George Karl Passes Phil Jackson on NBA's All-Time Coaching Wins List

Sacramento Kings head coach George Karl surpassed the legendary Phil Jackson for fifth on the NBA's all-time wins list Monday with a 116-104 victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder.

The NBA announced Karl's milestone accomplishment on Twitter:

Karl's 1,156th victory puts him 54 wins shy of Pat Riley for No. 4 on the list. 

The 63-year-old head coach is in his second year with the Kings after taking over with 30 games left in the 2014-15 season. He is just 25-39 with Sacramento but has won at every other stop during his career.

Over a 27-year span as a head coach, Karl has taken the Cleveland Cavaliers, Golden State Warriors, Seattle SuperSonics, Milwaukee Bucks and Denver Nuggets to the playoffs. His best season came during the 1995-96 campaign, when he won 64 regular-season games with Seattle, falling to Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls in six games in the NBA Finals.

University of Nevada head basketball coach Eric Musselman tweeted out a quote attributed to Karl that might explain some of his success:

That philosophy has allowed Karl to hear his name mentioned among some NBA greats:

Name	Wins	Losses	Seasons
Don Nelson	1,335	1,063	1977-2010
Lenny Wilkens	1,332	1,155	1970-2005
Jerry Sloan	1,221	803	1980-2011
Pat Riley	1,210	694	1982-2008
George Karl	1,156	795	1985-current

If he can coach into next season, he has a great shot at surpassing Riley and possibly Jerry Sloan for No. 3 on the list.

Karl may retire without winning an NBA championship, but there is no doubt that he will go down as one of the all-time greats.