The Brooklyn Nets are an American professional basketball team based in the New York City borough of Brooklyn. They are a member of the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference in the National Basketball Association (NBA). The team plays its home games at the Barclays Center. The franchise was founded as the New Jersey Americans in 1967, and was one of the eleven original American Basketball Association (ABA) teams. In its second ABA season, Arthur Brown, the team owner, moved the team to Long Island and renamed it the New York Nets. The team won ABA championships in 1974 and 1976. When the ABA merged with the NBA in 1976, the Nets were one of four ABA teams admitted into the NBA. The team was moved to the Rutgers Athletic Center in New Jersey; after the 1976–77 NBA season, the team was renamed the New Jersey Nets. Since they joined the NBA, the Nets have won 4 divisional championships, 2 conference championships and appeared in the playoffs 16 times.[1][2] The Nets moved to Brooklyn in 2012, and now play as the Brooklyn Nets.

There have been 24 head coaches for the Nets franchise. The franchise's first head coach was Max Zaslofsky, who led the team for two seasons. Kevin Loughery is the only Nets coach to have led the team to a championship; the Nets won ABA championships in 1974 and 1976 during his tenure.[3] Loughery is the franchise's all-time leader in regular season games coached (615) and wins (297); P. J. Carlesimo is the franchise's all-time leader in regular season winning percentage (.648).[3][4] Byron Scott is the franchise's all-time leader in playoff games coached (40) and wins (25), as well as playoff-game winning percentage (.625).[5] Chuck Daly and Bill Fitch were selected as two of the top 10 coaches in NBA history.[6] Daly, Brown and Lou Carnesecca are the only Nets coaches to have been inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame as coaches.[7][8][9] Zaslofsky, York Larese, Lou Carnesecca, Dave Wohl, Butch Beard, John Calipari, Tom Barrise, and Kiki Vandeweghe spent their entire coaching careers with the Nets/Americans.[10][9][11][12][13]

Key

GC Games coached
W Wins
L Losses
Win% Winning percentage
# Number of coaches[a]
* Spent entire ABA/NBA head coaching career with the Americans/Nets
† Elected into the Basketball Hall of Fame as a coach
*† Elected into the Basketball Hall of Fame as a coach and spent entire ABA/NBA head coaching career with the Americans/Nets

Coaches

Note: Statistics are correct through the firing of Vaughn during the 2023–24 season.

# Name Term[b] GC W L Win% GC W L Win% Achievements Reference
Regular season Playoffs
New Jersey Americans
1 Max Zaslofsky* 1967–1968 78 36 42 .462 — — — — [14]
New York Nets
— Max Zaslofsky* 1968–1969 78 17 61 .218 — — — — [14]
2 York Larese* 1969–1970 84 39 45 .464 7 3 4 .429 [10]
3 Lou Carnesecca*† 1970–1973 252 114 138 .452 30 13 17 .433 [9]
4 Kevin Loughery 1973–1977 334 190 144 .569 32 21 11 .656 2 ABA championships (1974, 1976) [3]
New Jersey Nets
— Kevin Loughery 1977–1980 281 107 174 .381 2 0 2 .000 [3]
— Bob MacKinnon 1980–1981 47 12 35 .255 — — — — [15]
5 Larry Brown† 1981–1983 158 91 67 .576 2 0 2 .000 [8]
6 Bill Blair 1983 6 2 4 .333 2 0 2 .000 [16]
7 Stan Albeck 1983–1985 164 87 77 .530 14 5 9 .357 [17]
8 Dave Wohl* 1985–1987 179 65 114 .363 3 0 3 .000 [11]
9 Bob MacKinnon 1987–1988 39 10 29 .256 — — — — [15]
10 Willis Reed 1988–1989 110 33 77 .300 — — — — [18]
11 Bill Fitch† 1989–1992 246 83 163 .337 4 1 3 .250 One of the top 10 coaches in NBA history[6] [19]
12 Chuck Daly† 1992–1994 164 88 76 .537 9 3 6 .333 One of the top 10 coaches in NBA history[6] [7]
13 Butch Beard* 1994–1996 164 60 104 .366 — — — — [12]
14 John Calipari*† 1996–1999 184 72 112 .391 3 0 3 .000 [13]
15 Don Casey 1999–2000 112 44 68 .393 — — — — [20]
16 Byron Scott 2000–2004 288 149 139 .517 40 25 15 .625 2 straight NBA Finals appearances[21] [5]
17 Lawrence Frank 2004–2009 466 225 241 .483 38 18 20 .474 [22]
— Tom Barrise* 2009 2 0 2 .000 — — — — [23]
18 Kiki Vandeweghe* 2009–2010 64 12 52 .188 — — — — [24]
19 Avery Johnson 2010–2012 148 46 102 .311 — — — — [25]
Brooklyn Nets
— Avery Johnson 2012 28 14 14 .500 — — — — [25]
— P. J. Carlesimo 2012–2013 54 35 19 .648 7 3 4 .429 [4]
20 Jason Kidd 2013–2014 82 44 38 .537 12 5 7 .417 [26]
21 Lionel Hollins 2014–2016 119 48 71 .403 6 2 4 .333 [27]
— Tony Brown* 2016 45 11 34 .244 — — — — [28]
22 Kenny Atkinson* 2016–2020 308 118 190 .383 5 1 4 .200 [29]
— Jacque Vaughn 2020 10 7 3 .700 4 0 4 .000 [30]
23 Steve Nash* 2020–2022 161 94 67 .584 16 7 9 .438 [31]
24 Jacque Vaughn 2022–2024 129 64 65 .496 4 0 4 .000 [30]
— Kevin Ollie* 2024–present 0 0 0 – — — — – [32]

