After leading his team to the third seed in the West and the league's best home record (38-3, .927), the Denver Nugget’s George Karl has been named the recipient of the Red Auerbach Trophy as the 2012-13 NBA Coach of the Year.
Karl molded his young, athletic team into a push-the-pace unit this season that simply wore teams out in the mile-high altitude of the Nuggets' home court. Although Denver was ousted early in the postseason by Golden State, Karl nevertheless deserves credit for never missing a beat despite the loss of Danilo Gallinari earlier in the season to an ACL injury.
The Nuggets went 57-25 (.695) – the league’s fourth-best record – despite beginning the season as the league’s third-youngest team with an average age of 24.9 years, and not having a player score more than 16.7 points per game during the regular season. According to NBA.com/Stats, the Nuggets ranked third in assists (24.4 apg), generating an assist on 60.0 percent of their made field goals.
The award was the first of Karl's long coaching career. He totaled 404 points, including 62 first-place votes, from a panel of 121 sportswriters and broadcasters. Coaches were awarded five points for each first-place vote, three points for each second-place vote, and one point for each third-place vote.
In his 25th season as an NBA head coach (ninth with Denver), Karl earned two Western Conference Coach of the Month awards in January and March. During January, Karl passed Larry Brown for sixth place on the all-time coaching wins list and notched his 1,100th career win.
The sixth-winningest coach in NBA annals and the active wins leader, Karl has amassed 1,131 career victories in the NBA, including a streak of 21-straight non-losing seasons – tied with Phil Jackson (21, 1989-90-2010-11) for the most in NBA history.
Below are the balloting results for the 2012-13 NBA Coach of the Year award:
George Karl, Denver - 404
Erik Spoelstra, Miami - 190
Mike Woodson, New York - 127
Gregg Popovich, San Antonio - 120
Frank Vogel, Indiana - 60
Lionel Hollins, Memphis - 55
Mark Jackson, Golden State - 47
Tom Thibodeau, Chicago - 40
Kevin McHale, Houston - 17
P.J. Carlesimo, Brooklyn - 8
Vinny Del Negro, L.A. Clippers - 8
Larry Drew, Atlanta - 6
Doc Rivers, Boston - 4
Scott Brooks, Oklahoma City - 3
By Staff of The Daily Sports Herald and news services
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