The Los Angeles Lakers have an illustrious history, but they haven't had a stellar record of late with regards to the tenure of head coaches. Testament to this fact is that the Purple & Gold have had seven different head coaches over the past decade, including three of them in a single season (2012-13). However, Frank Vogel did win an NBA title in 2020.
While he does have some potential, Vogel is still a ways away from becoming one of the greatest Lakers head coaches in franchise history, because there have been some great men manning the sidelines.
Here are our top three Lakers coaches of all time.
John Kundla
John Kundla was calling the shot for the Lakers even before they moved to L.A. Then with the Minneapolis Lakers, Kundla led the team to five titles in the league's first six years of existence. He was the driving force that spearheaded the dominance of the Lakers in the 1950s, with the great George Mikan serving as his star player.
Kundla coached in the league for just 11 seasons, opting to stay in Minnesota when the team moved to L.A. He holds one of the most impressive win-loss records in franchise history with a total of 423 wins and 302 losses (.583 win-loss percentage).
Kundla passed away in July 2017 at the ripe age of 101, and he was included by the league as one of the top-10 coaches in NBA history.
Pat Riley
Right now, Pat Riley is reputably known as the architect behind the Miami Heat's sustained level of competitiveness in the league. The 75-year-old has been the Heat's president since 2008, and there's no denying that he has done a great job with the franchise. However, before he became one of the NBA's top executives, Riley was also an excellent head coach.
Riley was the head coach of three of the biggest teams in the NBA: the Heat, the New York Knicks, and of course, the Lakers. What puts him on this top-three list is how he led L.A. to its dynasty in the 1980s.
Riley started off as an assistant coach with the Lakers in 1979 before finally being promoted to the head coach post in 1981. He made an immediate impact, leading the “Showtime Lakers” of Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to a championship in Riley's debut season as a head coach. They went on to win three more championships after that, bringing Riley's total tally to four titles with the Lakers during a decorated nine-year stint.
Phil Jackson
Phil Jackson is one of the best coaches in NBA history, if not the best. The Zen Master won a record 11 championships throughout his coaching career, with five of those titles coming with the Lakers. The other six came during his time with the Chicago Bulls alongside the great Michael Jordan.
Jackson joined the Lakers franchise in 1999, coming off his second three-peat with the Bulls. Sure enough, he would carry on with his winning ways in L.A., guiding the Lakers to another three-peat between 2000 and 2002 during the Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant era.
Jackson parted ways with the Lakers for the 2004-05 season, but he made his return the following campaign. He then won another two titles in L.A. with Bryant at the helm, as they went back-to-back in 2009 and 2010.
Jackson holds a win-loss record of 610-292 (.676 win-loss percentage) and currently holds the record for the most wins in Lakers franchise history.
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