J.B. Bickerstaff joins small group of NBA coaches
By Phil Watson
Bernie Bickerstaff
Like his son after him, Bernie Bickerstaff is also a three-time midseason replacement as an NBA coach. It just took him much longer.
Bickerstaff spent 12 years as an assistant with the Washington Bullets before finally getting a head coaching shot with the Seattle SuperSonics in 1985.
As general manager of the Nuggets, Bickerstaff wound up hiring himself to replace fired Dan Issel in February 1995, leading the team to a 20-12 finish before getting bounced out of the playoffs in three straight games. He resigned the job in November 1996, but resurfaced later that season when he took over he Bullets in February 1997.
He led Washington to a 22-13 season before being swept by the defending and eventual NBA champion Bulls in the first round. Bickerstaff was fired by the club — then known as the Washington Wizards — in 1999 and coached the Charlotte Bobcats for their first three seasons.
His last head coaching experience was in 2012, when he went 4-1 with the Los Angeles Lakers between the firing of Mike Brown and the hiring of Mike D’Antoni.
George Karl
With 1,175 coaching victories over parts of 27 seasons, George Karl is No. 6 on the NBA’s all-time coaching wins list in a career that (a) featured just one season as an assistant coach (1979-80 with the Spurs), (b) two midseason departures as a head coach (fired in 1986 by Cleveland and resigned in 1988 from the Golden State Warriors) and (c) three midseason hirings.
The first of those came in January 1992, when Karl was named head coach of the Seattle SuperSonics. He led the team to a 27-15 record after taking over a 20-20 club and got the Sonics to the second round, upsetting the No. 3 Warriors in the first round.
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In January 2005, Karl was hired by the Nuggets, who were floundering at 17-25 when he came on board. Denver roared to a 32-8 finish before running out of gas against eventual champion San Antonio in the first round.
His last coaching gig began in midseason, but there would be no miracle finish. He became the third coach for the Sacramento Kings in 2014-15 when he replaced Tyrone Corbin in February 2015, taking over an 18-34 team that had begun the season with Mike Malone on the bench. Sacramento went 11-19 under Karl and missed the playoffs.
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They did the same in Karl’s lone full season in Sacramento in 2015-16 and the coach was fired after a 33-49 campaign.