Hall of Fame coach George Karl headlines our May 12 birthday celebrations.
With over 5,000 players in NBA history, at least one player was born on every day of the calendar year – including three leap day ballers. Our day-by-day breakdown of the players born on each day of the year continues.
Below are the most notable NBA players born on May 12.
George Karl (1951)
In a light day for birthdays, let’s highlight one of the greatest coaches in NBA history. Many modern fans might not realize that Karl was a player before that outstanding coaching career, spending five seasons between the NBA and ABA. All of those were with San Antonio, and it set the foundation for Karl to find his true calling: coaching. Karl became an assistant for them in 1979, and the rest was indeed history.
Karl picked up his first head coaching job with the Cleveland Cavaliers in 1984 and then joined the Golden State Warriors two years later. Things really took off when he took over for the Seattle SuperSonics in 1991, making them a perennial contender for the next decade. He even helped them win a Western Conference crown in 1996, but joined the Milwaukee Bucks in 1998. Karl spent the next five seasons there before taking over the Denver Nuggets gig in 2004.
Karl’s time with the Nuggets proved to be his longest tenure, and he posted a 62 percent win percentage in his nine years in Denver. He closed his coaching career with two years in Sacramento before officially retiring in 2016. In total, Karl won 59 percent of his games as a coach and ranks sixth all-time with 1,175 victories.
Want to see every NBA player born on May 12? Here is the rest of the list in chronological order:
- Bob Williams (May 12, 1931)
- Gene Tormohlen (May 12, 1937)
- Kevin Grevey (May 12, 1953)
- Kim Anderson (May 12, 1955)
- Keith Bogans (May 12, 1980)
- Andre Brown (May 12, 1981)
- Justin Williams (May 12, 1984)
- Roko Ukic (May 12, 1984)
- Mouhamed Sene (May 12, 1986)
- Dmytro Skapintsev (May 12, 1998)
- Mo Bamba (May 12, 1998)
- Malaki Branham (May 12, 2003)
