FrodoBaggins wrote:Are NBA players babies? Soft as charmin. I'll shut you down with one simple image;
This reality where somehow George Karl isn't a good coach, doesn't exist. He's stubborn, and perhaps we should have done things his way from the start. He was ahead of the eight ball with trading Cousins, because mark my words, we'll have to face this reality eventually. He's the perpetual anchor to this franchise. We won't begin a renaissance until that weight is shed.
And on that day, I'm going to enjoy telling you "I told you so"
And even if I'm wrong, I still win. Because this is about the Kings. Not Demarcus Cousins.
Paul Pierce
Karl never coached Pierce in the NBA, but he was the coach of the incredibly disappointing Team USA squad that finished sixth in the World Basketball Championships held in Indianapolis. Pierce and Karl reportedly clashed, with Pierce explaining in the aftermath that coaching was at least partly responsible for the poor result, saying of Karl: “I don’t think he’s a players’ coach, straight up. It wasn’t only me, but a number of the players didn’t respond to what he was saying or understand what he was trying to do. But me, I just play my part. I’m never going to question what he needs to do in practices, what he needs to do in games.”
Pierce would also note what he took away from his Team USA experience, saying, “I learned not to go play USA basketball if George Karl is the coach.” Karl benched Pierce during the final quarter of the team’s fifth-place game against Spain and later admitted that he and Pierce had issues during the tournament.
http://www.thesportster.com/basketball/top-15-people-who-dont-like-paul-pierce/?view=all
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Karl Starts a Fire, Keeps it Burning
http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2001-04-11/sports/0104110300_1_sam-cassell-glenn-robinson-ray-allen
George Karl never has accepted the conventional wisdom. After all, here's a guy who looks like George Costanza but played in the NBA with George Gervin.
Karl never believes he or his teams cannot succeed. In 1987 he was coaching the Golden State Warriors in the playoffs against the eventual champion Los Angeles Lakers when they fell behind three games to none. Karl was furious in the locker room, screaming, when center Joe Barry Carroll said he didn't understand why Karl was so upset, because the Lakers were better. Karl went berserk and tore Carroll's locker from its hinges.
With Carroll's attitude, a slow, not exceptionally athletic kid never would have played at North Carolina or in the NBA, as Karl did. But Karl began to see that attitude developing in his Milwaukee Bucks, whom he took over for the 1998-99 season and led to the playoffs for the first time in seven years. That seemed enough for some of the players, but not Karl.
Accept losing? Never. Not in any game, not at any time.
So Karl decided to take a risk, the kind that usually fails in the NBA these days. He was going to take on his players, even the stars, and do it publicly. It was time for this talented, underachieving team to respond. Or to break. Or for Karl to break.
When he and his coaching staff went to their annual preseason retreat in northern Wisconsin, a dangerous strategy was agreed upon.
"We talked about how this would probably be the year it could get ugly psychologically," Karl said recently. "As a coach, you know when you've got to rock the boat."
Karl decided to tip his boat over. His players had grown too relaxed, as if the NBA were some sort of pleasure cruise. That's not basketball to Karl, who acknowledges being the only player Pete Maravich ever fought. Karl will play you and coach you, but he'll also fight you.
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Maybe not using jedi mind tricks and getting rid of talent to cater to your schemes rather than coaching it the proper way may have been a better choice?
And since you like records so much. How's 33 wins sound?
