College - San Francisco
A five-time NBA Champion as a player and coach, Bill Cartwright joins the Suns’ coaching staff after spending the last four seasons as an assistant with the New Jersey Nets. Cartwright’s wealth of knowledge and experience stems from 15 seasons in the NBA as a player, 10 as an assistant and parts of three seasons as head coach of the Chicago Bulls (151 games).

Cartwright, 50, was a teammate of Suns President of Basketball Operations and General Manager Steve Kerr with the Bulls in 1993-94 and was an assistant coach in Chicago from 1996-98 while Kerr was a reserve. In total, he served six seasons as an assistant in the Bulls organization under Phil Jackson (1996-98) and Tim Floyd (1998-2001). Under Jackson, Cartwright was on the staff of both the 1997 and 1998 NBA Champion clubs. While with Floyd, the former 7-1 center was responsible for the development of power forwards and centers, including 2000 NBA Rookie of the Year Elton Brand.

Destined to be a coach, Cartwright was nicknamed “Teach” while playing because of his ability to pass on his knowledge of the game and its players to teammates. In 15 years as an NBA big man, Cartwright was tutored by some of the game’s best coaches, including Red Holzman, Hubie Brown, Doug Collins, George Karl and Jackson. He finished his playing days with regular season career averages of 13.2 points and 6.3 rebounds in 963 games and postseason averages of 8.9 points and 5.4 rebounds in 124 playoff games.

Originally selected by the New York Knicks with the third overall pick of the 1979 NBA Draft, Cartwright spent his first eight seasons in “The Big Apple” before a June 27, 1988 trade sent him to Chicago and helped propel the Bulls to their first three NBA Championships. Cartwright was an NBA All-Star in 1980 and a member of the All-Rookie Team in 1979.

In four seasons as a standout athlete at the University of San Francisco, Cartwright graduated as the Dons’ all-time leading scorer, averaging 19.1 points and 10.2 rebounds. A three-time All-American and three-time West Coast Conference Player of the Year, he was recently named one of the WCC’s 50 Greatest Student-Athletes of All-Time. In 1994, he earned a master’s degree in organizational development and human resources from his alma mater.

Bill and his wife, Sheri, have four children: Justin, Jason, James and Kristin.