Bill Cartwright
Center · USF Dons & Chicago Bulls
Basketball · Enshrined Legend
Bill Cartwright
A Lodi native and three-time USF All-American, Bill Cartwright went on to a 16-year NBA career and five championships — three as a player with the Chicago Bulls, two more as an assistant coach.
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First-Team All-America Honors
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NBA Championships (Player & Coach)
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NBA Playing Seasons
The Backstory
From Lodi's Farm Fields to Five Championships
Roots outside Sacramento
Grew up in a farming community near Lodi, spending summers working in the fields alongside his six sisters before starring at Elk Grove High School, where he was twice named state player of the year.
A record-setting run at USF (1975–79)
Helped the Dons post a 93-22 record with three WCC titles and three NCAA Tournament trips, earning three-time WCC Player of the Year and first-team All-America honors as a junior and senior — and graduating as the program's all-time leading scorer and third all-time rebounder.
Sixteen NBA seasons, three teams
Drafted third overall by the New York Knicks in 1979, he went on to play for the Knicks, Bulls, and SuperSonics.
Five championships
Won three NBA titles as a player with the Chicago Bulls in the early 1990s, then two more as an assistant coach under Phil Jackson in 1997 and 1998, before later coaching stints in the NBA, Japan, and with Mexico's national team, and a return to USF as an administrator.
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See Bill Cartwright in Action
1975 → 2016
Career Timeline
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1975
Arrives at USF
Begins a four-year career after being tabbed a first-round NBA prospect out of Elk Grove High.
College and Pro Career
Four years that turned a Lodi kid into one of the most decorated players in program history.
93-22 overall record — Including a .865 winning percentage in WCC play.
Three WCC titles — And three NCAA Tournament appearances.
Three-time WCC Player of the Year — The conference's top honor, three years running.
First-team All-America — Junior and senior seasons.
USF's all-time leading scorer — Also third all-time in rebounds.
Two-time Elk Grove High state player of the year — Before ever arriving on the Hilltop.
Every award, on the record
Honors & Awards
WCC Player of the Year
Named conference Player of the Year three times during his USF career.
First-Team All-America
Earned first-team All-American honors in his final two years at USF.
NBA Champion
Won three consecutive titles as a player with the Chicago Bulls.
NBA Champion, Assistant Coach
Added two more championships on Phil Jackson's Bulls coaching staff.
More To Know
Deeper Cuts on Bill Cartwright
Cartwright finished his NBA playing days with 12,713 career points and 6,106 rebounds across 963 games, and made his only All-Star team in 1980.
Chicago acquired him in a 1988 trade that sent Charles Oakley the other way to New York.
A brutal elbow during the 1992-93 season fractured his larynx, forcing him through multiple surgeries mid-career.
He later got his own shot as an NBA head coach, running the Bulls from 2001 to 2003, though the rebuild produced just 51 wins against 100 losses.
Off the court, he married his junior-high girlfriend Sheri and raised four children, later earning a master's degree and taking on the role of USF's director of university initiatives in 2016.
He's known to unwind by collecting old transistor radios and spinning doo-wop records from the '50s and '60s.
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