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The NBA’s Sacramento Kings recently announced that Assistant Coach Pete Carril ’52 would assume the newly created role of special assistant to the president of basketball operations.
Carril joined the struggling Kings just before the 1996-97 season as an assistant coach. In 1998-99, with Carril firmly aboard the Sacramento staff, the Kings enjoyed their first winning season since 1982-83, and the franchise has not looked back. Their 61 wins this past NBA season led the league.
The Kings have become arguably the most unselfish team in the league, and the dynamic passing they display is vintage Carril. While Carril has taken his passion and knowledge for the game into the NBA, the seeds of his basketball philosophy, that the game’s purists swear by, were planted on College Hill over 50 years ago. “What I introduced to our team was a philosophy which I learned from my old coach, Wilhem (Butch) van Breda Kolff. That is, move the ball around, take the tension out of the game by passing the ball,” he said.
One look at Coach Carril on the bench over the past 30 years, and it is easy to see the experiences from Lafayette remain with him. He wears his emotions on his sleeve, just as his volatile coach did so many years before. “I am totally indebted to him for every experience and every sense of the game as he was the most important influence of my life.”
At Princeton, Carril thrived and gained coaching celebrity. In his 29 seasons there, he compiled a 514-261 mark, for an incredible .663 winning percentage. Princeton won 13 Ivy League titles, making 11 NCAA appearances.
Sacramento Kings point guard Mike Bibby (left) is one of many players that flourished under the watchful eye of Pete Carril ’52.