Mark Daigneault is coaching in the NBA Finals at 40 years old: who is the youngest coach to win a championship ring?

The NBA’s never been shy about putting the spotlight on fresh faces. In a league that thrives on talent, youth isn’t just on the court – it’s on the bench too. You only have to look at Mark Daigneault, the Oklahoma City Thunder’s 40-year-old head coach, who has them tied 2-2 in the 2025 NBA Finals against the Indiana Pacers. It’s his first Finals appearance, five years into a quietly methodical rebuild. But while his age puts him among the younger title contenders in coaching history, it doesn’t make him the youngest.

Not by a long shot.

How young is “young” in NBA coaching?

The answer to this question depends on how far back you want to go. If you’re sticking to the modern NBA, Joe Mazzulla is the one to beat. Just last year, the Boston Celtics head coach guided his team to a five-game Finals win over the Mavericks. Mazzulla was 35 years and 353 days old, making him the youngest coach to win an NBA title since 1970, younger even than Pat Riley (37) or Tyronn Lue (39).

But Mazzulla wasn’t first. And definitely not youngest.

To find the true record-holder, you have to go back to 1948. Back when the league was still called the BAA, Harry “Buddy” Jeannette, a 30-year-old player-coach with the Baltimore Bullets, won the championship. Jeannette averaged 8.8 points per game that season and was essentially running plays and running laps. The Bullets beat the Philadelphia Warriors 4-2. No one younger has won a title since.

The top five youngest coaches to win the championship:

1. Buddy Jeannette (30) – Baltimore Bullets, 1948
2. John Kundla (32) – Minneapolis Lakers, 1949
3. George Senesky (34) – Philadelphia Warriors, 1956
4. Bill Russell (34) – Boston Celtics, 1968 (also a player-coach)
5. Alex Hannum (34) – St. Louis Hawks, 1958

Mazzulla slots in just behind them. His 2024 title put him in rare company – especially when you consider he had never coached at the NBA level before taking over the Celtics in 2022. His only previous head coaching experience came in Division II college basketball.

That didn’t stop him from outcoaching the league’s best, even while being described by his players as “weird” and a “sicko” – terms of endearment, apparently – in the Boston locker room. Mazzulla now holds the best win percentage of any NBA coach with at least 200 games under their belt.

Daigneault to join the list?

If the Thunder win two more games, Daigneault, who never played in the league, will become the sixth-youngest coach to win an NBA title since 1970. But even then, he’d still be a full decade older than Buddy Jeannette was when he lifted his ring.

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