Ex-Sonics coach George Karl, Storm legend Swin Cash to Hall of Fame
Apr 2, 2022, 1:48 PM
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — George Karl, the winningest coach in Seattle Sonics history, and former Seattle Storm star Swin Cash are among the 2022 class of Basketball Hall of Fame inductees.
NBA stars Manu Ginobili and Tim Hardaway are also among the honorees that were announced Saturday in New Orleans at the site of the NCAA Final Four.
Rounding out the selections this year are long-time college coach Bob Huggins, WNBA champion and two-time Olympic Gold Medalist Lindsay Whalen; NCAA national championship coach and former WNBA Coach of the Year Marianne Stanley, and former NBA official Hugh Evans.
The class will be enshrined into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts, on Sept. 10.
Karl played in the NBA for five seasons in San Antonio before coaching for 27 years, during which he won 1,175 games — placing him sixth all-time. He was named NBA Coach of the Year in 2013 with Denver. Karl took over the Sonics during the 1991-92 season and led Seattle to four Pacific Division titles as well as a Western Conference championship and trip to the NBA Finals in 1995-96. The Sonics won 61 games or more in a season three times and never lost more than 27 games in a season under the Karl. Seattle made the playoffs in each of his seven seasons as head coach, and his 384-150 record with the Sonics is the best in franchise history both in terms of wins and winning percentage (.719).
Cash, who already has been elected to the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame, spent four seasons with the Seattle Storm (2008 through 2011), making two All-Star teams and averaging 12.7 points per game over the tenure. Now an executive with the NBA’s New Orleans Pelicans, she won two NCAA national titles with Connecticut and a WNBA title with Detroit. She also worked as an executive with the WNBA’s New York Liberty.
Congratulations to @SwinCash on being named a #22HoopClass honoree! So well deserved! 🤩👏👏 pic.twitter.com/3xoP1rlw5N
— Seattle Storm (@seattlestorm) April 2, 2022
Ginobili spent his enitre 16-year NBA career with San Antonio, winning four NBA championships and twice receiving All-Star nods.
Hardaway played 15 NBA seasons and was a five-time All-Star in the 1990s. Huggins is currently coaching at West Virginia.
Huggins has more than 900 NCAA wins in a college coaching career that began in 1977 and is currently at West Virginia.
Whalen is a five-time WNBA All-Star and four-time champion. She is now the head coach at Minnesota, where she also played in college.
Stanley, who is currently a WNBA head coach with Indiana, has spent 45 years in coaching, including 22 years at the college level with Old Dominion, Pennsylvania, Southern California, Stanford and California. She was WNBA coach of the year in 2022, when she also was elected to the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame.
Evans officiated more than 1,900 regular season games, along with 170 playoff games, 35 NBA Finals games and four NBA All-Star games from 1973 to 2001. He also was the NBA’s Assistant Supervisor of Officials for three years after stepping away from on-court officiating.
SeattleSports.com staff contributed to this post.
John Clayton Memorial Fund benefiting the Multiple Sclerosis Society
