NBA Coach of the Year: 5 coaches that were fired after winning award

4. George Karl

Entering the 2012-13 season, George Karl and the Denver Nuggets had made the playoffs eight consecutive years. Other than an appearance in the 2009 Western Conference Finals, they were eliminated in the first round each season.

With a roster that featured no All-Stars, Karl coached the team to a 57-25 record. The offense exploded in the regular season, and ranked first in the league with 106.1 points per game. The Nuggets entered the playoffs as the 3-seed, but with the team’s second-leading scorer Danilo Gallinari out with a torn ACL, Denver followed their past trend by being bounced in the first round.

Karl was named NBA Coach of the Year, and was fired 29 days later by general manager Masai Ujiri. He was eventually hired by the Sacramento Kings midway through the 2014-15 season, but never achieved the level of success he had before winning the Auerbach trophy.

After posting a combined record of 44-68 over one and a half seasons in Sacramento, he was fired by the Kings in April 2016. Karl was one game shy of coaching his 2,000th career game, but hasn’t been on an NBA bench since his departure.