Who's the better basketball coach: Phil Jackson, Larry Brown, or Pat Riley?

Answer 1

Phil Jackson. 9 championships, and he's nowhere close to retiring. Before all is said and done, Phil will have the most championships for any coach, breaking the record set by the late Red Auerbach.

Answer 2

Phil Jackson has 9 rings and has managed a team with Shaq and Kobe, a team with egos like Jordan, Pippen, and above all RODMAN....he is the best coach of all time

Riles was the Zen Master of the 80s and he took Shaq to another title last year

Larry Brown is the one coach you can depend on to take a team from last to first (unless that team is managed by Isaiah Thomas, of course) and even win a title every now and then, but the fact that he never stays in one place for more than a few years makes him a real handful.

Answer 3

Phil Jackson

Answer 4

Larry Brown is overrated, Phil Jackson is the best coach

Answer 5

My vote goes to Pat Riley. With all due respect to their accomplishments, PJ and Larry are one trick ponies, PJ with his triangle and Larry Brown with his reputation. PJ has had the benefit of taking over great teams and taking them over the hump. Larry Brown, for all his years, has only one championship and he also has had the benefit of inheriting a great team from Rick Carlisle.

Riley has had to overcome more adversity to win. He also inherited a "ready-made" team with the Los Angeles Lakers in 1981-82, but that was after Paul Westhead was fired and the team was in discord. Yet, Riley was able to take that team in midseason, survive the career threatening injury to starting power forward Mitch Kupchak (yes, the current Laker manager) and win the championship against Julius Erving and the 76ers.

While winning, Riley (and GM Jerry West) have been amazing in continuing to trade for and draft new championship caliber talent, something I have yet to see PJ and Larry do. The Lakers traded for Byron Scott, drafted James Worthy and AC Green, and the Lakers continued to win.

In 1985, the Lakers were blown out in game 1 of the Finals by the Celtics to the score of 148-114. Riley was able to make some great defensive and offensive adjustments and the result was that the Lakers won four of the next five games, and the only Celtic win was because of a last second tiebreaker by Dennis Johnson in game 4. Larry Bird even said that while he didn't know it at the time, Riley is a great coach because of his ability to make rapid and effective game to game adjustments, and even style adjustments.

In 1986 the Lakers lost to the Rockets, so Riley restructured the Laker offense and defense, making Magic Johnson the focus of the offense so as to make the offense less predictable. It is a testament to Riley's coaching that he got longtime Laker center Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to relinquish his scoring in favor of Magic. I can't help but compare that to how PJ handled the Kobe-Shaq feud and how Larry Brown handled Iverson previously and the Knicks last year. Anyway, the result was that the 87 Lakers won 65 games and basically destroyed everyone on the way to the championship. And then he motivated the team by "guaranteeing" a repeat championship in 88 and then they indeed won it. Riley could have been the first coach to Three-Peat since auerbach except that Magic Johnson and Byron Scott were injured in the 89 finals.

When Riley went to the Knicks, he totally rebuilt that team and adapted his style to fit the players. Despite being associated with the Showtime Lakers, Riley totally changed his style when working with the defensive talents of the Knicks. That's unprecedented versatility. Same with Miami - he rebuilt that team from scratch not once, not twice but THREE times, finally winning it last year.

Riley has his faults, for sure, but his strengths make up for them. He is a master motivator like Jackson, but unlike Jackson he can keep his players in harmony. Riley has proven that teams he takes over can overcome losing traditions and win even after he is gone. He can build winners instead of just taking over ready made teams.

And Red Auerbach considered Riley better. If the late, great, legendary Red Auerbach thinks Riley is better, then so should we.

Answer 6

Pat of course....He has won with every team where he has been...I like Phil but he has not done anything since the "Big Aristotle" has left and he came back. I'm with Shaq he is a "Benedict Arnold". He retires, blast Kobe In his non-seller, then have the nerve to come back to Los Angles because they gave him xtra 000. "Its all about the Principle Smokey" Shaq left because LA was foul and Pat is doing his thang as Coach,GM/President. So Pat did it with "Showtime in LA' with Magic, Kareem, James, B-Scott, and in New York (NBA Finals) and the Miami Heat. So Phil only done with "Superstars" and only having Kobe proves that. O yeah and Larry Brown..I can not stand him because he beat my Heat in 2005.

Answer 7

Phil Jackson hands down. He has 9 championships from like 15 years of coaching. that is amazing!

Answer 8

phil is the best of the three, the number of championships says it all

larry is next best, he has probably tarnished his reputation to some degree with the debacle in new york, but he has a great history of turning bad teams around and is the only coach to win an nba and ncaa championship

pat riley is last, but that takes nothing away from him...he's a great coach who never really has had signature victories to prove it

Answer 9

Phil jackson. Plus, he got into the basketball Hall of Fame today.

Answer 10

I'd have to go with the Zen Master, Phil Jackson. he has 9 championship rings, and they were all three peats... thats pretty impressive. Of course he coached player like MJ, Shaq, and Kobe, but thats what makes him better. his ablility to coach a super star.