This is a list of NBA All-Star Game head coaches. The National Basketball Association All-Star Game is an annual basketball exhibition game held during the National Basketball Association (NBA) regular season. From 1951-2017, the All-Star Game was played between the Western Conference All-Stars and the Eastern Conference All-Stars, where the head coach for each All- Star team was the coach of the NBA team with the best record from their respective conference. To ensure that a different coach represents their conference each year, there is a rule against a head coach making a consecutive appearance. Instead, the coach with the next best record is selected. This rule is known as the "Riley Rule" and was introduced in the early 1990s after the dominance of the 1980s Los Angeles Lakers team in the Western Conference, which was coached by Pat Riley. For the 2018 NBA All-Star Game, the format of the game changed to be played between two team captains, from the Western and Eastern Conference respectively, where the selection of the other players for each team are selected from any conference. However, the rules in which the head coach is selected still stands. Red Auerbach, the head coach for the Boston Celtics between 1950-1966, was selected to coach in the NBA All-Star Game a record 11 times.
^ | Denotes coach who is currently coaching an NBA team |
* | Elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame as a coach |
*^ | Active NBA coach who has been elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame |
Coach (X) | Denotes the number of times the coach has been selected, up to and including that season |
A Red Auerbach stepped down from the Boston Celtics' head coaching position at the end of the 1965-66 season.
Year | Head coach | Team | All-Star Team | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|
2018 | Dwane Casey^ | Toronto Raptors | Team LeBron | [67] |
Mike D'Antoni^ (2) | Houston Rockets | Team Steph | ||
2019 | Mike Budenholzer^ (2) | Milwaukee Bucks | Team Giannis | [68] |
Michael Malone^ | Denver Nuggets | Team LeBron | ||
2020 | Nick Nurse^ | Toronto Raptors | Team Giannis | |
Frank Vogel^ (2) | Los Angeles Lakers | Team LeBron |
Head coach | # | Selections |
---|---|---|
Red Auerbach | 11 | 1957-1967 (East) |
Pat Riley | 9 | 1982-1983; 1985-1990 (West) 1993 (East) |
K. C. Jones | 5 | 1975; 1984-1987 (East) |
Fred Schaus | 5 | 1962-1964; 1966-1967 (West) |
John Kundla | 4 | 1951-1954 (West) |
Tom Heinsohn | 4 | 1972-1974; 1976 (East) |
Billy Cunningham | 4 | 1978; 1980-1981; 1983 (East) |
Lenny Wilkens | 4 | 1979-1980 (West) 1989; 1994 (East) |
Phil Jackson | 4 | 1992; 1996 (East) 2000; 2009 (West) |
George Karl | 4 | 1994; 1996; 1998; 2010 (West) |
Gregg Popovich | 4 | 2005; 2011; 2013; 2016 (West) |
Joe Lapchick | 3 | 1951; 1953-1954 (East) |
Bill Sharman | 3 | 1968; 1972-1973 (West) |
Alex Hannum | 3 | 1958; 1965 (West) 1968 (East) |
Rick Adelman | 3 | 1991; 2001; 2003 (West) |