George Karl created a firestorm as excerpts were revealed from his new book Furious George. The former NBA coach did not hold back his criticisms of his former players Carmelo Anthony, J.R. Smith, and Kenyon Martin.
“Carmelo was a true conundrum for me in the six years I had him,” Karl wrote, according to an advance copy obtained by the New York Post. “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 was under Karl’s tutelage during his stint with the Denver Nuggets from January 2005 to February 2011, when Anthony demanded a trade. Anthony had his wish fulfilled when he was sent to the New York Knicks. Karl said the trade was “a sweet release for the coach and the team, like popping a blister.”
“We won this trade, definitely,’’ Karl wrote, referring to the Nuggets swapping Anthony and Chauncey Billups to the Knicks for Danilo Gallinari, Wilson Chandler, Raymond Felton, Timofey Mozgov and draft picks.
Karl was fired as the head coach of the Nuggets after the 2012-13 season. They had success in the Western Conference but could never quite make it all the way to a championship title.
Karl also took aim at J.R. Smith and Kenyon Martin, whom he also coached on the Nuggets, comparing those two, along with Anthony, to “AAU babies’’ — akin to “the spoiled brats you see in junior golf and junior tennis.’’
Karl wrote Anthony and Martin not having fathers in their lives became a detriment to their personalities.
“Kenyon and Carmelo carried two big burdens: all that money and no father to show them how to act like a man,” Karl wrote.
It should be noted that Anthony’s father passed away from cancer when Melo was just two-years-old.
Karl referred to Smith’s entourage as a “posse,” a racially motivated phrase that caused a major debate and got Knicks president Phil Jackson in hot water when he used the word to refer to LeBron James’ friends and business partners.
Karl wrote Smith carried “a huge sense of entitlement, a distracting posse, his eye always on the next contract and some really unbelievable shot selection.”
Apparently having a father isn’t such a great thing either in Karl’s eyes as he wrote that Smith’s father, Earl Sr., “urged his son to shoot the ball and keep shooting it from the very moment I put him in the game.’’
Karl’s last NBA coaching job was with the Sacramento Kings. He was fired from that job as well after the 2015-16 season. He spent one and a half contentious seasons with the franchise. He never got along with Kings’ star DeMarcus Cousins from the beginning and the two often had public blowouts.
Anthony, Smith, and Martin weren’t the only players Karl had public issues with. “Furious George” could include more players as more excerpts are released. Possiblities include Boogie Cousins, Shawn Kemp, and his memorable altercation with Ray Allen.
