Coach of the Year - Brian

Today the NBA announced that Tom Thibodeau won the Coach of the Year award. He certainly deserved the award, increasing the number of wins for the Bulls by 21 games and vaulting Chicago to the first place seed in the East. He also dramatically improved the Bulls defensive and offensive efficiency.

He also did it with the help of Carlos Boozer and an incredible Derrick Rose.

With that said, I have to respectfully disagree with that selection. My vote for Coach of the Year would be George Karl, hands down. And I'm not just saying that because I am a Nuggets fan. Karl had to deal with more turmoil than any other coach this season.

First and foremost, Karl had to come back from throat cancer. That alone is a feat worth honoring. Karl was forced to miss the end of last season and the playoffs, his departure hurt the Nuggets as evident by their implosion against the short-handed Jazz. This season was a struggle for him to come back, and his impact was felt immediately by the team.

The second main issue Karl had to deal with was the Carmelo Anthony drama. The fact that Anthony openly wanted to be traded could have completely ruined the Nuggets season, but Karl was able to keep the team together and competitive while dealing with all of the off the court distractions. This is usually something that can destroy a team's season, but the Nuggets were never close to losing a playoff spot.

Karl then had to deal with the trade of Anthony and the creation of basically a whole new team. After the trade, the Nuggets somehow ended up with the second best post deadline record to go along with the best offensive efficiency rating and the second best defensive efficiency rating. This is incredible in itself to be able to make a team that competitive after a huge trade.

I realize the Nuggets flamed out in the postseason, but the award is only for the regular season and Karl showed that he finally should have won the award. No coach had to go through what the Nuggets went through and still be able to maintain success at such a high level.

Karl won the whole "did more with less" and "somehow kept a team together even though their superstar wanted nothing to do with the team" concepts.

And he still managed to get the Nuggets to 50 wins. Incredible.

So while I am not upset with the Thibodeau win, I think they might have got it wrong this year.

And now George Karl's memorable season will never forgotten. That's how it goes in sports -people don't remember who got second place.