What goes into winning the prestigious NBA Coach of the Year award?
Do you have to have the best record in the league? Do you have to defy the preseason odds of your team not making the playoffs? Must you overcome the absence of injured star players? Like most awards in the NBA, there are no standard guidelines as to why someone deserves votes moreso than others, and this makes it rather difficult for the writers to determine who the very best ought to be.
It was announced early Wednesday that Denver Nuggets coach George Karl would be the recipient of the elusive award for the 2012-2013 season. Is he deserving? Absolutely. It’s hard to believe that Karl has never won the award in his 25 years as a coach, and he did quite a job in leading his team to 57 wins – third best in the talent-heavy Western Conference.
That said, were there others that were just as deserving of the award, if not more? The answer has to be a yes, although again, no one has set any rules to justify any of it.
When I cast my Coach of the Year vote for George Karl, I had no idea so many others would do the same.
