Advertisement - scroll for more content
Brandon Krisztal: I’m hearing that longtime Nuggets assistant Ryan Bowen is set to become the new Head Coach of the team’s G-League affiliate, The Grand Rapids Gold, and former Nuggets assistant Coach, Chad Iske, will serve as the GM of the Gold. Iske, returned to the organization as a Pro Scout in 2022 after a decade on the bench with the 76ers, Kings, Wizards & Hornets. He was an asst. for George Karl from 2007-2013. After retiring from basketball in 2009, Bowen also joined Karl’s staff in Denver from 2011-2013. He spent the next 2 seasons on the bench in Sacramento before returning to Denver’s bench in 2015.
Kenyon Martin on playing for George Karl: If we had a different coach, we win a championship
Kenyon Martin: I’mma keep harping on it. People gonna get tired of hearing me say it, probably... but if we had a different coach, we win a championship, bro. No doubt about it. I just said this earlier: your coach gotta get you one. If we had a different coach that was well-rounded—knew the game and people—not just the game and not just people, but both? Because it can’t just be one part. Nah.
Kenyon Martin: So, did the man know basketball? Yeah. But it wasn’t in its totality. Not in-game situations. All the stuff you need—like, if you ain’t got no timeouts, or if they take something away, what are we going to do? We never worked on that. I played for this man for six and a half years. We never worked on end-of-game situations. Like, never worked on it, dog. So, we’re playing the Lakers—Western Conference Finals. We throw the ball away twice because we’re trying to zip Mello up. We didn’t run any action. Just zip him up, and they took it away. We turned the ball over.
Jorge Sierra: Tom Thibodeau is the second coach in NBA history to be fired by two different teams following 50-win seasons (in Chicago and New York. The first one was George Karl (Seattle and Denver).
George Karl: Jokic was the MVP again this season and it wasn’t that close. But I guess I’m the only former Nuggets coach who knows that.
Advertisement
“The Nuggets kind of drive me a little crazy,” George Karl, the Hall of Fame basketball coach whose resume includes three division titles in Denver from 2004-2013, said of Nikola Jokic when I called him Tuesday. “You’ve got the best player in the game of basketball and I want him … I mean, I want a Nuggets championship for Denver, yes. But I really want (Jokic) to be recognized … as one of the top 10 players of all time. “And if he doesn’t win another championship, I don’t know if he’ll get that recognition.”
The Nuggets aren’t in a pickle. They’re in a hoagie of hurt, sandwiched between two of the deepest teams in the NBA right now. While Oklahoma City and Minnesota are tussling in a steel cage match to reach the NBA Finals, Chopper Circle is without a general manager, without a head coach, without a draft pick in 2025, and without much cap space. “Personally, I would pick his brain,” Karl said of Jokic. “Not only is (Joker) a (generational) basketball talent — he’s a very bright player, a very intelligent basketball player. And I think (I’d) want to be getting him revved up and juiced up for next year, to support whatever changes they make. I’d still do whatever (he) wanted me to do.”
His 74th birthday is approaching and Karl no longer looks or sounds like the barrel-chested, tornado of energy who stormed the sideline for 27 seasons while becoming the NBA’s sixth-winningest coach. Three bouts of cancer have withered his body, and his voice is raspy and weak. His nights are torture. He often awakens in a panic, fearful he is suffocating. Chronic mucus clogs his throat and lungs, a side effect from seven weeks of radiation treatments in 2009 to rid his head and neck of cancer. He has to suction the mucus out, much like a dental assistant, before returning to his pillow.
In 2004, he was treated for prostate cancer. In 2017, he had more radiation treatment for ocular melanoma. He can’t see well. Hear well. Or speak well. He meditates to ease the anxiety of suffocating and admits that most days he fears dying. “But being a meditative guy, the Buddhist always believed the greatest evolution is dying,” Karl said. Cancer is not his only fight. Karl, nine years since leaving the NBA, wrestles almost daily with what he calls the love of his life. His struggle with basketball is twofold. He is concerned about the direction of the game, and haunted by his painful and controversial past.
His insomnia went deeper than style beating substance. He couldn’t help but see himself. For all of Karl’s fame, fortune and friendships gained throughout his playing and coaching career, he is haunted by the thought he is a failure. He won 1,175 games and was brilliant and innovative enough to advance to the game’s brightest stages. Yet, he never won the biggest game.
Advertisement
He believes his opinion should carry weight, even if the radiation treatments have ravaged his voice box to a whisper. He doesn’t want to coach, and he doesn’t want to work full time. He just wants to be heard. “The league the last five to 10 years kind of runs how we played (in Denver),” Karl said. “And what’s funny is nobody comes to me and asks what the secrets are. And I’m going, ‘Oh, OK. You can figure it out all by yourself, eh?’ And I’m not saying you gotta buy my s—. I’m just saying, you might want to listen to my s—, you know?”
The sun was preparing to set, and Karl couldn’t retire a thought that had long bothered him. “I feel bad, almost on a weekly basis, that my image in the league … is it stopping Coby from getting a job?” Karl asked. “That worries me.” He stared at a candle burning in front of his living room window. “OK,” he said, slapping his thighs as if to break himself out of a trance. “That’s my negative energy for the day.”
Even those who are close to Karl, like former player and current Lakers assistant Nate McMillan, believe Karl’s candor in the book will have lasting implications, particularly when it comes to Coby’s chances to get a head job. “When you say things like that, it can get under people’s skin. This whole thing is about networking and who you know. If people feel a certain way, or look at you in a certain way, it can make it hard,” McMillan said. “But if it wasn’t for Coby, I don’t think George would have many regrets about what he said. A lot of what he said is real … it’s just things that other people wouldn’t say.”
It was no surprise when Karl surfaced on social media with the same pugnacious, in-your-face style. He has sparred with former players Anthony, Martin and Smith, and television personalities Kendrick Perkins, Mark Jackson and Nick Wright on Twitter/X. The inflammatory posts generated headlines and back-and-forth discussion. The dust-ups went a long way to pushing Karl back into the NBA conversation. He was once again relevant. He once again had a voice. There was just one problem. He never wrote the posts. “I’ve gone on Twitter to find out what somebody said, but I’ve never, ever wrote anything,” Karl said. “I’ve never done that my whole life, but I know it’s out there.” The man behind the account is Brett Goldberg, Karl’s business partner and manager. Sometimes, Karl will tell Goldberg to post on a subject. Usually, though, it’s Goldberg creating the content. “It’s like 80 percent Brett,” Karl said. “He wanted me to have more of an online presence … and I don’t understand branding.”
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement