Most of the big bucks in the NBA go to players but there are more than a few coaches working on hefty contracts. The changing dynamics of the league mean that most of the biggest contracts in coaching history are among the most recent.
There is, of course, a difference between annual salary (average annual value, or AAV), and total contract value, so that will be specified throughout this list. Additionally, coaching contracts are often not made public, so it can be difficult to know the exact details of each coach's agreement.
But with publicly available information, here are the five highest-paid coaches in NBA history.
5. Nick Nurse, Toronto Raptors — 4 years, $32 millon
Though Nurse is now the head coach of the Philadelphia 76ers, the reason he makes this list is the extension that he signed with the Raptors back in 2020, which would reportedly pay him $32 million over the course of four seasons. He did not make it to the end of his deal with Toronto, as he was fired following the 2022-23 campaign. His contract with Philly could be worth a similar amount, but numbers for that aren't readily available.
Nurse had an excellent two-year run to begin his coaching career, as he won 111 games over his first two seasons with the Raptors, including leading them to their first-ever NBA Championship in 2018-2019. Since Kawhi Leonard moved on, however, Toronto hasn't been a very good team, and Nurse was let go after finishing 41-41 last season.
Now, he has a chance to lead a talented 76ers team back to the playoffs, provided the James Harden situation can be remedied.
4. Erik Spoelstra, Miami Heat — $8 million per year
The second-longest-tenured coach in the league, Spoelstra has led the Heat since the 2008 season and signed his current contract in 2019, which was a four-year deal. That means he's in the final season of that agreement and is due for a new one.
According to ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski, Spoelstra could be in line to receive upwards of $20 million per year on his next contract, which would (spoiler alert) vault him up to first place on this list. He has won 704 regular season games, two NBA titles, and six Eastern Conference championships. Spoelstra has nine Coach of the Month awards to his name but has never won Coach of the Year. He did, however, make the NBA 75's 15 Greatest Head Coaches of All Time list compiled last year, which is a remarkable achievement.
The future Hall of Famer is only 52 years old and still has plenty of quality years left, so Miami would do well to lock him up long-term before the coaching contract bubble explodes even further. Each new deal for a top coach will continually reset the market, and there's no doubt that Spoelstra is an excellent coach who should remain with the Heat for a long time, so Pat Riley and co. need to get ahead of the next coach on this list in order to save some serious cash
3. Steve Kerr, Golden State Warriors — $8 million to $9.5 million per year
Kerr reportedly earns an annual salary of around $8 million to $9.5 million, and since his current contract (which he is in the final year of) was for five years, we can infer the total value of his current deal was in the neighborhood of $40 million to $48 million. Given the contracts recently signed by the next two coaches on this list, the nine-time NBA champions (five as a player, four as a coach) he is next in line to set a new league record, likely seeing a salary that surpasses $20 million annually.
Given his track record, it would be a big surprise if Kerr were not the highest-paid coach in league history a year from now. The Warriors are approaching the end of the Stephen Curry era, as the league's all-time greatest shooter is now 35 years old. The team will want to maximize the remaining title window that they have, and in order to do that, they'll need to make sure Kerr is under contract. Whether or not he'll desire to stick around for the inevitable rebuild remains to be seen, but in the meantime, another NBA championship is certainly a realistic possibility for this group, and Kerr's coaching prowess is a main reason why.
2. Monty Williams, Detroit Pistons — 6 years, $78.5 million
Williams' deal pays him over $13 million per season, a mark that stood as the all-time record for about one month. He got his start in 2005-06 as an assistant for the Portland Trail Blazers and was hired as the head coach of the New Orleans Hornets in 2009-10. He led New Orleans to two playoff appearances in five seasons, but the team was unable to make their way out of the first round in both years.
Following his exit from Louisiana, Williams spent one year as the associate head coach for the Oklahoma City Thunder, but in February of 2016, his wife tragically passed away, and Williams spent the next two seasons away coaching while serving as vice president of basketball operations for the San Antonio Spurs.
He returned to coaching as an assistant with the Philadelphia 76ers in 2018-19 and then was hired as the head coach by the Phoenix Suns the next season. He won 62.8 percent of his games in Phoenix and led the Suns to the NBA Finals in 2020-21. He had signed a contract extension in 2022, but less than a year later was fired.
1. Gregg Popovich, San Antonio Spurs — 5 years, $80 million
No one in the league is more deserving of the title of highest-paid coach than Popovich, who just recently inked a deal that pays him $16 million per year. Now 74 years old, Popovich also functions as the president of the San Antonio Spurs and has been leading the team since 1996.
He's won an impressive 64.2 percent of his regular-season games for a total of 1,366. He's made the playoffs 22 times in his 28 seasons of coaching, most recently in 2018-19. The Spurs have been rebuilding since then, but now have a unicorn centerpiece in Victor Wembanyama, and it is possible that this is the final contract of Pop's coaching career, and what a career it has been. He has led the Spurs to six NBA Finals appearances, taking home five championships. He has won 17 Coach of the Month awards and won Coach of the Year three times.
Popovich is a living legend, and truly one of the game's all-time greatest coaches. He may not remain the richest coach for too much longer, but his salary relative to his peers has nothing to do with the unrivaled legacy he's created. Spurs fans have been fortunate to watch Popovich lead a dynasty that spanned three decades, and now, he'll wrap up his career by preparing the team for its next era of success.