George Karl’s new book Furious George will probably sell well, but it’s coming at the expense of his legacy. Karl needlessly ripped into the teammates he coached on the Nuggets, including Kenyon Martin, Carmelo Anthony, and J.R. Smith. He also blamed perceived problems from those two players on growing up fatherless.
Chauncey Billups calls George Karl ‘wack’ for his personal Carmelo Anthony criticism
Billups was coached by Karl for several seasons on the Nuggets.
The topic even reached ESPN’s pregame show for its slate of Christmas Day games.
“George Karl’s wack for that, man,” Chauncey Billups said on the show. “It was wrong! He stepped out of line on that.”
“There are certain curtains you don’t open,” co-host Jalen Rose agreed. “I’ll say this — and not to condone a broken family in any shape or form — there are so many people who have come from single-parent households and turned themselves into success stories.”
Billups spent several seasons in Denver being coached by Karl, but he didn’t stick up for the 65-year-old head coach who has been unemployed since he was fired by the Kings last April.
“Kenyon and Carmelo carried two big burdens: all that money and no father to show them how to act like a man,” Karl wrote in his book, according to the New York Post.
Karl also wrote this about Anthony.
“Carmelo was a true conundrum for me in the six years I had him,” Karl wrote. “He was the best offensive player I ever coached. He was also a user of people, addicted to the spotlight and very unhappy when he had to share it.
“He really lit my fuse with his low demand of himself on defense. He had no commitment to the hard, dirty work of stopping the other guy. My ideal — probably every coach’s ideal — is when your best player is also your leader. But since Carmelo only played hard on one side of the ball, he made it plain he couldn’t lead the Nuggets, even though he said he wanted to. Coaching him meant working around his defense and compensating for his attitude.”
Anthony chose not to respond to the criticism, telling reporters, “I just hope he finds happiness in whatever he’s doing.”
Martin did respond, calling Karl “cowardly” and the worst coach he ever had as a player. Here’s his entire string of tweets.
Karl’s book comes out in January, but the parts about his time coaching the Kings have reportedly been removed. It’s worth noting that none of his former players have really come to his defense, either.
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