NBA: Are Coach of the Year Winners Cursed?

The Denver Nuggets “parted ways” with coach George Karl—a polite euphemism for “fired his a@@”—on Thursday, June 6, less than a month after Karl was voted as the NBA’s Coach of the Year for leading the Nuggets to an NBA franchise-record 57 victories.

The problem was two-fold in Denver. The Nuggets were bounced in the first round for the eighth time in Karl’s nine seasons at the helm. And Karl wanted a new contract rather than have to head into 2013-14 on the last year of his current deal.

A source told ESPNLosAngeles.com’s Ramona Shelburne , however, that the Nuggets weren’t interested in extending Karl’s contract and opted to let him go rather than keeping him under circumstances that would be less than comfortable.

So in the span of around a month we went from this:

To this:

Karl was leery of winning the award in the first place, telling the Denver Post in April, “Coach of the Year? I’m not sure I want that legacy. Have you seen what happens to guys who win Coach of the Year?”

The coach might have been on to something.

The NBA first awarded Coach of the Year in 1962-63, which made Karl the 51st winner of the award. Of those 41 winners (Pat Riley and Don Nelson won the award three times while Gregg Popovich, Hubie Brown, Cotton Fitzsimmons, Gene Shue and Bill Fitch are all two-time winners), 23 of them were gone from that job within two seasons.

Read that again: The award has been given 51 times and in almost half of those cases (45.1 percent) that coach didn’t have that job within two seasons.

No wonder Karl didn’t want the trophy; although it might be useful as a paperweight while he’s sorting through copies of his updated resume.

Karl is, however, just the second Coach of the Year winner to be fired immediately after winning the award. In 1966, the Philadelphia 76ers fired Coach of the Year Dolph Schayes after a 55-25 season … in part because the team went down in five games in the Eastern Division Finals to the Boston Celtics.

The 76ers got the last laugh. Under new coach Alex Hannum, Philadelphia won a then-record 68 games in 1966-67 and broke the Celtics’ run of nine consecutive titles.

So, yes, the history of the Coach of the Year isn’t a particularly happy one. Here is the inglorious history of past winners who went from the penthouse to the unemployment line in an alarmingly short period of time:

—Harry Gallatin, St. Louis Hawks, 1962-63: Gallatin was a first-year coach who led the Hawks to a 48-32 record and a second-place finish in the Western Division. That represented a 19-game improvement from the previous year.

The Hawks dispatched the Detroit Pistons in the Western Division semifinals before losing in Game 7 to the Los Angeles Lakers in the division finals. The Hawks were 46-34 the following year and Gallatin was fired with St. Louis at 17-16 midway through the 1964-65 season.

–Alex Hannum, San Francisco Warriors, 1963-64: Are you sensing an alarming trend yet? This is the second winner of the award and the second guy on this ignominious list.

Hannum took the job in San Francisco after resigning as coach of the Syracuse Nationals, who were set to move to Philadelphia and become the 76ers for the 1963-64 campaign. The Warriors were 48-32 and won the Western Division and beat the St. Louis Hawks in the division finals before falling to the Boston Celtics in the NBA Finals.

However, the team traded Wilt Chamberlain—coincidentally enough to the 76ers—and lost a then-league record 63 games in 1964-65 and Hannum was fired after the 1965-66 season and a 35-45 record. Hannum landed on his feet, however, when he replaced …

… Dolph Schayes, Philadelphia 76ers, 1965-66: So Schayes replaced Hannum when Hannum wouldn’t go to Philadelphia in 1963 and then Hannum replaced Schayes and wound up in Philadelphia anyway three years later.

The truth really is stranger than fiction.

—Red Kerr, Chicago Bulls, 1966-67: For those of you scoring at home, this is four of the first five winners of this award who met unsuccessful futures.

Kerr led the expansion Bulls to a 33-48 record and a shocking playoff berth in their inaugural season. The postseason didn’t last long; Chicago was swept in the Western Division Semifinals by the St. Louis Hawks.

Kerr coached the Bulls for one more year, leading them to a 29-53 record and another playoff appearance. Then Kerr resigned after the 1967-68 season to take the coaching job for the expansion Phoenix Suns.

Guy must have just been a glutton for expansion punishment.

—Ray Scott, Detroit Pistons, 1973-74: The Pistons hadn’t made the playoffs since 1968. Scott, in his first full season at the helm after taking over for Earl Lloyd early in the 1972-73 season, led Detroit to 52 wins and third place in the Midwest Division.

