Biography

George Karl

by Bartle,

George Carl, born as George Matthew Karl was a former professional basketball player a s sociated with the ABA and NBA. He was born on the 12th of May, 1951 and is currently 64 years of age. Born as the son to a professional player and coach dad and a house wife mother, he was raised in Penn Hills, Pennsylvania, United States of America where he spent his childhood days around his father’s basketball lessons and learned many tricks from his childhood. His mother, who had a chronic disease, was always in a bad health and so it was either he or his father that had to look after the house. Thus, the two grew closer and shared the love and pa s sion for basketball as well.

As a child, he studied at the nearby Penn Hills School, where his basketball games gradually improved under proper coaching and all. He was selected for the school’s Under 15 team and gradually made it into the senior team. With some old school tricks that he learned from his father, he improvised greatly under the coaching that was provided to him. Upon graduating high school, George applied for the University of North Carolina, located in Chapel Hill. After looking at his good academic records and a good athletics and disciplinary record, he was welcomed to the university and also received a scholarship for his sports background.

With the college’s team he participated in a lot of different competitions and was recognized as a very useful a s set. During his 4 year stay at Chapel Hill, he played in about 148 games and scored as much as 200 points, which was not very good but his work rate and contribution was praise worthy. Upon graduating from college, he signed a deal with the San Antonio Spurs and featured in ABA (American Basketball Association), and later in the NBA.  He was a s sociated with San Antonio Spurs for 5 years starting from 1973 to 1978 after which he retired as a player but worked as an a s sistant coach.

He had started as an a s sistant coach for San Antonio Spurs and after working there for a couple of years, moved back to the Continental Basketball Association (CBA) where he coached the Montana Golden Nuggets. With his work rate and success that he achieved, he became the CBA coach of the year in 1981 and 1983. In 1984, he joined as the coach of Cleveland Cavaliers, and remained there in 1986 which was his first experience of managing a NBA club.  He was seen as a coach is many other clubs since then, like in: Golden State Warriors (1986- 1988), Albany Patroons (1988- 1989), Real Madrid (1989-1990), Albany Patroons (1990- 1991), Seattle SuperSonics (1992-1998), Milwaukee Bucks (1998-2003) and also in Denver Nuggets (2005-2013). Currently he is looking after Sacramento Kings, where he was appointed as the head coach in the February of 2015. He has had a successful coaching career and has won many titles and awards as a coach.

Not much is known regarding his personal life except for the fact that he has been married to his wife Cathy Cramer for a long time. Although the date of their marriage is not known, it must have well crossed the 20 year milestone as the couple has raised three children successfully: Coby, Kelci and Kaci. Their son Coby, who is also a basketball player recently fought and won over thyroid cancer.