Tag: George Karl

George Karl: Lakers will have more nationally televised games than wins

George Karl has thrown shade at the Lakers yet again.

There is no doubt that there seems to be a lot of professional jealousy around the NBA toward the Los Angeles Lakers because of their 17 world championships that have been spread across almost every decade of the league’s existence. There also appears to be an additional level of resentment toward the Lakers for whatever reason.

Former head coach George Karl, who was moderately successful during his coaching career with multiple teams, has attacked the Purple and Gold multiple times in recent months. He said their 2020 championship doesn’t count, and he also said Anthony Davis shouldn’t have been named to the NBA’s 75th anniversary team and that LeBron James isn’t a superstar anymore.

On Thursday, shortly after the NBA’s schedule for this coming season was released, Karl was at it again. He said the Lakers, as well as the Golden State Warriors, will have more nationally televised games than wins (h/t Lakers Daily).

Los Angeles will have the most nationally televised games of any team in the league with 39. It makes sense, as James and Davis are still as good a superstar duo as the league has these days.

But to expect the team to finish with a losing record seems unreasonable. It could happen if L.A. is ravaged by key injuries, or if James finally falls off a cliff in terms of his production.

But if neither happens, this Lakers team should be capable of winning approximately 50 games.

George Karl blasted the Nuggets for willingly messing with Nikola Jokic’s prime

George Karl thinks Nikola Jokic deserves so much better.

As a three-time MVP, Nikola Jokic has established himself as one of the greatest players in the history of the NBA. Jokic is a walking bucket, a rebounding machine who lifts the Denver Nuggets’ championship ceiling like no one else could. He is unquestionably the best player in the world and is still just 29 years old.

According to George Karl, the Nuggets’ brain trust isn’t doing everything it possibly could to compete for championships with its brilliant Serbian center.

Over the weekend, the former Nuggets coach tweeted a blunt assessment of Denver’s puzzling offseason. This coincidentally happened after Jokic effortlessly dropped 20 points and 12 rebounds against France’s Victor Wembanyama and Rudy Gobert—the two best defenders in the game—in an Olympic exhibition on Friday.

Karl wasn’t kind. He thinks Denver could be doing much more to contend for titles with Jokic and just isn’t as it watches the rest of the NBA pass its roster by:

I’m inclined to agree with Karl.

After not matching his contract offer, the 2023 NBA champions lost valuable ex-starting shooting guard Kentavious Caldwell-Pope to the Orlando Magic. Yes, Caldwell-Pope was technically Denver’s fifth starter, but he was also the Nuggets’ third-best 3-point shooter and their best point-of-attack defender.  You don’t replace that kind of critical production overnight. They also lost this year’s first-round pick, DaRon Holmes II, to a torn Achilles and have yet to add a viable backup point guard for Jamal Murray. (Uh, is Russell Westbrook still coming?)

In response to Denver’s calamitous offseason, general manager Calvin Booth has consistently preached the importance of drafting well. It’s a noble thought process, and he’s not entirely incorrect — good teams do need good young talent in the pipeline. The Nuggets are also not without promise waiting in the wings. Recent first-round picks Peyton Watson, Christian Braun, and Julian Strawther all might be quality rotation players soon enough.

But Booth’s approach to drafting well while he has the clear best player in the world is fraught in practice. It essentially asks several young players to reach their 99th percentile developmental outcome while hoping you don’t waste some of your franchise player’s finest years as they mature. It could happen, but it’s more likely that it won’t.

Because let’s be honest: Jokic won’t be this good forever. Father Time is undefeated. He catches up with everyone eventually.

So, Karl is right. The Nuggets could be doing more for Jokic. They could be giving him as robust of a supporting cast as possible. At this very moment, it looks like they’re instead simply hoping his individual brilliance will shine through regardless.

And that is a belief that’s already likely cost them at least one another NBA title.

George Karl thinks LeBron James is no longer an NBA superstar

Did former NBA head coach George Karl throw some major shade at LeBron James?