A new playoff format greatly helped the Pistons in 1973-74. Until that season, a third-place finish wasn’t good enough to make the playoffs. But having teams such as the 48-34 Phoenix Suns miss the postseason in favor of a 41-41 San Francisco Warriors’ squad and the 44-38 Boston Celtics left home in lieu of the 36-46 Atlanta Hawks in 1971, the NBA decided it was time to tweak the playoff format a bit.

In 1974, the Pistons were in, the 44-38 Golden State Warriors—second in the Pacific—were out. Scott’s Pistons fell in seven games to the Chicago Bulls in the Western Conference Semifinals, though. In 1974-75, the Pistons fell to 40-42 but made the playoffs after they were expanded from four to five teams per conference.

Detroit lost to the Seattle SuperSonics in the new first round, 2 games to 1, and Scott was fired 42 games into 1975-76 with the team mired at 17-25.

–Tom Nissalke, Houston Rockets, 1976-77: Nissalke took over the Rockets from Johnny Egan after a 40-42 campaign and led Houston to 49 wins and the first division title in franchise history. It didn’t hurt that Moses Malone landed in their lap two games into the season in a trade from the Buffalo Braves.

The Rockets beat the Washington Bullets in the Eastern Conference Semifinals (yes, Houston was in the East back then) before losing to the Philadelphia 76ers in the conference finals.

The club collapsed to just 28 wins in 1977-78 as injuries ravaged the team. Malone missed 23 games and Rudy Tomjanovich missed most of the season after his face was crushed by Los Angeles Lakers forward Kermit Washington in a December brawl.

Houston returned to the playoffs in 1978-79, but Nissalke was fired after the Rockets were swept by the Atlanta Hawks in the first round.

Don Nelson is one of only two coaches (Pat Riley is the other) to win Coach of the Year three times. (Flickr.com photo by rocor)

–Don Nelson, Milwaukee Bucks, 1984-85: Nelson won his second Coach of the Year award after leading the Bucks to 59 wins and their sixth straight division title. But the Bucks stayed strong after Bob Lanier retired and Marques Johnson was traded to the Los Angeles Clippers and that got Nelson the award.

But after beating the Chicago Bulls in the first round, the Bucks were swept in the Eastern Conference semifinals by the Philadelphia 76ers. The 1985-86 season brought another division crown and a trip to the conference finals, but after a 50-32 season and a second-round exit in 1986-87, Nelson resigned because he had philosophical differences with new owner Herb Kohl.

–Mike Schuler, Portland Trail Blazers, 1986-87: Schuler had a tough task, coming in to replace Jack Ramsey, much beloved in Portland after leading the Trail Blazers to their lone title in 1977. But Schuler led the team to 49 wins, a nine-game improvement.

The Trail Blazers were bounced in the first round by the Houston Rockets and won 53 games the next year before being dumped in the first round again, this time by the Utah Jazz. Schuler was fired with a 25-22 record in 1988-89.

—Doug Moe, Denver Nuggets, 1987-88: Ah, yes, the other Denver Nuggets coach to be named Coach of the Year didn’t have a particularly happy ending, either.

Moe led Denver to a 54-28 mark and the Midwest Division title. But the Nuggets lost to the Dallas Mavericks in the conference semifinals, slipped to 44 wins and a first-round sweep the next season and won 43 games and were swept again in the first round in 1989-90. That was enough for Moe to get the pink slip.

–Pat Riley, Los Angeles Lakers, 1989-90: Riley “retired” from coaching after the Lakers were upset in the Western Conference Semifinals by the Phoenix Suns in the 1990 playoffs.

It wasn’t much of a retirement; three years later Riley was Coach of the Year again, this time with the New York Knicks.

Phil Jackson was named Coach of the Year after leading Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls to 72 wins in 1995-96. Two years later, he was out of Chicago. (Photo by Steve Lipofsky www.Basketballphoto.com via Wikimedia Commons)

—Phil Jackson, Chicago Bulls, 1995-96: Jackson won his only Coach of the Year trophy after leading the Bulls to a record 72 wins. Two years later, with Michael Jordan retiring and Jerry Krause running everyone else out of Chicago, Jackson took the hint and resigned.

