DENVER — The Return of Kings’ George.
With the Sacramento Kings in town to face the Denver Nuggets for the first time this season, it marks the second trip back to Denver for former coach George Karl — who amassed a record of 423-257 during his nine seasons with the Nuggets. You cannot question the regular season success as Karl had a .622 win percentage, but that fell to just .356 in 59 playoff games.
Karl will always hold a special place in my journalism career as he was the first coach that I got to cover. Karl would often sit and talk with us media hacks after practices and answer basically any question you had — about any subject. Want to know what Karl’s political thoughts are? Just ask him. What about healthy concerns or changes in his diet after two battles with cancer? He’s all ears. But what Karl loves to talk about is basketball. He’s a lifer, a gym rat.
One day after a Nuggets practice, Karl was asked about his Eastern Conference Finals series when his Milwaukee Bucks took the Philadelphia 76ers to Game 7. Karl didn’t want to talk about Game 7, he described the last play in Game 5 that saw Glenn Robinson miss a game winning floater on the baseline. Karl described the play to a T and even reenacted Robinson’s floater and Dikembe Mutombo coming over to challenge the shot.
You can watch that play at the 18:09 mark of the video below:
That Robinson miss occurred back on May 30, 2001 and you could tell it still haunted Karl, more than 10 years later — after hundreds of games between. Ask him about his Phoenix Suns playoff series when he was the head man of the Seattle Super Sonics. He’ll remind you that the Suns shot 64 free throws in Game 7 — getting 57 of their 123 points at the foul line, compared to the Sonics 28-36 night at the charity stripe. He can tell you about going toe-to-toe against Michael Jordan‘s Chicago Bulls in 1996 NBA Finals. It’s also fun to ask Karl about the Nuggets upsetting his Sonics in the 1994 playoffs, if you want torment him.
He’s just a wealth of hoops stories and I’ll always be thankful for the time I got to spend listening to him talk about the game that I love.
We caught up with Karl today after the Kings shoot around and he covered a variety of topics. Including his return to Denver, Danilo Gallinari‘s return to form, game planning against Kenneth Faried and what his thoughts are on putting butts in seats and his wishes for the Nuggets going forward.
Listen below:
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0 Comments (1 conversation)
I really like Malone, but I sure miss this guy. His years and experience are so evident. Sacramento is so ungrateful. They should elevate him. He still cares about his Nuggets for Pete’s sake. Make sure his former team hears this.
I love George. I didn’t always agree with how he coached or what he said, but that is part of the game. He knows more about hoops than I can ever dream of, could listen to him talk for days.