Sure, he gave a head- coaching shot to a hotshot hothead — who was just 33 years young — but hey, it’s not like Harry Weltman’s hire could’ve done much worse. In the previous six seasons, Cleveland had nine coaches, including the same guy twice — twice.
At a news conference on July 26, 1984, the Cleveland general manager introduced new Cavaliers coach George Matthew Karl, who, as Weltman explained to reporters, “has the drive and energy necessary to rebuild an organization like ours. He has the potential to be an outstanding coach.”
As for whether he reached that potential, well, “I would say so,” said Weltman, 78, from his home in Beachwood, Ohio. “I really gave him a shot. I don’t think too many guys would have pushed him into that kind of a job, but I felt he could handle it. He’s a smart guy. I thought he understood the nature of the game.”
And now, Karl is on the doorstep of amazing. The 59-year-old Nuggets coach is just two wins from notching No. 1,000, joining an elite fraternity of NBA coaches — Don Nelson, Lenny Wilkens, Pat Riley, Jerry Sloan, Phil Jackson and Larry Brown. Karl will make it a magnificent seven.
“I never thought I’d be here,” said Karl, whose career 998-677 record makes for a .596 winning percentage, fourth-best among those in the 1,000 club. “I remember telling someone early in my career that I wanted 250. That would be great. I could ride that into a college job, get fired, then ride that into Division II, get fired. I thought if I got 250, I’d be about 40 years old and I could coach somewhere for the rest of my life.”
Karl won his first NBA game on Nov. 15, 1984, which was 170 days after Carmelo Anthony was born. The road to 1,000 includes head-coaching stops in Oakland, Seattle, Milwaukee and Denver. Riding with Karl at the wheel meant some speeding, speed bumps and a few detours too.
He coached (and corralled) some of the game’s biggest names (and biggest heads), be it World B. Free, Gary Payton, Shawn Kemp, Sam Cassell, Ray Allen, Allen Iverson and, of course, Melo.
In Seattle, he reined the reign — six full seasons, each with 55 or more wins, three times eclipsing 60, and the closest he ever got to winning a title, taking Michael Jordan’s Bulls to six games in the 1996 NBA Finals.
Along the way he earned the nickname “Furious George” for his temper and his technicals.
He has had 18 consecutive seasons in which he didn’t have a losing record. Eighteen.
And he gave everybody a coaching lesson when he beat cancer — twice — teaching priorities and perseverance, all while feeding himself through a tube and receiving radiation on his fried neck.
“For George to get himself back and coaching again is a testimony to his toughness,” Phoenix Suns coach Alvin Gentry said. “And, as for his coaching, I don’t think George gets nearly the credit he deserves.”
A true basketball jones
One week ago, Karl bounced around the locker room in the pregame like a fan who’d slipped past security. He zigzagged across the room, chitchatting with each Nuggets player, talking shop. The guy just looked like he was having a whole bunch of fun.
Karl’s got a crush on basketball. He loves getting nerdy and talking hoops history, dropping names of old players that might be forgotten by even those old players’ teammates. He cherishes the teaching process — not just to his players, but to his younger assistant coaches, whom he yearns to groom. He loves yapping about his old team, the North Carolina Tar Heels, who, if you listened to George long enough, you’d think never lost a game; and taking Pacquiao jabs at rival Duke. He even makes up basketball terms, such as “teamness” or “play-hard basketball.”
Fittingly, Karl’s all-time favorite player isn’t some superstar stud. It’s Nate McMillan, a gritty guard for him in Seattle who wasn’t a stat guy.
The respect is reciprocal.
“He’s a basketball junkie. He’s consumed with the game,” said McMillan, coach of the Portland Trail Blazers.
It’s the passion that has fueled Karl through all those years (and decades) — through all those East Coast road trips while his kids grew up on the West Coast; through sitting on the hot seat; through the playoff failures; through the cancer.
After all these years, Karl seizes the game — perhaps now, after last spring, more than ever.
“I enjoy what I do, and I challenge myself to do it better on a weekly basis,” Karl said. “The self-motivation, I’m proud of. I’m still desirous of that championship, of being on the top of that mountain, even though I’ve gotten close.
“Basketball is kind of a second family. We don’t all love each other — it’s like having 15 brothers and sisters. A couple might not (always get along). But there is a unity and a trust and a love and appreciation that comes with fighting the battle together, fighting the competition together. I’ve been blessed to have the opportunity to do it.”
Still shooting for a ring
One thousand wins into this thing, what is Karl’s legacy? If you look at that list, you’ve got transcendent champions in Jackson and Riley, ring-wearing lifers in Wilkens and Brown, the guy with the most-ever wins in Nellie — and then Sloan, who also has not won a championship, and Karl.
“Jerry and I,” Karl said, half-kidding, “we’d trade about 300 of those for just one ring. Maybe 400. Or 500.”
But around basketball, current coaches speak of Karl’s famous innovations and motivation.
