New York Knicks: George Karl Rips Carmelo Anthony
If you thought Phil Jackson’s constructive criticism was bad, wait until you see what George Karl said about New York Knicks star Carmelo Anthony.
Before he was the franchise player for the New York Knicks, Carmelo Anthony was the future and the present of the Denver Nuggets. He led the Nuggets to the playoffs in every season from 2003 to 2010, and was on pace to do so again before he was traded in 2011.
Anthony’s departure in 2011, as well as the overall tone of his tenure in Denver, didn’t set very well with his former head coach.
George Karl is one of the winningest regular season coaches in NBA history with 1,175 career victories. Thus, when Anthony and Karl joined forces in Denver, many hypothesized that the potential existed for greatness to be achieved.
According to Marc Berman of The New York Post, Karl pulls no punches when criticizing Anthony on a personal level in his new book.
"Carmelo was a true conundrum for me in the six years I had him. 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."
The criticism became slightly less personal when Karl rips Anthony for his lack of defense—and subsequently, his lack of leadership.
"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."
Karl has clearly been shouldering resentment towards Anthony since their basketball marriage ended in 2011.
It’s worth noting that Karl coached three full seasons following the decision to trade Anthony to the Knicks. During those seasons, his teams ranked No. 19, No. 11, and No. 24 in points allowed per 100 possessions.
Anthony and the Nuggets ranked No. 8 in defensive efficiency in 2008-09, when they reached the Western Conference Finals, but fell to No. 16 in 2009-10—his final full season in Denver.
It’s also worth noting that Anthony led the Nuggets to the playoffs in every full season that he played in Denver. He also took a Karl-led team to the Conference Finals, which is a feat unto itself.
During his past 10 postseason appearances, Karl-led teams lost in the first round nine times—a 90 percent opening round exit rate.
Karl goes on to call Denver trading Anthony, “A sweet release for the team, like popping a blister.” Surprisingly, that wasn’t the most shocking dagger of a quote to be found in Berman’s article about Karl’s book.
When discussing Anthony and former Nuggets and Knicks power forward Kenyon Martin, Karl blamed their having no father for their not knowing how to, “Act like a man.”
"“Kenyon and Carmelo carried two big burdens: all that money and no father to show them how to act like a man.”"
A bit of a low blow, even if he felt he was writing it with good intentions—whatever those intentions may have been.
Anthony and Karl clashed while in Denver, but it never seemed as though the blood was this bad between them. Hopefully, the 32-year-old Knicks star will be able to block this out and focus on what truly matters: winning games in New York.
The Knicks are 15-13 and making an early push for the postseason, which means it was all but inevitable that some type of distraction would surface.
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Personal and pointed as they were, there’s no reason for Anthony to pay Karl’s comments any mind.