Notes

  1. ^ A running total of the number of coaches of the Americans/Nets. Thus, any coach who has two or more separate terms as head coach is only counted once.
  2. ^ Each year is linked to an article about that particular NBA season, except for the seasons spent in the ABA.

References

General
  • "New Jersey Nets Coach Register". basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved November 22, 2008.
Specific
  1. ^ "New Jersey Nets History". CBS Sports. CBS Interactive. Retrieved November 22, 2008.
  2. ^ "New Jersey Nets History". NBA.com. Turner Sports Interactive, Inc. Archived from the original on August 19, 2010. Retrieved November 23, 2008.
  3. ^ a b c d "Kevin Loughery Coaching Record". basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved November 22, 2008.
  4. ^ a b "P. J. Carlesimo Coaching Record". basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved April 17, 2014.
  5. ^ a b "Byron Scott Coaching Record". basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved November 22, 2008.
  6. ^ a b c "Top 10 Coaches in NBA History". NBA.com. Turner Sports Interactive, Inc. Archived from the original on January 19, 2010. Retrieved November 22, 2008.
  7. ^ a b "Chuck Daly Coaching Record". basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved November 22, 2008.
  8. ^ a b "Larry Brown Coaching Record". basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved November 22, 2008.
  9. ^ a b c "Lou Carnesecca Coaching Record". basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved November 22, 2008.
  10. ^ a b "York Larese Coaching Record". basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved November 22, 2008.
  11. ^ a b "Dave Wohl Coaching Record". basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved November 22, 2008.
  12. ^ a b "Butch Beard Coaching Record". basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved November 22, 2008.
  13. ^ a b "John Calipari Coaching Record". basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved November 22, 2008.
  14. ^ a b "Max Zaslofsky Coaching Record". basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved November 22, 2008.
  15. ^ a b "Bob MacKinnon Coaching Record". basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved November 22, 2008.
  16. ^ "Bill Blair Coaching Record". basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved November 22, 2008.
  17. ^ "Stan Albeck Coaching Record". basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved November 22, 2008.
  18. ^ "Willis Reed Coaching Record". basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved November 22, 2008.
  19. ^ "Bill Fitch Coaching Record". basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved November 22, 2008.
  20. ^ "Don Casey Coaching Record". basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved November 22, 2008.
  21. ^ "Scott fired by division-leading Nets". ESPN. 2004-01-27. Retrieved 2015-04-02.
  22. ^ "Lawrence Frank Coaching Record". basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved November 22, 2008.
  23. ^ "Tom Barrise Coaching Record". basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved December 13, 2009.
  24. ^ "Kiki Vandeweghe Coaching Record". basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved December 13, 2009.
  25. ^ a b "Avery Johnson Coaching Record". basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved December 18, 2012.
  26. ^ "Jason Kidd Coaching Record". basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved April 17, 2014.
  27. ^ "Lionel Hollins Coaching Record". basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved July 7, 2015.
  28. ^ "Tony Brown Coaching Record". basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved March 31, 2016.
  29. ^ "Kenny Atkinson Coaching Record". basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved June 30, 2021.
  30. ^ a b "Jacque Vaughn Coaching Record". basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved December 18, 2012.
  31. ^ "Steve Nash Coaching Record". basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved June 30, 2021.
  32. ^ "Kevin Ollie Coaching Record". basketball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved February 20, 2024.

Categories