One of the downfalls of the Sacramento Kings’ three-game losing streak this past week was the little fact that head coach George Karl was just one win away from tying NBA legend Phil Jackson for fifth place on the all-time coaching wins list. It’s an incredible personal accomplishment for one of the game’s greats, but it was put on hold while the Kings once again got lost on their journey to improvement.
With the win over the Phoenix Suns on Saturday afternoon, Karl has number 1155 under his belt. One more and he surpasses Jackson and moves into sole possession of the fifth spot, just 54 wins behind Pat Riley and 65 wins away from Jerry Sloan, who sits in third place all-time.
“It’s a good, fun thing with my family,” Karl said. “My son, my daughter, my son in-law and my staff, we joke about it all the time. As I said to y’all before, (Jackson’s) a great coach, he’s maybe the best. I don’t know what our record is against him, but I’m pretty sure it’s not very good. I know it’s not very good in the playoffs, but it might be decent in the regular season.”
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Karl, 63, has joked in the past that Jackson has beat him when it mattered. And it’s hard to argue with the numbers.
“Phil’s kicked my ass so often, it will be fun to be ahead of him in one thing I’ve done in my career,” Karl said last week. “He has 11 rings, I have none.”
In 20 seasons, Jackson won an NBA record 333 playoff games with the Bulls and Lakers. His 11 championship rings as a coach rank first all-time and he has another as a player with the New York Knicks.
NBA
After beginning his coaching career in the CBA, Karl found the NBA tough in his first two stops. He struck out in Cleveland and then again in Golden State before returning to the CBA and then Spain. It was a phone call from Seattle Supersonic frontman Bob Whitsitt that changed everything.
“I ran into a team in Seattle that was just such a great defensive team,” Karl said. “Fortunately I’ve been blessed with pretty good teams the rest of the way, even though I’ve always started with them below .500.”
Karl considers Seattle the best team he ever coached. It starred Gary Payton and Shawn Kemp, but he also had great veterans in Detlef Schrempf, Nate McMillan and Hersey Hawkins.
Following his seven-year run with the Sonics, Karl spent five seasons coaching the Milwaukee Bucks, followed by nine with the Denver Nuggets. In parts of 26 seasons, Karl has made the playoffs an astounding 22 times, including winning the Western Conference Championship during the 1995-96 season in Seattle, before falling to Jackson’s Chicago Bulls in the NBA Finals.
“That’s awesome for him,” Collison said. “We know how long he’s been in the league; he’s been one of the best coaches that this league has to offer. We’ve just got to continue to give him more wins so he can even surpass Phil Jackson. Phil Jackson is a great coach himself, but it’s good for George, he deserves it.”
The Kings go out on the road to face the Oklahoma City Thunder and Dallas Mavericks on Monday and Tuesday. It’s a tall task, but the team would love to get Karl one more win to push him past Jackson in the standings.
"We want him to pass (Phil Jackson), we don't care about him tying," Rajon Rondo said following the team’s win over the Phoenix Suns on Saturday.
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Karl would love nothing more than to finish his NBA career as the all-time leader in coaching wins, but he is going to need a little bit of luck and whole lot of help from his Kings players. Karl trails Lenny Wilkens by 177 wins for second place and he is 180 wins behind Don Nelson for the coveted No. 1 spot.