American basketball player and coach
William Henry Hanzlik (born December 6, 1957) is an American former professional basketball player and coach.
College career
A 6'7" guard, Hanzlik played college basketball at the University of Notre Dame. He was selected for the 1980 US Men's Olympic Team, which did not compete due to the US's boycott of the Moscow Games. However, in 2007 he did receive one of 461 Congressional Gold Medals created especially for the spurned athletes.[1][2]
Professional career
He was selected with the 20th pick of the 1980 NBA draft by the Seattle SuperSonics. A defensive specialist, at the time of his selection Hanzlik had the lowest college scoring average (7.2 ppg) for any player selected in the first round of the draft. Hanzlik played in the NBA for ten years – two with the Sonics and eight with the Denver Nuggets. He was a 1986 All-Defense second team selection. Coach Doug Moe often assigned Hanzlik to the opposing team's toughest player to guard, regardless of position, even once defending 7'4" center Ralph Sampson, with success. He worked as an assistant with the Charlotte Hornets[3] and Atlanta Hawks in the 1990s.
Coaching career
In 1997, Hanzlik (then an assistant with Atlanta) was tabbed to replace Dick Motta as head coach of the Denver Nuggets. He coached the Nuggets for one year, posting an 11–71 record (only two games better than the all-time worst team, the 1972–73 Philadelphia 76ers). He was fired at the end of the season and replaced with Mike D'Antoni. To date, Hanzlik owns the worst full-season record for a rookie coach in NBA history.
Personal life
In 1986, he and Ray Baker formed the Gold Crown Foundation, a non-profit that operates year-round sports programs for area youths. After his dismissal as coach of the Nuggets, he decided to spend more time with the Foundation along with his family and four children.
He later became an analyst on Nuggets television broadcasts.[4][5][6]