These days, people are living longer and aging more gracefully than in decades past. The trend is especially true in sports, where it is no longer unusual to see someone play 20 seasons as a pro athlete, especially in the NBA.

It’s one thing to be able to play that long, but it’s another to excel after so many years. LeBron James not only just finished his 21st NBA season, but he also was very productive, averaging 25.7 points, 8.3 assists and 7.3 rebounds a game while shooting 54% overall and a career-high 41% from 3-point range.

That production allowed him to set a record with 20 All-Star game selections and appearances, surpassing Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. There is also a good chance the Los Angeles Lakers linchpin will be named to one of the three All-NBA teams for an unbelievable 20th time.

Yet former NBA head coach George Karl found an urge to throw shade at the 39-year-old by saying he’s no longer a superstar.

Karl has been on a Laker-hating roll lately. He said the team’s 2020 world championship doesn’t count, and he implied Anthony Davis didn’t deserve to be named to the league’s 75th anniversary team.

On the other hand, Karl also recently said that he thought James is one of the game’s two best players along with Nikola Jokić, who was recently named the regular season MVP for the third time in four years.

George Karl: LeBron James is one of the NBA’s two best players

Former Nuggets head coach George Karl may be a Lakers hater, but he apparently still thinks highly of LeBron James.

Former Denver Nuggets head coach George Karl has spent a great deal of time lately taking potshots at the Los Angeles Lakers. Several months ago, he suggested their 2020 NBA championship doesn’t count because it was won inside the Walt Disney World Resort bubble.

More recently, he implied Anthony Davis didn’t deserve to be named to the NBA’s 75th-anniversary team and criticized the Lakers for their habit of switching head coaches every couple of years.

But he also gave their most valuable player a huge compliment.

While appearing on Brandon “Scoop B” Robinson’s “Scoop B Radio Podcast,” he said LeBron James is still the best player in the world, or at least second right behind Nuggets superstar Nikola Jokić (h/t Sports Illustrated).

“I still wanna give LeBron No. 1,” Karl said of the league’s oldest player. “So I guess LeBron would be No. 2 in my mind (behind Denver Nuggets MVP Nikola Jokić), but it’s really a young/old thing going on and the old guys know how to win, they know how hard it is to win and that’s what’s coming at these young guys that they have to learn in the next couple of weeks.”

On Wednesday, Jokic was awarded his third regular-season MVP award, which puts him in rarefied air. James has won four MVPs, and while he may not be the best player in the game anymore, on any given night, he can play as if he is.

In the Lakers’ first-round series loss to the Nuggets this year, he averaged 27.8 points, 8.8 assists and 6.8 rebounds a game while shooting 56.6% from the field and 38.5% from 3-point range. While Jokic outplayed him in that series, the gap between both superstars’ production wasn’t that wide.

How the Inside the NBA crew gave a life-changing gift to a 13-year-old sports fan in 2000

This is such a beautiful story.

Inside the NBA on TNT is one of the most beloved programs on television, especially with longtime host Ernie Johnson leading the panel.

Johnson, who has worked for the network for more than three decades, is considered unlikely to leave Turner Sports any time soon.

But considering that TNT may lose broadcasting rights for the NBA and Barkley could become the most coveted sports media free agent, the future of the program remains uncertain.

RELATED: Ernie Johnson on life behind the scenes as the host of Inside the NBA

With such uncertainty, fans of the show like author Ben Kaplan are paying tribute to Inside the NBA while it still exists.

Kaplan tweeted a thread about a Bar Mitzvah gift that he received from his father.

Back in 2000, Kaplan’s father called the folks at TNT to ask if they would record something for the occasion. Johnson was interested and sent back a VHS tape.

Johnson was joined by Kenny “The Jet” Smith, who is still a co-host of the show more than 20 years later.

They parodied an episode of Inside the NBA to report that Kaplan would skip high school and go straight to the pros.

