Player Wives & Girlfriends

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Lets give credit where credit is due - the Spurs were THE team of the 2000's. With all due respect to the Lakers, San Antonio was more consistent and never lost in the Finals, besting the LA several time on their way to a title.

Gregg Popovich has been a constant during this run, leading the helm in San Antonio since 1996. Sure, it's helped having consummate pro/candidate for best power forward of all time Tim Duncan, but Pops has definitely earned his coaching stripes. He's pieced together teams around his franchise player, especially taking advantage of the uptick in foreign talent (Tony Parker and Manu Gonobli being the best examples of that).

While he has been a rock for the Spurs for over a decade, Gregg Popovich's wife Erin Popovich has been his rock for even longer. They have been married (yes, married, not dating) for over 30 years. That's pretty incredible in our books. Together they have two children.

When not busy telling her husband to be nicer during in-game interviews (only Craig Sager is happy about that), Erin Popovich has spent time working with local charities such as the San Antonio Food Bank.

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It's taken a while for Raymond Felton to get the recognition he's earned through his 8+ years in the Association. After being drafted 5th overall in 2005, Felton has bounced around the league playing for the Nuggets, Bobcats, Trail Blazers, and now on his second stint with the Knicks. After Felton has finally started getting some dap for running point for the 2nd seeded Knicks, I was stunned to look back at his career numbers. Felton has averaged more than 6.5 assists in 6 of his 8 pro seasons and accumulated a career scoring average of 13.5 points per game. While not All Star numbers, there's probably 25 other teams in the league who would take a solid vet to guarantee them numbers like that on a nightly basis.

With Felton not previously jumping off the page to anyone (including PlayerWives.com), we were remiss in not looking into his relationship status. After some looking (OK, we Googled it), we found Raymond Felton's wife Ariane Raymondo-Felton. While not a whole lot is known about Ariane, we have learned that she is a Cornell graduate from the class of 2009, who was born in 1987. Ariane was Ray Felton's girlfriend for a number of years before the couple tied the knot on July 28, 2012 in Wake Forest, NC in a lavish ceremony in front of friends and family.

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George Karl's "life partner" Kim Van Deraa was born in Appleton, Wis., where she played high school basketball. Kim then attended University of Wisconsin, where she was an outstanding player. In her words,

The coaches complained that I didn't shoot, but I was always more excited about rebounding and playing defense

George and Kim actually met because she was a secretary with the Milwaukee Bucks when he coached there. From the sounds of it, Kim's basketball mind is part of the draw for George. She is very much an informal assistant coach to George, constantly telling him a loss what went wrong. I can't decide if that sounds helpful or really, really annoying.

Prior to being with Kim, George Karl was married to Cathy Cramer. She was actually a bit of a basketball mind as well, realizing pretty quickly how the NBA really works. After Karl's Seattle Sonics lost to the Phoenix Suns in 1993 for the right to lose to Jordan's Bulls in the NBA Finals, Cathy met Barkley and said to him:

C'mon Charles, the league wants you playing Michael in the Finals.

George Karl and his wife Cathy Crarmer divorced in 1998 but not before having two children, Koby Karl and Kelci. George and Kim Van Deraa have a daughter of their own, named Kaci (obviously the whole "K" naming scheme is pretty important to old George).