Who Was the First Black NBA Coach?

The first African American head coach in the NBA was Bill Russell, who coached the Boston Celtics from 1966 to 1969.

The First Black NBA Coach

The first black NBA coach was Bill Russell, who was hired by the Boston Celtics in 1966. He had an illustrious playing career, winning 11 championships with the Celtics. As a coach, he led the Celtics to two more championships.

Lenny Wilkens

Lenny Wilkens was the first black coach in the NBA, hired by the Seattle SuperSonics in 1968. He was also the winningest coach in NBA history, with 1,332 victories over his 32-year career. Wilkens was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1998.

Bill Russell

Bill Russell was the first black head coach in the NBA. He coached the Boston Celtics from 1966 to 1969. He was also the first black coach in any major American sport.

K.C. Jones

On February 18, 1966, K.C. Jones became the first black head coach in the National Basketball Association when he was named head coach of the San Francisco Warriors. He would go on to lead the team to an NBA Championship in his first season as head coach.

Jones had a long and successful playing career prior to becoming a head coach. He was a member of the Boston Celtics from 1958-1967, winning eight NBA Championships as a player. He was also named to five All-Star teams and was named one of the NBA’s 50 Greatest Players in 1996.

After retiring from playing, Jones served as an assistant coach for the Seattle SuperSonics for two seasons before taking over as head coach of the Warriors. He would go on to win two more NBA Championships with the Warriors in 1975 and 1976.

Jones retired from coaching in 1983 and was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1989.

The First Black Head Coach in the NBA

On October 1, 1950, the Boston Celtics hired Chuck Cooper as the first black player in NBA history. Eleven years later, on April 7, 1961, the New York Knicks hired William “Red” Holzman as the league’s first black head coach.

Al Attles

In the National Basketball Association (NBA), there have been forty-six head coaches who are people of color. The first one was Al Attles, who coached the Golden State Warriors from 1968 to 1983. He is also a former player and the Warriors’ current ambassador. He was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2015.

Butch van Breda Kolff

Butch van Breda Kolff (born December 27, 1922) is an American former basketball player and coach. He was the first black head coach in the National Basketball Association (NBA).

Van Breda Kolff played college basketball at Lafayette College in Pennsylvania. After serving in the military during World War II, he played professional basketball for the Baltimore Bullets (1947–49) and the Syracuse Nationals (1950–51). He then became a head coach, leading Lafayette to the NCAA Men’s Division I Basketball Tournament in 1950 and 1954. He also coached at Hofstra University (1955–59), Stanford University (1959–68), and New Orleans Jazz (1974–75).

Despite his success as a coach, van Breda Kolff was not hired by an NBA team until 1974, when he was hired as the head coach of the New Orleans Jazz. He coached the Jazz for one season before being fired. He later sued the team, alleging that he had been discriminated against because of his race. The case was settled out of court.

Van Breda Kolff was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1991.

The First Black NBA Coach to Win a Championship

In 2007, the San Antonio Spurs made history by hiring the first black head coach in NBA history. Gregg Popovich coached the team to a win in the NBA Finals that year, making him the first black coach to ever win an NBA championship.

Doc Rivers

Doc Rivers is an American basketball coach and former player who is the head coach of the Los Angeles Clippers. He played college basketball at Marquette University and was drafted in the second round of the 1983 NBA draft by the Atlanta Hawks. He spent one year playing in the NBA before going on to have a successful career in broadcasting. Rivers was hired by the Orlando Magic in 1999 and led them to the playoffs in his first year. In 2000, he was named Coach of the Year after leading the Magic to a 61-win season. After four seasons with Orlando, Rivers was hired by the Boston Celtics in 2004. He went on to win the NBA Championship with the Celtics in 2008, becoming the first African American head coach to do so.

Tyronn Lue

In 2016, Tyronn Lue became the first black NBA coach to win a championship when his Cleveland Cavaliers defeated the Golden State Warriors in the NBA Finals. Lue, who played 11 seasons in the league before retiring in 2009, took over as head coach of the Cavs midway through the 2015-16 season.

Under Lue, the Cavs have made three straight trips to the NBA Finals, winning the title in 2016 and 2017. Prior to Lue’s breakthrough, no black head coach had ever led a team to an NBA championship.