While the two did not yet have Charles Barkley (who joined the show later that year) and Shaquille O’Neal (joined in 2011, this particular panel included former NBA head coach George Karl and veteran reporter Pete Vescey.

Karl and Vescey do not exactly have the same star power as Barkley and O’Neal. Kaplan, however, found Vescey’s message to him particularly funny.

Vescey joked that Kaplan needs an attitude adjustment, called him a selfish ball hog, and should require random drug testing.

While the part of the story involving Vescey is very silly, there is also an incredibly heartwarming aspect as well. Kaplan shared that in 2022, his dad was fighting a rare cancer diagnosis and Johnson stepped up yet again.

Johnson recorded a special message for Kaplan’s father’s 72nd birthday, and he called it the best gift he ever received. The two began texting, especially while Kaplan’s father received treatments.

Kaplan’s father died in 2022 and as these stories resurfaced, Johnson tweeted his thoughts:

Ben, my friend. You think you do, but you have no idea what this series of events meant to me. My only explanation for the opportunity and the timing is, as @petermayermusic writes in his song “Loose in the World” is that this was all “the hand of the Divine.” Blessings on you and your family.

This is such a beautiful story the encapsulates what Inside the NBA means to so many people around the world.

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George Karl slams the Lakers for firing Darvin Ham

Former Nuggets head coach George Karl has attacked the Lakers organization again — this time for firing Darvin Ham.

In a move many saw coming from a mile away, the Los Angeles Lakers fired Darvin Ham on Friday after he had been their head coach for two seasons. He had been the recipient of significant criticism throughout the season, and fans are very happy that he is gone.

However, some across the NBA landscape believe the Lakers were hasty or unjustified in firing Ham. These people believe more of the blame should fall on the team’s players or front office, and not necessarily on Ham.

Former NBA head coach George Karl took the Lakers to task not just for deposing Ham, but also for their tendency to switch head coaches every couple of years.

He even attacked their 2020 NBA championship, claiming it “doesn’t count” because it was won inside the Walt Disney World Resort bubble during the nadir of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Karl, who used to coach the Denver Nuggets, the team that has eliminated the Lakers from the playoffs the last two seasons, has gone at the Purple and Gold multiple times in the recent past. He attacked the legitimacy of their 2020 world title last October, and he implied superstar big man Anthony Davis didn’t deserve to be named one of the NBA’s top 75 players of all time.

George Karl implies Anthony Davis shouldn’t have been named a top 75 player

George Karl threw shade at Anthony Davis after the Lakers’ Game 2 loss to the Nuggets, even though Davis played outstanding basketball.

A couple of years ago, the NBA celebrated its 75th anniversary, and the Association marked the occasion by naming its 75 greatest players of all time.

One of the active players named to the list was the Los Angeles Lakers’ Anthony Davis. The selection was met with some criticism, especially since Davis had been injury-prone for much of his career.

He has played outstanding basketball so far in his team’s first-round playoff series against the Denver Nuggets. In Game 2, he was virtually unstoppable for a long stretch, and he is averaging 32 points on 61.9% shooting, 12.5 rebounds and 2.5 blocked shots a contest in this series.

Unfortunately, the Lakers trail in the series, 2-0, after their devastating loss on Monday when they blew a 20-point second-half lead. Former Nuggets head coach George Karl used it as an opportunity to imply that perhaps Davis didn’t deserve to be named one of the NBA’s 75 greatest players ever.

English was a very good player in the 1980s, and he was almost a walking bucket for those Nuggets squads. But he didn’t excel in any other phase of the game. Thus it would be utterly foolish to claim he was a better player than Davis, who is an outstanding scorer, rebounder, shot-blocker and overall defender.

Social media reacts to George Karl calling Carmelo Anthony overrated

Social media reacts to former UNC player turned NBA head coach George Karl calling Carmelo Anthony overrated.

Many damaged coach-player relationships have existed in sports, but none has had the amount of bad blood like former UNC player turned NBA coach [autotag]George Karl[/autotag] and [autotag]Carmelo Anthony[/autotag].

