The National Basketball Association's Coach of the Month award has been presented monthly by the National Basketball Association (NBA) since the 1982âÂÂ83 NBA season. It recognizes coaches for their outstanding performance during a given month. Since the 2002-2003 NBA season, the award has honored two coaches each monthâÂÂone from the Eastern Conference and one from the Western ConferenceâÂÂto equally recognize both conferences. The first recipient of the award in November 1982 was Scotty Robertson, coach of the Detroit Pistons, whose team held an 11-6 record that month.
As of March 2025, the most recent winners of the Coach of the Month award are Mark Daigneault of the Oklahoma City Thunder (Western Conference) and J.B. Bickerstaff of the Detroit Pistons (Eastern Conference).
Like the Coach of the Year award, the Coach of the Month award is determined through evaluation of a team's win-loss record, scoring, defense, and other performance factors. Over 23 years, the award has been presented 362 times, with several coaches receiving it multiple times within a single season. A total of 99 coaches have received the award, with coach Gregg Popovich earning it a record seventeen times.
Among the top five most recognized coaches, Popovich is the only one to have won exclusively with one team, the San Antonio Spurs. The other four most recognized coaches are Doc Rivers (fourteen wins), George Karl (twelve wins), Phil Jackson (eleven wins), and Pat Riley (eleven wins). Notably, George Karl holds the record for winning with six different teams during his tenure as a coach, while Doc Rivers and Pat Riley won with three teams, and Phil Jackson with two.
While there are approximately ten coaches who have won the award in back-to-back months of the same season, only four coaches have won the award three times in one season. These coaches are Tom Thibodeau with the Chicago Bulls during the 2010-2011 season, Mike Brown with the Cleveland Cavaliers during the 2008-2009 season, Doc Rivers with the Boston Celtics during the 2007-2008 season, and Flip Saunders with the Detroit Pistons during the 2005-2006 season, the first coach to ever do so. Of these four coaches, only Doc Rivers and the Boston Celtics went on to win the 2008 NBA Finals (4-2) against the Los Angeles Lakers.