Bill Cartwright and His NBA Career

Bill Cartwright was born on July 30, 1957 in Lodi, California. Cartwright grew up in Elk Grove, California and was a star for the Elk Grove High School basketball team. He later went on to play at the University of San Francisco and after that in the NBA. Cartwright had a successful career in the NBA playing for 16 seasons with the Seattle Supersonics, New York Knicks, and his most well known team, the Chicago Bulls. It was with the Bulls that Cartwright won three consecutive NBA Championships.

Bill Cartwright had a tremendous college career at the University of San Francisco. At his time of graduation, he held the school record for scoring in a career. He participated in the NCAA tournament with the USF Dons his sophomore, junior, and senior years. In 1978 and 1979 Cartwright led his team to the Sweet Sixteen. Cartwright averaged 19.1 points and 10.2 rebounds per contest during his college career. Cartwright was a second team all American for two of his four years at USF in 1977 and 1979.

After his successful college career, Cartwright made the jump to the lights of the NBA. He was selected by the New York Knicks in the first round of the 1979 NBA Draft with the third overall pick. Cartwright had a great rookie season averaging 21.7 points per game to go along with 8.9 rebounds. He was selected to the 1979-80 NBA All-Star team. Cartwright remained with the Knicks and compiled several solid seasons until he was traded to the Chicago Bulls in 1988. His role with the Knicks had been severely diminished due to the arrival of Patrick Ewing.

The move from New York to Chicago proved to be a career changing move for Cartwright. He would soon become an integral part of a team that would become a dynasty. Cartwright won three NBA titles in 1991, 1992, and 1993 with a Bulls team that consisted of future Hall of Famers Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen. Cartwright had solid contributions to the team for each of these years and proved to be the inside post presence that the Bulls needed.

After the 1993-94 season, Cartwright signed with the Seattle Supersonics as a free agent. His stay in Seattle would prove to be far less successful than he expected and Cartwright retired after one season. He only appeared in 29 games for the Sonics.

After his playing days were over, Cartwright rejoined the Chicago Bulls as an assistant coach. He would be a part of the 1997 and 1998 NBA Championship teams. After the 1998 season, the Bulls began to lose their edge with the departure of Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen. The storied franchise's dynasty had come to an end. Cartwright took over the head coaching job for the 2002-03 season but failed to bring any success back to Chicago. He was fired only a few games into the 2003-04 season.

Bill Cartwright is currently working as an assistant coach for the New Jersey Nets, a job that he started in the 2004 season.