The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a major professional basketball league in North America. It was founded in 1946 as the Basketball Association of America (BAA). The league adopted its current name at the start of the 1949–50 season when it merged with the National Basketball League (NBL). The league consists of 30 teams, of which 29 are located in the United States and one in Canada.
In the NBA, a head coach is the highest ranking coach of a coaching staff. They typically hold a more public profile and are paid more than the assistant coaches. Lenny Wilkens has coached the most regular season games. He has coached 2,487 games with six teams in 32 seasons. Don Nelson, has won the most regular season games and also coached the second most regular season games after Wilkens. He has coached 2,398 games and has won 1,335 games with four teams in 31 seasons. Bill Fitch, Jerry Sloan and Larry Brown are the only other coaches who have coached more than 2,000 regular season games. 23 other head coaches have coached more than 1,000 regular season games. Two of those coaches, Gregg Popovich and Al Attles, have spent their entire coaching career with one team. Popovich has coached 1,574 games with the San Antonio Spurs in his 20-year career, while Attles has coached 1,075 games with the Warriors franchise in his 14-year career. Jerry Sloan has coached 1,809 regular season games, the most games coached with one team, during his 23-year career with the Utah Jazz. Larry Brown has coached 9 different teams, the highest number of teams coached among the head coaches.