NEW YORK -- Cotton Fitzsimmons, who led the Phoenix Suns to the third-best one-year improvement in league history, Thursday was named NBA Coach of the Year.
Fitzsimmons, 57, beat out Don Nelson of the Golden State Warriors for the Red Auerbach Award, emblematic of the league's top coach.
Cleveland's Lenny Wilkens finished third.
Fitzsimmons received 36 1/2 votes from a nationwide panel of 85 media members who regularly cover the NBA, three from each competing city and 10 from the national media.
Nelson finished with 26 1/2 votes, Wilkens with 9, Detroit's Chuck Daly 5, Washington's Wes Unseld 4, New York's Rick Pitino 2 and Milwaukee's Del Harris and Pat Riley of the Los Angeles Lakers 1.
Under Fitzsimmons, the club went from a 28-54 record in 1987-88 to a 55-27 mark this season, a 27-game improvement exceeded only by Boston's 32-game rise in 1980 and Milwaukee's 29-game climb in 1970.
