George Karl

George Karl

Karl in 2011
Personal information
Born	(1951-05-12) May 12, 1951 Penn Hills, Pennsylvania
Nationality	American
Listed height	6 ft 2 in (1.88 m)
Listed weight	185 lb (84 kg)
Career information
High school	Penn Hills (Penn Hills, Pennsylvania)
College	North Carolina (1970–1973)
NBA draft	1973 / Round: 4 / Pick: 66th overall
Selected by the New York Knicks
Playing career	1973–1978
Position	Guard
Number	22
Coaching career	1978–2016
Career history
As player:
1973–1978	San Antonio Spurs
As coach:
1978–1980	San Antonio Spurs (assistant)
1980–1983	Montana Golden Nuggets
1984–1986	Cleveland Cavaliers
1986–1988	Golden State Warriors
1988–1989	Albany Patroons
1989–1990	Real Madrid
1990–1991	Albany Patroons
1991–1992	Real Madrid
1992–1998	Seattle SuperSonics
1998–2003	Milwaukee Bucks
2005–2013	Denver Nuggets
2015–2016	Sacramento Kings
Career highlights and awards
NBA Coach of the Year (2013) 4× NBA All-Star Game head coach (1994, 1996, 1998, 2010)
Career ABA/NBA statistics
Points	1,703 (6.5 ppg)
Rebounds	369 (1.4 rpg)
Assists	795 (3.0 apg)
Stats at Basketball-Reference.com

George Matthew Karl (born May 12, 1951) is an American former professional basketball coach and former player. He is one of 9 coaches in NBA history to have won 1,000 NBA games.

Biography

Karl was born in the Pittsburgh suburb of Penn Hills, Pennsylvania, where he starred at Penn Hills High School.^[1] After a college career at the University of North Carolina he signed with the ABA's San Antonio Spurs in 1973. When the Spurs joined the NBA in 1976, Karl began his two-year NBA playing career.

Early coaching career

After his playing career, Karl became an assistant coach for the Spurs. Karl then moved on to the Continental Basketball Association (CBA) as head coach of the Montana Golden Nuggets (Great Falls). As coach of the Golden Nuggets, Karl won CBA Coach of the Year twice, in 1981 and 1983.

In 1984, Karl became the head coach of the NBA's Cleveland Cavaliers, taking them to the playoffs in 1985. He was dismissed by the Cavs in 1986 near the end of the season.

In the 1986–87 season, Karl coached the Golden State Warriors and took them from a record of 30–52 the year before, to the playoffs for the first time in ten years. They reached the semifinals against the Magic Johnson led Los Angeles Lakers, Game 4 of which is still shown on TV in the NBA's Greatest Games series. Sleepy Floyd hit 12 straight field goals in the fourth quarter that gave him two NBA playoff records (29 points in a quarter, 39 in a half) and finished with 51 points in Golden State's 129–121 win.

Karl resigned from the Warriors with 18 games left in the 1987–88 campaign, due to the frustration of losing when three of his top four scorers from the 1987 playoff team, Purvis Short, Sleepy Floyd and Joe Barry Carroll, had been traded, and the fourth, Chris Mullin went through alcohol rehabilitation and missed over a month.^[2][3]

Karl returned to the CBA in 1988 as coach of the Albany Patroons for a year before coaching Real Madrid in Spain for two years.^[4]

In 1990–91, Karl was back in the CBA with the Patroons where their 50–6 season, while winning all 28 home games, won coach Karl CBA coach of the year for the third time.^[5]

Seattle

Karl returned to the NBA as coach of the Seattle SuperSonics in 1992. He would turn a young team around, from an eighth-seeded playoff team the previous year, to a 47-win team that would stun the 50-win Golden State Warriors in the first round.

In 1993, Karl's Sonics would win 56 games. After stunning the Midwest Division champion Houston Rockets in round two, they would push Phoenix to seven games before falling to them in the Western Conference Finals.

The following season, Seattle would trade sixth man Eddie Johnson to the Charlotte Hornets for Kendall Gill. Gill would clash with Karl and his scoring average would drop to 14.1 ppg, down from 16.9 the previous year. Despite that, Seattle won 63 games and their first Pacific Division title since their championship 1979 season. They would play the eighth-seeded Denver Nuggets in the opening round of the 1994 NBA Playoffs. After winning the first two games at home, Karl's Supersonics would lose the following three, including the closing game at home, to become the first top seed to lose to an eighth-seed in the NBA Playoffs.

The 1994–95 season would have a similar result, more than 50 wins and a first-round shocker. This time, it was to the Los Angeles Lakers, who were led by a point guard who clashed with Karl during the 1993 NBA Rookie workouts, Nick Van Exel.

1995–96 would be Karl's peak in Seattle, leading the Sonics to 64 wins, a Pacific Division title, and their first NBA Finals appearance since 1979. The Sonics lost to the Chicago Bulls in six games.

