Cleveland’s Kenny Atkinson wins NBCA coach of the year award after leading Cavs to 64-win season

the Eastern Conference playoffs.

The NBA will also give out a coach of the year award in the coming weeks. The NBCA has done its own separate award since 2017 named for Michael H. Goldberg, the organization’s first executive director.

It is voted on by the league’s 30 head coaches. The NBCA does not release voting totals, but revealed that four other coaches — Detroit’s J.B. Bickerstaff, Oklahoma City’s Mark Daigneault, Houston’s Ime Udoka and former Denver coach Michael Malone also received votes. Malone was fired by the Nuggets with three games left in the regular season.

“Kenny Atkinson has long been respected by his peers as an innovative and humble servant to the game,” said Rick Carlisle, the coach of the Indiana Pacers and the NBCA’s longtime president.

The Cavaliers had the second-best record in the league this season behind Oklahoma City, and became the second team in league history to have three separate winning streaks of at least 12 games.

“Coaching the game of basketball has been an amazing journey for me and my family, and to be recognized by my peers for a job well done this season is extremely humbling,” Atkinson said. “I’ve had the pleasure of coaching some amazing players over my career and I would not be in this position without their commitment and sacrifice for the greater good of themselves and the Cleveland Cavaliers.”