“His teams in Seattle were real confident — borderline arrogant — and I think George has a way of giving his teams confidence,” said Avery Johnson, now the coach of the New Jersey Nets and a former NBA point guard. “And as a coach, he’s changed styles throughout the course of his career. Sometimes he slowed it down a little bit, in Seattle his teams were highlight reels, and with Denver he pushed it and scored in bunches. He has versatility and durability.”
Defensively, notably with Seattle, Karl was inventive with his constant switching, which at the time, Gentry said, “No one was doing in the league. They would junk up the game with trapping.”
Now, if his health allows him, Karl wants to keep coaching, he said, for at least three more seasons after this one. (Contract negotiations are expected to heat up this week, his close friend and agent, Bret Adams, confirmed last Friday.)
“You can go all the way back to — is Ernie Banks a great baseball player?” Gentry said of the baseball Hall of Famer who never played in a World Series. “Steve Nash, he’s a great basketball player, but it’s hard as heck to win a championship. The Celtics, Lakers, Bulls and Spurs have won (the majority) of the championships (of late). I don’t think you can judge a coach totally from the number of championships he has won. He’s about to win 1,000 games, and only six other guys have done that in the history of the league. It’s pretty impressive.”
Benjamin Hochman: 303-954-1294 or bhochman@denverpost.com
Karl’s five favorite moments
Thinking back on it all, Nuggets coach George Karl smiled and joked. “I thought I’d start at the top of the mountain and fall to the bottom,” he said. “And probably still will.” If this isn’t the mountaintop, it sure might feel like it. Karl is two victories from his milestone 1,000th as an NBA coach. In anticipation of 1,000, he took a few moments to highlight five favorite moments, in no particular order, from his 23 seasons on the NBA sideline.
APRIL 9, 1985 Cleveland 114, New Jersey 100
The Cavaliers clinched a playoff spot with their 35th victory in a season that began 2-19. “I’ve never seen this in the history of the NBA,” Karl recalled. “My team put me on their shoulders and carried me off the court.”
JAN. 28, 1992 Seattle 102, Orlando 97
Eddie Johnson scored 39 points as the SuperSonics overcame big efforts from Scott Skiles (22 points, 10 assists) and Nick Anderson (27 points, nine rebounds, six assists) to get a huge road victory in Karl’s first season in Seattle. He took over in the middle of the season, and the Sonics got hot, going 27-15. “In Seattle I had a lot of big wins,” Karl said. “This was my fourth or fifth game. We won in Orlando, and I think we won one more road game, (then) got the boat on the right track.”
MAY 17, 2001 Eastern Conference semifinals, Game 6: Milw. 104, Charlotte 97
Down 3-2 and down 15 points in the game, the Bucks’ “Big Three” of Glenn Robinson, Sam Cassell and Ray Allen went to work. They combined for 85 points and forced a Game 7, which Milwaukee won to advance to the Eastern Conference finals.
JUNE 2, 1996 Western Conference finals, Game 7: Seattle 90, Utah 86
Karl remembers this game being “like a wrestling match” as the two teams duked it out for the right to move on and face Chicago in the NBA Finals. Shawn Kemp came up huge, notching a double-double of 26 points and 14 rebounds.
JAN. 28-29, 2005
Denver 106, Milwaukee 100
Denver 95, Indiana 88
Karl’s first two games on the Nuggets’ bench. The victories kicked off a 32-8 record to end the season. “I remember Milwaukee, we were down double digits in the fourth quarter and the team really came back. I remember Nene making two really aggressive running plays, layups in transition,” Karl said. “And then we go down to Indiana and back it up with another win.”
Chris Dempsey, The Denver Post
All-time wins list
NBA coach Won Lost Pct.
1. Don Nelson 1,335 1,063 .557
2. Lenny Wilkens 1,332 1,155 .536
3. Pat Riley 1,210 694 .636
4. Jerry Sloan* 1,205 786 .605
5. Phil Jackson* 1,112 466 .705
6. Larry Brown* 1,096 897 .550
7. George Karl* 998 677 .596
*active; through Friday
Karl’s coaching record
Years Team W L Pct.
1984-86 Cleveland 61 88 .409
1986-88 Golden State 58 88 .397
1991-98 Seattle 384 150 .719
1998-2003 Milwaukee 205 173 .542
2004-present Denver 290 172 .619
Totals 22 seasons 998 677 .596
Karl’s milestone wins
No. Date Team Opponent
100 April 11, 1987 Golden St. Sacramento
200 April 22, 1993 Seattle L.A. Clippers
300 Feb. 22, 1995 Seattle Minnesota
400 Dec. 5, 1996 Seattle Minnesota
500 April 9, 1998 Seattle Dallas
600 Jan. 31, 2001 Milwaukee Denver
700 Mar. 22, 2003 Milwaukee New Orleans
800 Dec. 28, 2006 Denver Seattle
900 Dec. 31, 2008 Denver Toronto
