NBA Coach Of The Year Award
The National Basketball Association's Coach of the Year is an annual National Basketball Association (NBA) award given since the 1962–63 NBA season. The winner receives the Red Auerbach Trophy, which is named in honor of the head coach who led the Boston Celtics to nine NBA Championships from 1956 to 1966. The winner is selected at the end of regular season by a panel of sportswriters from the United States and Canada, each of whom casts a vote for first, second and third place selections. Each first-place vote is worth five points; each second-place vote is worth three points; and each third-place vote is worth one point. The person with the highest point total, regardless of the number of first-place votes, wins the award.
Since its inception, the award has been given to 40 different coaches. The most recent award winner is San Antonio Spurs' head coach Gregg Popovich. Don Nelson and Pat Riley each won the award three times, while Hubie Brown, Bill Fitch, Cotton Fitzsimmons, Gregg Popovich and Gene Shue have each won it twice. No coach has won consecutive Coach of the Year awards. Riley is the only coach to be named Coach of the Year with three different franchises. Larry Bird is the only recipient to have also been named MVP as a player. Bill Sharman and Lenny Wilkens are the only recipients to have been inducted to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as both player and coach. Johnny Kerr is the only person to win the award with a losing record (33–48 with the Chicago Bulls in 1966–67). Kerr was honored because he had guided the Bulls to the NBA Playoffs in their first season in the league.
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