Rudy Tomjanovich has the most wins as Rockets head coach.
The Houston Rockets are an American professional Basketball team based in Houston, Texas. They are a member of the Southwest Division of the Western Conference in the National Basketball Association (NBA). They play their home games at Toyota Center. Founded by Robert Breitbard in San Diego, the team first joined the NBA in 1967 as an Expansion team. After four losing seasons, however, the team was sold to a group of investors based in Houston, Texas.
There have been 11 Head coaches for the Houston Rockets franchise. Jack McMahon, the team's first head coach, compiled a 61–129 record during his tenure. Rudy Tomjanovich, who led the Rockets to their two championships, is the franchise's all-time leader in both regular-season and playoff games coached and wins. Alex Hannum is the only Rockets coach to have been inducted into the Basketball. Tom Nissalke and Don Chaney were named Coach of the Year during their tenures as head coaches. Both Tex Winter and Johnny Egan have spent their entire coaching career with the Rockets. Egan, Tomjanovich, and Rick Adelman formerly played for the Rockets. The Rockets are owned by Leslie Alexander and coached by Adelman.
Key[]
| # | Number of coaches |
| GC | Games Coached |
| W | Wins |
| L | Loses |
| W–L % | Win–Loss percentage |
| † | Elected to the Basketball |
| * | Spent entire coaching career with the Rockets |
Coaches[]
Note: Statistics are correct through the end of the 2007–08 season.
| # | Name | Term | Regular Season | Playoffs | Achievements | Reference | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GC | W | L | W–L % | GC | W | L | |||||||||||
| San Diego Rockets | |||||||||||||||||
| 1 | Jack McMahon | 1968–1970 | 190 | 61 | 129 | .321 | 6 | 2 | 4 | [1] | |||||||
| 6 | Del Harris | 1979–1983 | 328 | 141 | 187 | .430 | 31 | 15 | 16 | ||||||||
| 7 | Bill Fitch | 1983–1988 | 410 | 216 | 194 | .527 | 39 | 21 | 18 | One of the top 10 coaches in NBA history | |||||||
| 8 | Don Chaney | 1988–1992 | 298 | 164 | 134 | .550 | 1 | 2 | 9 | 1990–91 NBA Coach of the Year[2] | |||||||
| 9 | Rudy Tomjanovich | 1992–2003 | 900 | 503 | 397 | .559 | 90 | 51 | 39 | 2 Championships (1994, 1995) | [3] | ||||||
| 10 | Jeff Van Gundy | 2003–2007 | 328 | 182 | 146 | .555 | 19 | 7 | 12 | ||||||||
| 11 | Rick Adelman | 2007–08 season–present | 82 | 55 | 27 | .671 | 6 | 2 | 4 | ||||||||
Notes[]
- A running total of the number of coaches of the Rockets. Thus, any coach who has two or more separate terms as head coach is only counted once.
- Each year is linked to an article about that particular NBA season.