George Karl: Bobby Jones, to Julius’ left here, is the greatest winner I’ve been around. It’s why I asked him to present for me at my HOF enshrinement last week. When asked about Draymond Green these days, all I can say is he is the modern Bobby Jones. 💪🏽 pic.twitter.com/ZagsTXJwl5
George Karl Rumors
Sirius XM NBA: Does George Karl have any career regrets as he heads to the Hall of Fame? @George Karl tells @Eddie Johnson & @Amin Elhassan he wishes he did more with Carmelo Anthony & Ray Allen. #22HoopHall pic.twitter.com/2aDV1i3C8S
It’s not that George Karl sat at home, waiting. “I always had hope,” Karl said on the phone earlier this week, just before he left for Springfield, Mass., the home of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, where Karl will be inducted as a coach on Saturday, the topper of an incredible three decades as one of basketball’s most innovative and successful coaches. Karl’s 1,175 regular-season victories are sixth all-time in NBA history; only Gregg Popovich (1,344) Don Nelson (1,335), Lenny Wilkens (1,332), Jerry Sloan (1,221) and Pat Riley (1,210) have won more. But of the 10 coaches who’ve won more than 1,000 games in their careers, only Karl and Doc Rivers are not yet in the Hall. After Saturday, it will only be Rivers.
“Rick Carlisle (the Pacers’ coach and the president of the NBA Coaches Association) does a nice job of keeping my spirits up,” Karl said. “I didn’t pursue who was on the (nominees) table. If it happens, it’ll be a great celebration for me. If it happens when I’m dead, my kids will enjoy it. I think Rick and a few other people really kept my confidence up, saying it’s going to happen. Let the process have some time. “I can’t deny that when I got the call, I was very, very quiet, very much reflective. Very thankful. It brought me to a state that has really helped me understand where I am in life. I did things my way, maybe a little bit too much. Today’s game doesn’t allow for that very much any more. I tell my son Coby all the time, ‘Don’t throw old school out, ’cause old school’s gonna come back. Old school may not come back exactly, but it’s going to come back in some form or another.’”
Gary Payton, whose own Hall of Fame career got going in earnest in Seattle under Karl’s tutelage, said on Martin’s podcast that he loved Karl — and that he also “used to want to kill George’s ass every other (bleeping) day.” “Early in his career, and honestly, it’s one of the things that made him a great coach, is that he wasn’t afraid of confrontation,” said Terry Stotts, the former Blazers, Hawks and Bucks head coach who was an assistant coach for Karl in Seattle and Milwaukee. “I think his style of confrontation changed over the years. Early on, it was more face to face. I don’t think he ever changed. He wasn’t afraid to rub people the wrong way, and not just players, because he had opinions on how the game should be played, and what he wanted, and how he viewed the game. For good or for bad, that was part of his coaching style.”
The story of the American Basketball Association (ABA), which was responsible for stars such as Julius Erving, is to be told in a new docuseries for Amazon. Prime Video has ordered a multi-part docuseries, currently untitled, about the the rise and fall of the league, which defined one of America’s most turbulent eras and shaped the NBA as we know it today.
It is exec produced by Todd Lieberman, George Karl, Brett Goldberg, and Kamwana Holley with support from Scott Tarter, founder of Lana Sports and CEO of the Dropping Dimes Foundation, which has helped provide for the financial and health needs of retired ABA players over the past decade. Holley will also serve as director.
