Lowell Gibbs "Cotton" Fitzsimmons (October 7, 1931 – July 24, 2004) was an American college and NBA basketball coach.

[4] After graduating from Bowling Green High School, Fitzsimmons worked at a brick plant in nearby Farber, Missouri.

He worked for two years to help support the family until his sisters graduated from high school, just as his older brother Orland had done.

[6][5] Fitzsimmons left Missouri to attend Midwestern State University in Wichita Falls, Texas.

Fitzsimmons turned down an offer to play AAU basketball for the Akron Goodyear Wingfoots and remained at Midwestern State after graduation to earn a master's degree in administrative education.

He was named 1970 Big 8 Coach of the Year and led the Wildcats to the Sweet Sixteen of the 1970 NCAA tournament.

[7] Fitzsimmons was released from the remaining two years of his Suns contract by Colangelo to allow him to accept a similar capacity with the Atlanta Hawks on May 31, 1972.

The Hawks traded Maravich to the New Orleans Jazz in May 1974 and Fitzsimmons was left with a young team and a rotating front office.“Presidents and GMs were flying out of here like paper clips.” he told Sports Illustrated.

[13][14] With the Hawks at 28–46 and mired in a ten-game losing streak, he was fired and assistant coach Bumper Tormohlen promoted to replace him on an interim basis on March 30, 1976.

[15] On August 4, 1976, Fitzsimmons was hired as player personnel director for the Golden State Warriors, to replace the late Bob Feerick, working alongside Al Attles, who was Coach and General Manager.

Attles said, 'I have a long-standing relation with Cotton and have always admired and respected him as a person, coach, and evaluator of talent,"[16] There, the team made a series of trades of veteran players to acquire future draft picks.

[19] The Braves changed owners and the team was moved and rebranded and Fitzsimmons reflected of his tenure jokingly, “I think Buffalo got a raw deal as far as the NBA,” he said years later.

What I feel bad about is the franchise … I guess I’ve got to take credit for folding the franchise.”[20] After he was released from the remaining two years of his contract with the Braves, Fitzsimmons was appointed to a similar capacity with the Kansas City Kings on May 10, 1978.

He succeeded assistant general manager Larry Staverman who also finished the Kings' 31–51 1977–78 campaign as its interim head coach.

[12] In the 1981 playoffs the 6th seed, with a losing regular season record, the Kings knocked off the top-seeded Phoenix Suns and advanced to the Western Conference finals, where they lost to the Houston Rockets in five games.

He was one of the driving forces behind the trade that sent Larry Nance to the Cleveland Cavaliers for Kevin Johnson, Mark West and a future first-round draft pick (who was Dan Majerle).

The Suns defeated the Denver Nuggets (3–0) and Golden State Warriors (4–1) in the playoffs before being swept by the Lakers in the Western Conference Finals.

During the rest of the playoffs, Fitzsimmons served briefly as a color commentator for NBC, most notably, alongside Marv Albert for Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Finals between the Chicago Bulls and the Detroit Pistons.

After losing to the Trail Blazers in that year's Western Conference Semifinals, 4 games to 1, Fitzsimmons retired as coach, to work as Suns senior executive vice-president.

[31] On July 25, 2004, the morning after his death, The Arizona Republic's sports section's headline read: "Brightest Sun Fitzsimmons dies.

[32] "Cotton Fitzsimmons embodied all things that are great about life and the game of basketball," Suns chairman and CEO Jerry Colangelo said.

[35] Mabel McCormick, a program supporter (her husband was the volunteer team doctor) who kept the scorebook and statistics for Fitzsimmons at Moberly Community College, lived to be over 100 years old.