Karl coached Anthony for the Denver Nuggets, and ever since their breakup that saw Anthony get traded to the New York Knicks, the two have shared jabs. Well, we now have a bit more insight into what went wrong between the two, with Anthony describing how everything went wrong as soon as Karl was hired for the head coaching job.

Karl already had a coaching career that spoke for itself with 16 seasons already under his belt, including the 90s Seattle Sonics team led by Gary Payton, Shawn Kemp, and Sam Perkins. However, never getting the ultimate prize of an NBA championship, Karl had plenty to prove and was paired up with the 3rd overall pick to get that job done.

Anthony revealed on his Podcast that in the first meeting with Karl, he called him overrated. Karl confirmed this story on the X platform while sharing the viral snippet.

 

The wild exchange sent social media into a frenzy, with hoop fans taking sides between the two. Since posting the snippet Friday, it has garnered more than 5 million views.

Let’s take a look at how social media reacted to Karl calling Anthony overrated.

Ex-NBA coach compares Nuggets’ Nikola Jokic to Spurs legend Tim Duncan

Former NBA coach George Karl recently compared Denver Nuggets star Nikola Jokic to San Antonio Spurs legend Tim Duncan.

This year’s iteration of the San Antonio Spurs is a far cry from what the organization once was. Obviously, the team hopes to get back to the same heights they once reached with Victor Wembanyama at the help, but while he develops and their young core grows, they’re stuck at the bottom of the West.

Meanwhile, atop the NBA lies the Denver Nuggets, who are captained by two-time MVP Nikola Jokic, who just led his squad to their first championship in franchise history last season. Jokic’s dominance has been incredible to watch for the past few years, and one former NBA coach compared him to a Spurs legend who dominated at a similar level.

Former long-time NBA coach George Karl took to Twitter the other day, comparing Jokic’s greatness to Spurs legend Tim Duncan.

“The Truth is that we’ve never really seen a unicorn like Jokic before. But the best comp for him is Tim Duncan. Complete and utter Greatness. 💪🏼,” Karl tweeted.

Karl coached in the NBA from 1979 to 2016, enjoying head-coaching stints with the Cleveland Cavaliers, Golden State Warriors, Seattle Supersonics, Milwaukee Bucks, Nuggets, and Sacramento Kings.

However, Karl began his career with the Spurs as an assistant coach in the 1979-80 season. It was his only season with the Spurs and his only season in the NBA as an assistant.

Jokic has some catching up to do in terms of rings if he wants to catch Duncan, but in terms of their on-court dominance, the parallels are clearly there.

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George Karl disses Lakers and says their 2020 championship doesn’t count

Current and former members of the NBA champion Nuggets remain unusually obsessed with the Lakers.

After getting swept by the Denver Nuggets in last season’s Western Conference finals, the Los Angeles Lakers gained their first crack at Nikola Jokic and company in their 2023-24 season opener on Tuesday.

Unfortunately, they fell short to the Nuggets, 119-107, in what seemed a repeat of what transpired last May.

Since May, the Nuggets have been incessantly talking trash about the Purple and Gold. In particular, head coach Michael Malone has rubbed it in while whining that the media was supposedly paying more attention to the Lakers than the Nuggets, even after the conclusion of the series.

It continued on Wednesday when former Nuggets head coach George Karl threw some major shade at the Lakers. He said that in the last 15 seasons, they have exactly as many NBA championships as the Nuggets and that their 2020 bubble title doesn’t count (h/t Lakers Daily).

Actually, in the last 15 seasons, the Lakers have won two championships, other than the one they claimed in 2020. Meanwhile, Denver never won it all until last season.

Karl implying that the Lakers’ rings are worth less because many came “as a direct result of four icons” is dubious. Many believe Jokic is on his way to icon status himself, not to mention the fact that any sports franchise needs an icon to win many rings.

One has to wonder why the Nuggets remain so obsessed with the Lakers when, at least for now, they’re clearly the better team and have a world championship ring to show for it.