Larry Bird only coached in the NBA for three years, but reached at least the conference finals in every one of them. (Flickr.com photo by Kurt Shivala)

—Larry Bird, Indiana Pacers, 1997-98: Bird took over for Larry Brown and led the Pacers to 58 wins, a 19-game improvement, and took Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls to Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals. Indiana was back in the conference finals the next season, losing to the New York Knicks, and the Pacers made their only appearance in the NBA Finals under Bird in 1999-2000.

But the travel was too much for Bird, who resigned as coach after the Pacers lost to the Los Angeles Lakers in the 2000 Finals.

—Mike Dunleavy, Portland Trail Blazers, 1998-99: Dunleavy led the Trail Blazers to a 35-15 record in the lockout-shortened season and took Portland to the Western Conference Finals, where they were swept by the San Antonio Spurs.

The next season, the Blazers lost Game 7 of the conference finals to the Los Angeles Lakers—behind an epic fourth-quarter comeback by the Lakers or meltdown by the Blazers. The team won 50 games in 2000-01, but was swept in the first round and Dunleavy took the fall.

–Larry Brown, Philadelphia 76ers, 2000-01: Brown led the 76ers to 56 wins and the NBA Finals and was rewarded with his lone Coach of the Year trophy in the NBA (he was a three-time ABA Coach of the Year).

But that was the zenith for Brown and Allen Iverson in Philadelphia. In 2001-02, the 76ers slipped to 43 wins and lost in the first round to the Boston Celtics and in 2002-03, Philadelphia bounced back with 48 wins but lost to the Detroit Pistons in the Eastern Conference semifinals.

Brown then resigned on Memorial Day, leading to an interesting development when he replaced …

…Rick Carlisle, Detroit Pistons, 2001-02: As a rookie head coach, Carlisle led the Pistons to 50 wins, an 18-game improvement from the previous season. Detroit beat the Toronto Raptors in the first round of the playoffs before losing to the Boston Celtics in the conference semifinals.

The next year, Detroit again won 50 games and reached the Eastern Conference Finals, where they were swept by the New Jersey Nets. Carlisle was shockingly fired and replaced by the guy he had beaten to get to the conference finals, Larry Brown.

–Hubie Brown, Mermphis Grizzlies, 2003-04: Brown had been behind a television microphone for 16 years since he was fired as coach of the New York Knicks in 1986. But when the Memphis Grizzlies came calling in 2002, Brown answered, dusting off his whiteboard and his playbook.

The Grizzlies won 50 games in Brown’s first (and only) full season in Memphis. For some perspective on that, the previous franchise record for victories had been the 28 the Grizzlies won the previous season. While in Vancouver, the Grizzlies won 48 games … in their first three seasons.

Memphis was swept in the first round of their first playoff appearance by the San Antonio Spurs and Brown resigned for health reasons after just 12 games in 2004-05.

—Avery Johnson, Dallas Mavericks 2005-06: The Little General had gone 16-2 after taking over from Don Nelson at the end of the 2004-05 season and his first full season in Dallas led to 60 wins and the franchise’s first trip to the NBA Finals.

The Mavericks won a franchise-record 67 games the next season, but were stunned by the Golden State Warriors in the first round of the playoffs. After Dallas slipped to 51-31 and a first-round exit in 2007-08, Johnson was fired.

—Sam Mitchell, Toronto Raptors, 2006-07: Mitchell led the Raptors to a surprising Atlantic Division title in 2006-07, winning 47 games. But Toronto was bounced in the first round by the New Jersey Nets. The next year, Toronto won 41 games and had another first-round exit.

Then Mitchell was fired with the team at 8-9 early in 2008-09.

—Byron Scott, New Orleans Hornets, 2007-08: The Hornets’ first season back in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina was a dazzling success, as the Hornets won their first division title and a franchise-record 56 games. But the Hornets fell to the San Antonio Spurs in the conference semifinals.

In 2008-09, New Orleans won 49 games and lost in the first round of the playoffs and after a 3-6 start in 2009-10, Scott was fired.

—Mike Brown, Cleveland Cavaliers, 2008-09: Brown led the Cavaliers to a franchise-record 66 wins. But after sweeping the Detroit Pistons and the Atlanta Hawks in the first two rounds of the playoffs, the Cavaliers were shocked by the Orlando Magic in the conference finals.

Next season, Cleveland won 61 games but lost to the Boston Celtics in the second round. That led to Brown’s firing, LeBron James left town to go somewhere … was it Miami, maybe? The move didn’t get much attention.

And showing that life goes full circle, Brown is back as coach of the Cavaliers.