Three former Milwaukee Bucks coaches were named to Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame’s Class of 2022 on Saturday afternoon at the NCAA Final Four.

George Karl, Del Harris and Larry Costello were among the 13 chosen, the hall announced.

Former Bucks star Marques Johnson was not voted in on his fourth year as a finalist. He is already a member of the College Basketball Hall of Fame for his exploits at UCLA.

Karl was in his first year as a finalist.

Karl is the sixth-winningest coach in NBA history. He led the 2000-01 Bucks to the Eastern Conference finals and went 205-173 in five seasons leading the team. His induction was first reported Thursday.

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Even though he came to Milwaukee having reached an NBA Finals with Seattle, Karl acknowledged that coaching the Bucks and their three stars, Glenn Robinson, Ray Allen and Sam Cassell, forced him to adapt as a coach.

“My first year I was very frustrated because everything that we did in Seattle was predicated on our defense,” he told the Journal Sentinel. “Now I came to Milwaukee and none of our defense worked. But I also had four guys who could score 35 on any given night. That was unbelievable.

“For me, I had to adapt. Our strength was our offense. We had the ability to score 110, 120. A lot of teams that we were playing didn’t have ability. So, I started letting Sam, Glenn and Ray have a little more freedom.

“You always have your heart on the defensive end of the court, at least I do. But in the same sense I thought instead of being a fundamentally macho tough-minded, Detroit Piston, blue-collar defensive team, I thought we got to become a good defensive team by being cute – by matchups and by double-teams and by zones.

“We had to do it, rather than a demanding everyday mentality, it was kind of how are we going to do it this game? There was more strategy and fun and fortunately we had a good basketball IQ.”

Costello and Harris were being considered as contributors to the game as opposed to as just coaches.

As a player in Philadelphia, Costello was a six-time all-star and part of the 76ers’ 1967 championship team. He retired after the 1967-68 season and came right to Milwaukee to coach the expansion Bucks in 1968-69.

He led the Bucks to their first title in 1971 and back to the finals in 1974 as part of six trips to the postseason. He compiled a 410-264 record in nine seasons in Milwaukee. He coached one season in Chicago and also coached the Milwaukee Does women’s basketball team.

“He is surely overdue. I don’t know why they treat us Bucks players and coaches so bad,” Hall of Fame player Bob Dandridge said. “They may just want to see how much patience we have. Surely Larry and Marques are very much deserving of the honor.”

Harris came to Milwaukee first as a consultant for Don Nelson and then an assistant coach before taking over in the 1987-88 season. He coached the Bucks through 1991-92, compiling a 191-154 record in the regular season and 6-15 mark in the playoffs. Harris also was a head coach in Houston and for the Los Angeles Lakers while assisting in Dallas, Chicago and New Jersey.

He received the John W. Bunn Lifetime Achievement Award from the hall of fame in 2019 and the NBA’s Chuck Daly Lifetime Achievement Award in 2020.

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Bucks coaches Larry Costello, Del Harris, George Karl in hall of fame