 1963–1967 | 321 | 187 | 134 | .583 | 23 | 8 | 15 | .348 | [23] | |
| 6 | Ed Jucker* | 1967–1969 | 164 | 80 | 84 | .488 | — | — | — | — | [7] | |
| 7 | Bob Cousy* | 1969–1970 (as player-coach) 1970–1973 |
350 | 141 | 209 | .403 | — | — | — | — | [8] | |
| 8 | Draff Young* | 1973 | 3 | 0 | 3 | .000 | — | — | — | — | [9] | |
| 9 | Phil Johnson | 1973–1978 | 340 | 155 | 185 | .456 | 6 | 2 | 4 | .333 | 1974–75 NBA Coach of the Year[3] | [24] |
| 10 | Larry Staverman | 1978 | 45 | 18 | 27 | .400 | — | — | — | — | [25] | |
| 11 | Cotton Fitzsimmons | 1978–1984 | 492 | 248 | 244 | .504 | 26 | 9 | 17 | .346 | 1978–79 NBA Coach of the Year[3] | [26] |
| 12 | Jack McKinney | 1984 | 9 | 1 | 8 | .111 | — | — | — | — | [27] | |
| — | Phil Johnson | 1984–1987 | 201 | 81 | 120 | .403 | 3 | 0 | 3 | .000 | [24] | |
| 13 | Jerry Reynolds* | 1987 | 60 | 22 | 38 | .367 | — | — | — | — | [10] | |
| 14 | Bill Russell | 1987–1988 | 58 | 17 | 41 | .293 | — | — | — | — | [28] | |
| — | Jerry Reynolds* | 1988–1990 | 110 | 34 | 76 | .309 | — | — | — | — | [10] | |
| 15 | Dick Motta | 1990–1991 | 161 | 48 | 113 | .298 | — | — | — | — | [29] | |
| 16 | Rex Hughes | 1991–1992 | 57 | 22 | 35 | .386 | — | — | — | — | [30] | |
| 17 | Garry St. Jean | 1992–1997 | 395 | 159 | 236 | .403 | 4 | 1 | 3 | .250 | [31] | |
| 18 | Eddie Jordan | 1997–1998 | 97 | 33 | 64 | .340 | — | — | — | — | [32] | |
| 19 | Rick Adelman† | 1998–2006 | 624 | 395 | 229 | .633 | 69 | 34 | 35 | .493 | [33] | |
| 20 | Eric Musselman | 2006–2007 | 82 | 33 | 49 | .402 | — | — | — | — | [34] | |
| 21 | Reggie Theus* | 2007–2008 | 106 | 44 | 62 | .415 | — | — | — | — | [11] | |
| 22 | Kenny Natt* | 2008–2009 | 58 | 11 | 47 | .190 | — | — | — | — | [35] | |
| 23 | Paul Westphal | 2009–2012 | 171 | 51 | 120 | .298 | — | — | — | — | [36] | |
| 24 | Keith Smart | 2012–2013 | 141 | 48 | 93 | .340 | — | — | — | — | [37] | |
| 25 | Michael Malone | 2013–2014 | 106 | 39 | 67 | .368 | — | — | — | — | [38] | |
| 26 | Tyrone Corbin | 2014–2015 | 28 | 7 | 21 | .250 | — | — | — | — | [39] | |
| 27 | George Karl† | 2015–2016 | 112 | 44 | 68 | .393 | — | — | — | — | [40] | |
| 28 | Dave Joerger | 2016–2019 | 246 | 98 | 148 | .398 | — | — | — | — | [41] | |
| 29 | Luke Walton | 2019–2021 | 161 | 68 | 93 | .422 | — | — | — | — | [42] | |
| 30 | Alvin Gentry | 2021–2022 | 65 | 24 | 41 | .369 | — | — | — | — | ||
| 31 | Mike Brown | 2022–2024 | 195 | 107 | 88 | .549 | 7 | 3 | 4 | .429 | 2022–23 NBA Coach of the Year | [5] |
| 32 | Doug Christie | 2024–present | 133 | 49 | 84 | .368 | 0 | 0 | 0 | – | ||
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