Before the Los Angeles Lakers became an N.B.A. glamour team, their forebears dominated pro basketball far from the flash of Hollywood.

The Minneapolis Lakers, playing in a 10,000-seat arena and featuring the league’s first superstar, center George Mikan, won five championships in the N.B.A. and its immediate precursor — three of those titles consecutively — in the league’s first decade.

John Kundla, who was 31 when he was hired by the Lakers and coached those teams, died on Sunday at a nursing home in Minneapolis. He was 101 and the oldest living member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass., having been inducted in 1995.

His death was confirmed by his son James.

Kundla was named one of the 10 best coaches in the N.B.A.’s history when the league celebrated its 50th anniversary in 1996. (The others were Red Auerbach, Chuck Daly, Bill Fitch, Red Holzman, Phil Jackson, Don Nelson, Jack Ramsay, Pat Riley and Lenny Wilkens.)