Bill Cartwright Bio, Career, Net Worth, Wife, Children, Other Interesting Facts About Him

Bill Cartwright is a notable American retired Basketball player and former coach of big NBA clubs like Chicago Bulls, New Jersey Nets and others. Since his career began, Bill has been quite an achiever, taking home a lot of titles and honors both as a player as well as a coach.

Bill Cartwright Bio

Bill Cartwright was born on July 30, 1957, in Lodi California, bearing the full name James Williams Cartwright. Growing up, Bill attended the Elk Grove High School California, and, while there, joined the school basketball team popularly known as the Elk Grove Thundering Herds. He did very well with the team and even earned the title of the California High School State Basketball player of the year, a title held for two years in 1974 and 1975.

Similarly, in 1975, Bill was also named as the California High School Sports Athlete of the year. With his exceptional skills, Bill helped the school team to win the 29th annual tournament held in Oakland.

Following his graduation from high school, Bill gained admission into the University of San Francisco in 1975 and expectedly, Bill equally played college basketball with the San Francisco University Basketball team, the Dons, where he became a consensus second-team All-American in 1977 as well as in 1979. By the time he graduated, he was the all-time highest scorer for the USF team the Dons, with an average of 19.1 points and 10.2 rebounds per game, engraving his name in the college basketball history books.

Bill Cartwright Career

At the professional level, Bill flagged up his club career in 1979 when he got drafted by the New York Knicks as the third overall pick during the NBA draft of that year. In his campaign with the Knicks, Bill recorded a stable average of 20 points per game within his first two seasons. Though after featuring in about 77 games, in five straight seasons, his performance was marred by a foot injury which kept him off the court for a complete season in the 1985-86 season.

Consequently, the Knicks then had no option than to sign a replacement for Bill’s position and they brought in Patrick Ewing while Bill got demoted as a substitute. Bill was able to feature in only two additional games for the Knicks as he was still distressed with his existing foot injuries, he later withdrew from the club.

It was on the 27th of June 1988 that Bill got traded to the Chicago Bulls in exchange for Charles Oakley, who is a forward. Meanwhile, Bill became a regular starter in the Bulls lineup as he led the team into winning three NBA championships in 1991, 1992, and 1993 on a stretch.

In an unfortunate scenario, Bill’s throat was severely battered by another player’s elbow during the match against Indiana Pacers. The incident affected his lynx leaving him with a hoarse voice hitherto. Subsequently, after the Bulls got ousted from the Eastern Conference semifinals, Bill then left the team as a free agent in 1994.
Following his exit from the Chicago Bulls, Bill later joined the Seattle Supersonics in 1994, but his playtime with the Sonics was relatively brief as he made only 29 appearances for the team and at the end of the 1994-95 season, Bill officially announced his retirement from his basketball playing career.

In 1996 that Bill advanced into coaching. Initially, he started off as an assistant coach with his former team the Chicago Bulls working hand in gloves with the head coach Phil Jackson and together they led the Bulls into the playoffs and subsequent winning of the NBA Championship titles in 1997 and 1998 respectively.

Bill was later named as the interim head coach of the Bulls and as he led the Bulls further into finishing with 21-61 that season, in the following season, Bill was then officially pronounced as the permanent head coach in the 2001-02 season. In the 2002-03 season, Bill led the Bulls to finish at 30-52 although he later led the team in an additional 14 games during the 2003-04 season before he was laid off by the Bulls.

Luckily the New Jersey Nets hired Bill to play second fiddle to the head coach of the Nets Lawrence Frank in 2004. Similarly, in 2008, Bill was again named as an assistant coach of Phoenix Suns to work with the head coach of the Nets Terry Porter and Bill worked with Phoenix until 2012.

By January 2013, Bill’s coaching experience took him out of the shores of the US as he got appointed as the coach of a Japanese side Osaka Evessa where he reigned for a year before moving to Mexico. Again it was precisely in September 2014, that Bill took the mantle of leadership to steer the affairs of the Mexican National Basketball Team before he later left in 2015.

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His Wife And Children

Bill has long been married to his heartthrob, Sheri Cartwright whom he met way back in high school. The couple has four children whose names are Justin, Jason, James, and Kristin.

On a personal note, Bill has also bagged a Masters degree in Organization Development. Again, Bill takes delight in playing the guitar as well as music and he is a strong fan of doo-wop music, which was popular in the 60s.

Net Worth

Having been a successful basketball player as well as coach, Bill Cartwright has garnered a reasonable fortune from these careers. To this end, his net worth has been estimated by many sources to be about $86million.

Complete profile of Bill Cartwright