Things would go downhill for Karl in Seattle. After losing to Houston in the second round of the 1997 NBA Playoffs, Seattle would fall to the Lakers the following year. Karl would clash with general manager Wally Walker, and be subsequently fired.

Milwaukee and FIBA

In 1998, Karl moved to the Milwaukee Bucks as head coach, lured by a particularly lucrative contract offer. He helped rebuild a struggling organization in his first three years, steadily increasing win totals, and guiding the team within one game of the NBA Finals in 2001. However, his team collapsed down the stretch in 2002, falling from the top seed in the Eastern Conference in January to ninth place disqualification in mid-April. Bucks management fired Karl after the 2003 season, which saw the team make the playoffs with a win total just above the .500 mark.

He coached the US national team in the 2002 FIBA World Championship.^[6]

Denver Nuggets

He returned to the NBA in 2005 when he became head coach of the Nuggets, taking over from interim head coach Michael Cooper on January 27 and leading the team to the postseason. On July 27, 2005 the Nuggets announced that Karl had prostate cancer. Karl enjoyed a resurrection of his career with the Nuggets, guiding them to a 32–8 record in the second half of the 2004–05 season.

On December 28, 2006, Karl became just the 12th coach in NBA history to reach 800 wins when the Nuggets defeated the SuperSonics 112–98.

On December 31, 2008, Karl reached 900 coaching career wins with the Nuggets as they beat the Toronto Raptors 114–107.

Karl with the Nuggets in 2009

During the 2008–09 season, the Nuggets, led by Karl, Carmelo Anthony, and the newly acquired Chauncey Billups tied a franchise-best 54 wins and entered the playoffs as the Western Conference's #2 seed. On April 27, 2009, the Nuggets handed the Hornets a 58-point loss during Game 4 of their first round playoff series. This tied the biggest margin in NBA playoff history^[7] The Nuggets beat the Mavericks in 5 games during the semifinals, then went on to lose to the eventual champion Los Angeles Lakers in 6 games, losing Game 6 by 27.^[8]

Karl coached the Western Conference All-Stars at the 2010 NBA All-Star Game on February 14 at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas.^[9] This was his fourth selection, and his first since leaving Seattle.

After the 2010 NBA All-Star Game, it was revealed in a press conference that Karl was diagnosed with treatable neck and throat cancer.^[10] He was placed on leave of absence from the Nuggets while being treated. Assistant coach Adrian Dantley filled in as acting head coach for the rest of the season, and the team finished poorly, and went from the second to fourth seed. Although Karl was not ruled out of coaching the second round, the Nuggets were eliminated by the Utah Jazz in 6 games.^[11]

He has since recovered from cancer and coached every game of the 2010–11 season, becoming the seventh NBA coach to record 1,000 career wins on December 10, 2010.^[12][13]

Having acquired Andre Iguodala in the 2012 offseason, many sports analysts listed the Denver Nuggets as contenders for the playoffs. The Nuggets ended as the third seed with the third best record in the Western Conference and the best home record in the league for the 2012–13 season. In the first round, they faced the sixth seed Golden State Warriors and won their first home game. After they lost the next three, Karl led them to another home win in Game 5, but the team eventually lost in Game 6. The series ended with the Nuggets losing 2–4.

On May 8, 2013, Karl was awarded his first NBA Coach of the Year Award. The team won a franchise-record 57 games despite being the league's third-youngest team with an average age of 24.9 years, and without any player averaging over 16.7 points per game during the regular season.^[14][15]

Entering the final season of his contract, Karl pushed the Nuggets for a contract extension. On June 6, 2013, he was fired by Denver.^[15][16] He left the Nuggets with a 423-257 record, which was the second most wins in franchise history behind Doug Moe (432). He led Denver to the playoffs in all nine seasons, but advanced out of the first round only once, in 2009, when they lost in the conference finals.^[15][17]

Sacramento Kings

On February 12, 2015, after several weeks of talks and speculation, Karl agreed to a deal to become the head coach of the Sacramento Kings, after signing a four-year, $15 million contract.^[18][19] He was officially introduced by the Kings on February 17.^[20] In his first season as coach the Kings went 11–19 in 30 games.

On April 14, 2016, Karl was fired by the Kings after a disappointing 2015–16 season in which the Kings went 33–49.^[21][22] Karl was also only one game shy from coaching his 2,000th game in the NBA.

Personal

Karl's son, Coby, played as a starting point guard for Boise State, and has since played in the NBA and other leagues. Coby Karl is a thyroid cancer survivor.^[23] Karl also has two daughters, Kelci and Kaci.^[24]

Philanthropy

Karl is an avid supporter of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital and serves as an ambassador for their Hoops for St. Jude basketball initiative.^[25]

NBA coaching record

See also

• National Basketball Association portal

References

External links

• NBA coaching profile
• Career stats (coach)
• Career statistics and player information from Basketball-Reference.com