Rational Discussion: Is Popovich the greatest head coach in NBA history?

Spurs meritorious coach Popovich officially announced his resignation, ending his 29-year coaching career. In these 29 seasons, Popovich has brought 1,422 regular season wins to the Spurs, ranking first in history. In the playoffs, it won 170 victories, second only to Riley and Phil Jackson. In fact, Bobo's playoff wins are only one game less than Riley, and unfortunately he has no chance to surpass them.

Popovich has never changed teams throughout his coaching career, bringing 5 championships to the Spurs, and training top power forwards in history like Duncan, as well as Hall of Fame players like Robinson, Parker, and Ginobili.

So in the entire NBA history, is Popovich the greatest head coach?

If you are talking about honors, Phil Jackson was stronger than Popovich at the same time. He coached the Bulls and the Lakers, and won 11 championships in his coaching career. There were 229 wins in the playoffs, the first in history, and 1,155 wins in the regular season.

Riley won 5 championships in total and 1,210 regular season wins. However, later Riley retreated more and served as the general manager of the Heat, and his coaching career was not as long as Popovich.

There is another character that must be mentioned, which is the legendary head coach of the Celtics. He coached the Celtics for 16 years and won 9 championships, including an 8-game winning streak! This honor should be difficult for future generations to break.

Compared with Auerbach and Phil Jackson, Popovich's honor is certainly not as good as theirs. But Popovich created the Spurs dynasty with one hand, allowing the Spurs to reach the highest podium in the NBA from a small team in a small city. If Popovich hadn't been Popovich, the Spurs might be similar to those of the Hornets and Grizzlies.

In addition, Popovich's coaching career has also brought out many "students and grandchildren". For example, Cole of the Warriors, Malone of the Nuggets, Brown of the Kings, Hardy of the Jazz, Uduka of the Rockets, Budenholzer of the Suns, Jenkins of the Grizzlies, etc. Among the active members this season, at least more than 20 NBA head coaches or assistant coaches are from the Spurs and have all studied with Popovich.

If you only look at influence, then Popovich is definitely the GOAT in the coaching world. In all aspects, even if Popovich is not the best coach in NBA history, he can at least rank in the top three. Do all the fans agree with this view?