George Karl

George Karl

George Karl (center)
No. 22
Guard
Personal information
Date of birth	May 12, 1951 (1951-05-12)
Place of birth	Penn Hills, Pennsylvania
Listed height	6 ft 2 in (1.88 m)
Listed weight	185 lb (84 kg)
Career information
College	North Carolina
NBA Draft	1973 / Round: 4 / Pick: 66th overall
Selected by the New York Knicks
Pro career	1973–1978
Career history
As player:
1973–1976	San Antonio Spurs (ABA)
1977–1978	San Antonio Spurs
As coach:
1980-1983	Montana Golden Nuggets
1984–1986	Cleveland Cavaliers
1986–1988	Golden State Warriors
1988-1989	Albany Patroons
1989–1990	Real Madrid (Spain)
1990-1991	Albany Patroons
1991-1992	Real Madrid
1992–1998	Seattle SuperSonics
1998–2003	Milwaukee Bucks
2005–present	Denver Nuggets
Career highlights and awards
4× NBA All-Star Game head coach (1994, 1996, 1998, 2010)
Career ABA/NBA statistics
Points	1,703
Rebounds	369
Assists	795
Stats at NBA.com
Stats at Basketball-Reference.com

George Matthew Karl (born May 12, 1951) is a former National Basketball Association (NBA) and American Basketball Association (ABA) player. He is the current head coach of the Denver Nuggets. On December 10, 2010 he became the seventh coach in NBA history to record 1,000 wins.

Biography

Karl was born in Penn Hills, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. 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 semi-final round against the Magic Johnson led Los Angeles Lakers, game four of which is still shown on TV in the NBA's Greatest Games series. Eric "Sleepy" Floyd scored 12 straight field goals in the fourth quarter that gave him a still NBA playoff record 29 as well as a still standing record 39 in the second 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 3 of his top 4 per game scorers from the 1987 playoff team, including Sleepy Floyd, had been traded, and the fourth went through alcohol rehabilitation and missed over a month.

Karl returned to the CBA in 1988 as coach of the Albany Patroons for one year before coaching two years in Spain coaching the Real Madrid.

In 1990/91 coach Karl was back in the CBA with the Albany Patroons where their 50-6 season, and astoundingly winning all 28 home games, won coach Karl CBA coach of the year for the third time.

Seattle

Karl returned to the NBA as coach of the Seattle SuperSonics from 1991–1998, leading them to the NBA Finals in 1996 where they lost to the Chicago Bulls in six games. In all seven of his seasons in Seattle, the team made the postseason, winning three division titles, and eclipsing the 50-win mark in every year that he was the full-time coach.

Milwaukee and FIBA

In 1998, Karl moved to the Milwaukee Bucks as head coach, lured by an excellent contract. He rebuilt a struggling team 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 number one spot in the Eastern Conference in January to a season that ended out of the playoffs. He was fired after another underachieving season in 2003, when his team made the playoffs with a win total of just over the .500 mark.

He coached the US national team in the 2002 FIBA World Championship.

Denver

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 Denver Nuggets, guiding them to an unprecedented 32–8 record in the second half of the 2004–05 season. Karl's son Coby was a reserve guard for the Los Angeles Lakers, after a career as starting point guard for Boise State University. Coby came out for the 2006 NBA Draft after a bout with thyroid cancer, but withdrew his name before the draft and returned to Boise State for his senior year.

On December 28, 2006, Karl became just the 12th coach in NBA history to reach the 800-win mark when his Denver Nuggets defeated the Seattle SuperSonics 112–98.

On December 31, 2008, Karl reached 900 coaching career wins with his Denver Nuggets as he beat the Toronto Raptors, 114-107.

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 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 points.

Karl coached the Western Conference All-Stars at the 2010 NBA All-Star Game on February 14 at Cowboys Stadium in Arlington, Texas. 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 Coach Karl was diagnosed with treatable neck and throat cancer. Karl 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, Nuggets were eliminated by the Utah Jazz in 6 games.

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

NBA coaching record

Legend
Regular season	G	Games coached	W	Games won	L	Games lost	W–L %	Win-loss  %
Post season	PG	Playoff Games	PW	Playoff Wins	PL	Playoff Losses	PW–L %	Playoff Win-loss  %

Team	Year	G	W	L	W–L%	Finish	PG	PW	PL	PW–L%	Result
CLE	1984–85	82	36	46	.439	4th in Central	4	1	3	.250	Lost in First Round
CLE	1985–86	66	25	42	.373	(fired)	—	—	—	—	—
GSW	1986–87	82	42	40	.512	3rd in Pacific	10	4	6	.400	Lost in Conf. Semifinals
GSW	1987–88	64	16	48	.250	(fired)	—	—	—	—	—
SEA	1991–92	42	27	15	.643	4th in Pacific	9	4	5	.444	Lost in Conf. Semifinals
SEA	1992–93	82	55	27	.671	2nd in Pacific	19	10	9	.526	Lost in Conf. Finals
SEA	1993–94	82	63	19	.768	1st in Pacific	5	2	3	.400	Lost in First Round
SEA	1994–95	82	57	25	.695	2nd in Pacific	4	1	3	.250	Lost in First Round
SEA	1995–96	82	64	18	.780	1st in Pacific	21	13	8	.619	Lost in NBA Finals
SEA	1996–97	82	57	25	.695	1st in Pacific	12	6	6	.500	Lost in Conf. Semifinals
SEA	1997–98	82	61	21	.744	T-1st in Pacific	10	4	6	.400	Lost in Conf. Semifinals
MIL	1998–99	50	28	22	.560	4th in Central	3	0	3	.000	Lost in First Round
MIL	1999–00	82	42	40	.512	5th in Central	5	2	3	.400	Lost in First Round
MIL	2000–01	82	52	30	.634	1st in Central	18	10	8	.556	Lost in Conf. Finals
MIL	2001–02	82	41	41	.500	5th in Central	—	—	—	—	Missed Playoffs
MIL	2002–03	82	42	40	.512	4th in Central	6	2	4	.333	Lost in First Round
DEN	2004–05	40	32	8	.800	2nd in Northwest	5	1	4	.200	Lost in First Round
DEN	2005–06	82	44	38	.537	1st in Northwest	5	1	4	.200	Lost in First Round
DEN	2006–07	82	45	37	.549	2nd in Northwest	5	1	4	.200	Lost in First Round
DEN	2007–08	82	50	32	.610	2nd in Northwest	4	0	4	.000	Lost in First Round
DEN	2008–09	82	54	28	.659	1st in Northwest	16	10	6	.625	Lost in Conf. Finals
DEN	2009–10	82	53	29	.646	1st in Northwest	6	2	4	.333	Lost in First Round
DEN	2010–11	82	50	32	.610	2nd in Northwest	5	1	4	.200	Lost in First Round
Career		1739	1036	703	.596		172	75	97	.436

External links

• NBA Coaching Profile
• Career Stats (Player)
• Career Stats (Coach)
• More Career Stats (Player)
• Son Coby