OPINION: George Karl

[wildbill2u]

He wears thin on all of his players, wb. He's a great Xs and Os coach, but hasn't the slightest clue on how to handle today's player of any stripe. Pop is old school, but he understands that the best way to communicate with his players ISN'T through the newspapers. It's a player's league, and they want to be treated like men, even if they aren't acting like one. Once you start with that premise, you learn what buttons to press and go from there.

Some of what you say is true. George does let his frustrations overrun his mouth in public sometimes--but sometimes I love it when he lets one of those prima donnas have it.

Pop has had one great advantage. He started with a team that has pretty much always recruited players with character as well as talent. Tim and DROB come to mind as players who set the tone. And Avery, who didn't have all the talent in the world, but certainly helped keep the locker room egos in hand. When you're stars have character and show their willingness to think of the team first, everyone else tends to mute their ego trips.

Then, if anyone started the prima donna , Pop may have talked to them in private during the season--but at the same time he was making plans for their farewell dinner.

But George has had to deal with outsized egos on stars--and how easy would you get rid of a star who's selfish or won't practice or whatever. Suppose Tim acted like Alan Iverson or some of the other prominent headcases? That puts the coach in a dilemma with few good options and the frustration level rises. Because in the last analysis, the star usually is retained by the FO and the coach takes the blame for the losses.

Frankly, knowing George, I'm amazed he's gotten so fat. Things eat at him so much, I'd expect him to be off his feed and be anorexic. But maybe he's compensating for the frustrations of the job by enjoying the good life too much.

[ManuTim_best of Fwiendz]

Not looking forward to the Spurs/Nuggets series simply because Karl is going to run his mouth the whole series about the officiating and probably Manu again.

for sure.

I bet if Manu comes and has two straight great games against Denver to kick off the playoffs, Karl's gonna be going,

"Remember when I said I was just giving him a hard time in 2005 and that I really loved the guy the whole time I wasaccusing him of flopping and being '...a dirty disgrace to the league'? Well I LIED. I was telling the TRUTH THAT TIME, and lying about liking him this year, so he would let his guard down!
...."