George Karl Fired As Head Coach Of Denver Nuggets After Winning Coach Of The Year Award
After the departure of general manager Masai Ujiri to the Toronto Raptors, the Nuggets terminated their Coach of the Year right after he turned in what many considered his best season as a coach with a roster devoid of superstars.
George Karl has been on NBA sidelines as a head coach since taking over for the Cleveland Cavaliers in 1984.
He's also spent a lot of time in the Continential Basketball Association, winning coach of the year awards in three different seasons, and in Europe where he coached Real Madrid in the Spanish League.
He'd also coached Denver earlier in the 1980s, but he really rose to prominence leading some excellent Seattle Supersonics teams led by All-Star players, point guard Gary Payton, and small forward Shawn Kemp.
The Sonics reached the NBA finals in 1996, only to lose to Michael Jordan's Bulls in 6 games.
Karl coached the Milwaukee Bucks to within a game of the 2001 NBA Finals, and finally accepted Denver's head coaching position (for a second time) in 2005.
Karl has also battled severe prostate cancer, the Nuggets announced in July of 2005. But that didn't stop him from coaching.
He coached an embattled Carmelo Anthony-led team to the Western Conference Finals in 2009.
But the next season, Karl's cancer returned in the neck and throat and he underwent radiation treatments while simlutaneously coaching the Nuggets when he was physically able to do so.
On May 8, 2013, George Karl won the NBA's Coach of the Year award for the first time after leading the Denver Nuggets to the third best record in the Western Conference despite lacking a real superstar and an injury to Danilo Gallinari.
The Nuggets also had the best home record last season in the NBA, only losing three games at home all year.
Just a month later, today, the Nuggets announced they would not be bringing Karl back for the final year fo his contract. He was dismissed as the Nuggets' coach less than a month after winning Coach of the Year.