New York Knicks Rumors: George Karl Rips Carmelo Anthony In New Book
George Karl coached Carmelo Anthony while both were with the Denver Nuggets from January 2005 to February 2011. During their time together, the Nuggets made the playoffs six straight seasons, but only advanced past the first round of the playoffs once when they lost in the 2009 Western Conference Finals to Los Angeles Lakers in six games.
In February 2011, the Nuggets traded Anthony to the New York Knicks after the forward demanded that he be dealt. Denver ended up sending Anthony and Chauncey Billups to the Knicks in exchange for Wilson Chandler, Raymond Felton, Danilo Gallinari, Timofey Mozgov, a 2014 first-round pick, and swap rights in 2016.
With Karl now out of the league after being fired as head coach of the Sacramento Kings in the offseason, the former Nuggets head coach has written a book that’s due to come out in a few weeks that’s centered around his experiences in the NBA.
In the book, Karl doesn’t mince words when discussing Anthony and the Denver Nuggets during his tenure with the team.
“Carmelo was a true conundrum for me in the six years I had him,” Karl wrote in Furious George, 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.”
George Karl puts it all out there pic.twitter.com/eYMLKtbXVa
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) December 22, 2016
“I want as much effort on defense — maybe more — as on offense. That was never going to happen with Melo, whose amazing ability to score with the ball made him a star but didn’t make him a winner. Which I pointed out to him. Which he didn’t like.”
That’s just the tip of the iceberg from George Karl.
He referred to Anthony, Kenyon Martin, and J.R. Smith as “AAU babies” like the kind of “spoiled brats you see in junior golf and junior tennis.” Karl then went in hard on Carmelo and Kenyon as both players grew up without a father.
George Karl’s former players clap back???? pic.twitter.com/Wc0u4m5LOB
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) December 22, 2016
“Kenyon and Carmelo carried two big burdens: all that money and no father to show them how to act like a man.”
Ironically, Karl says in the same breath that Smith had an overbearing father who “urged his son to shoot the ball and keep shooting it from the very moment I put him in the game.”
Saying Carmelo growing up without a father is a negative is kind of a low-blow from Karl as Anthony’s father died from cancer when Carmelo was just 2 years old. It’s not like Anthony asked for something like that to happen.
J.R. Smith sent out a tweet earlier calling out George Karl for using the book for attention now that he’s out of the league.
Still trying to be relevant. Sad just sad.
— JR Smith (@TheRealJRSmith) December 22, 2016
As of publishing, Carmelo Anthony has yet to respond to the leaked quotes from Karl’s book. It’ll be interesting to hear what the New York Knicks star has to say about his former head coach’s thoughts.
[Featured Image by Brian Bahr/Getty Images]
