George Karl was once an NBA coach. He wasn't a good NBA coach, even with top talent like Carmelo Anthony, so Karl was fired from every NBA coaching job he ever had. Now the sorry ex-NBA coach is releasing a tell-all book about his days of coaching players who were better served under better coaches. In his upcoming book, Furious George, due out in January, Karl takes potshots at just about every player he ever coached.
Karl, who coached the Denver Nuggets in the 2000s, blasted former players Carmelo Anthony, J.R. Smith and Kenyon Martin. He called the trio a bunch of "AAU babies" like "the spoiled brats you see in junior golf and junior tennis," according to the New York Post, which got an advance copy of the book.
The low blows don't stop there; Karl, who coached Anthony from 2005 to 2011, also lambasted the power forward's work ethic and willingness to share the spotlight.
“Carmelo was a true conundrum for me in the six years I had him,” Karl wrote. “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."
Karl continued: "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."
And as if that weren't enough, Karl took aim at the fact that Martin and Anthony grew up without fathers in their lives.
"Kenyon and Carmelo carried two big burdens: all that money and no father to show them how to act like a man," Karl wrote.
It didn't take long for players to react, with many taking to social media to blast the "coward" coach for trying to remain relevant with his new book.
Martin wasn't the only one to blast his former coach. Reggie Evans, who played with Martin, also took to Twitter.
And I think it's pretty clear who J.R. Smith is referencing with this tweet:
Read more at the New York Post.