Wednesday, April 29, 2009

NBA Coach of the Year facts

Last week Cleveland Cavaliers head coach Mike Brown received the Coach of the Year award in the NBA...here are some interesting facts about the annual award...

- Pat Riley (photo) is the only coach to receive the award three times...interestingly, each time he won the award, he was a head coach for a different team: Lakers (1989-90), Knicks (1992-92); Heat (1996-97)...

- Hubie Brown has the record for longest stretch between winning awards...Brown won his first award in 1977-78 as head coach of the Hawks...26 years later (2003-04), he won it again as coach of the Grizzlies...

- Gene Shue is second for the longest stretch between awards...in 1968-69 Shue won it as head coach of Baltimore...13 years later he received it as coach of Washington...

- Incredibly, these coaches never won the award: Jerry Sloan, Billy Cunningham, Jack Ramsey, Chuck Daly, Rudy Tomjanovich, K.C. Jones...

- Also, these coaches only won the award one time: Phil Jackson, Red Auerbach, Gregg Popovich, Red Holzman, Lenny Wilkens, Larry Brown...

- Harry Gallatin of the St. Louis Hawks won the first award in 1962-62...

- Larry Bird is the only person to win Coach of the Year and league MVP...

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