Salary and contracts of NBA coaches

Have you ever wondered why information about coaches’ salaries in the NBA is so hard to find? I have.
Information about players’ salaries in the NBA is not only useful for fans but also they can be easily found in many, many, many places. The same can’t be said about coaches’ contracts and earnings!

I propose the open project for coaches’ contracts to create the most comprehensive and up to date database. In the last two days I spent way too many hours researching the hell out of google and this is what I’ve collected from last 11 seasons…

BTW, please remember about these notes:

• I do not have any inside information and I can’t guarantee accuracy any of these reports.
• All salaries are in millions of dollars.
• I don’t take into consideration future “Team Options” because it’s simply 1-year extension on a set scale.
• Right now I have 286 coaches’ salaries out of 379 possible but I hope thanks to you this list will grow…
• If you know any information behind “???” please let me know in the comments or via e-mail.
• All information provided by others can be found in the comments sections.
• “2013-14” season means either new contract which will take effect next year or simply next year of old one.
• The list is sorted descending by season and then ascending by city/team’s name.
• Some teams had more than one coach during given year so those teams show up more than once.
• I’ll update this post as often as needed/possible – LAST EDIT: 4 July 2013

Warning! Now it’s the time for long tables…

 

NBA Coaches without Coaching Experience

Mark Jackson was named Warriors’ head coach because “his leadership skills as a player more than outweighed his lack of coaching experience” and according to Sam Amick from SI.com:
Golden State’s future looking bright with the addition of Jackson.

What’s more, here’s another IMHO noteworthy quote:

“Sources said West was instrumental in the hiring, as he had made it clear he wasn’t looking for a ‘retread’ coach and that he preferred candidates who played the game professionally. That background and his national television spot clearly give Jackson credibility among the game’s modern-day players and could perhaps come in handy during free agency”

.

Is a long career as a player and huge bank of TV clichés enough for a coaching job in the NBA?
I mean no disrespect but if the answer is “no”, Jackson will fail, if “yes” what would it say to us about this job?
Well, we would rehash old topic about stat geeks and coaches and deck chairs.

On one hand I’ve heard a lot of complaints among fans that teams recycle the same coaches over and over, on the other hand I found it fascinating that there’s a highly paid job which requires no similar experience so I’ve decided to explore history for another examples of NBA coaches without coaching experience…

Thanks to basketball-reference.com we have a full list of coaches employed by the NBA but to cut this project into reasonable time I’ve decided to look only at coaches who coached in the last 10 years [exactly 100!] and who had no previous coaching experience either as an assistant or at other basketball levels. Here’s the full list: