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What a nice guy. Kizsla and Karl deserve each other.
http://www.denverpost.com/sports/ci_5796214
George the Ripper at it again
By Mark Kiszla
Denver Post Staff Columnist
Article Last Updated: 05/02/2007 12:54:58 AM MDT
Rolling toward elimination from the NBA playoffs, the Nuggets' team bus pulled out of town Tuesday, with J.R. Smith under it.
He was thrown under the bus by coach George Karl.
"He's done," said Karl, who blasted Smith for insulting the dignity of the game and announced the Nuggets were benching the 21-year-old guard.
Down 3-1 in the best-of-seven series against the wily San Antonio Spurs, it looks as if Denver cannot possibly win.
It appears the Nuggets have found their scapegoat, though.
Smith has stunk, no doubt, missing all 12 shots he has fired from 3-point range and committing a dumb turnover in Game 3 that turned the series in favor of San Antonio.
In the basketball world according to George, it's always somebody else's fault.
But did Karl really have to go out of his way to slap down Smith, who has been on the court for a grand total of 47 minutes against the Spurs, less than anyone in Denver's eight-man rotation?
In a rambling evaluation of his team's state of mind on the eve of a playoff elimination game, during which Karl boasted of good karma in his locker room and chastised media members for negativity, the 55-year-old NBA coach turned his attention to Smith, slamming the young player's performance in the final stages of a heartbreaking Game 4 loss.
Obviously irked by an errant 3-point jumper Smith attempted as the Nuggets trailed 93-89 with 25 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter, Karl said: "I have no idea what planet that came from."
Way to keep it positive, coach.
Maybe we should call him George the Ripper.
Karl, however, was not done kicking Smith for poor shot selection.
"And then, of course, the one with eight seconds to go, from 50 feet," said Karl, exaggerating the distance of Smith's final miss. "I just love the dignity of the game being insulted right in front of me."
What about the dignity of an athlete being trashed in public by his coach, not in the heat of the moment, but after Karl had a chance to sleep on how to deal with Smith?
If Denver players trust Karl now, they're fools.
For more than 20 years, Karl has been pointing the finger at almost everyone and anyone in his own locker room, from Joe Barry Carroll to Ray Allen to Kenyon Martin. Bad players. Good players. Hurting players.
Stop the whining already, George.
After watching videotape of a 96-89 loss to San Antonio until long after midnight, maybe Karl should have blamed himself as much as Smith for being stupid.
The Spurs' late rally was ignited by a small lineup with Manu Ginobili acting as point guard, a brilliant strategic move by San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich that left Karl dumbfounded.
The most crucial shot of the fourth quarter came after a timeout by the Spurs, when Robert Horry stood alone on the 3-point arc, and Karl looked at Big Shot Rob as if the veteran was Sideshow Bob. Right there in front of everybody, Karl insulted the intelligence of everyone who understands the game. Any coach in his right mind would have figured out a way to deny any pass to one of the best clutch shooters in NBA history.
Karl can be a fascinating basketball conversationalist, with keen insights into the game and a sharp wit that television cameras love.
But, as bosses go, Karl could make Dilbert feel lucky to be stuck in an office cubicle rather than on the Nuggets bench.
This, of course, was not the first time this season Karl has talked of punishing a young Denver player.
Karl threatened to bench Carmelo Anthony in March, only to backpedal awkwardly when some team staffers were upset by the coach's public criticism of Melo.
Know what's so sad? Nuggets center Marcus Camby, who has come to personify everything classy about a franchise working hard to win respect, stood Tuesday and faced the media outside the Denver locker room, speaking eloquently about his responsibility as a veteran to help younger Denver players through this tough time.
A few minutes later, in the same hallway, George the Ripper was at it again, embarrassing one of Camby's youngest, most fragile teammates.
The blame game makes for great headlines, but lousy relationships.
Stumped by San Antonio, Karl has offered nothing to get ice-cold Denver guard Allen Iverson cooking.
But, without thinking, Karl has offered Smith up as a scapegoat and roasted him.
Hey, George, even a wretch like me can come up with a smarter idea to bolster the Nuggets for the trials of Game 5.
Leave the dirty work of throwing players under the bus to us trained professionals in the sportswriting business.
You get paid a $3 million salary to coach players up, not put 'em down.
Staff writer Mark Kiszla can be reached at 303-954-1053 or [email protected].
What a nice guy. Kizsla and Karl deserve each other.
Not that he's wrong but this is from Mark Kizla, the basketball know-it-all that called Duncan 'done', and that the Spurs should just give up playing againt the Thuggets.
So, let's not write a column about how wrong I was, let's just point the finger to Karl for how bad a coach he is.
I don't like Kizla either.
But he is right in this column--Karl is a dirty coach looking to deflect criticism against him by throwing a young player under the bus.
The article was pretty much spot on, even for a Kiszla article. Especially the part where he called himself a wretch.
Kiszla is a lurker at spurstalk
Didn't Kiszla throw JR under the bus after game three, just as Karl and AI and 'melo were doing it?
BTW, sounds like time to offer Beno for JR.
This guy has mentioned Karl's $3M salary in two consecutive articles now as if it's some outrageous sum.
At least this guy's articles are consistent(ly bad).
Woody Paige, not Kizsla.
Ugh...
Hmm, has anyone ever seen Woody and George together at the same time?
Kiszal slammed JR Smith after game 3 with a damming article and now attacks Karl for doing the same thing in Game 4. Basically, it's ok when a sportswriter does it, not ok when the coach does it.
Granted it's bad for a coach to run his mouth with the media, slamming a 21 year old in the process, isn't it pretty bad to when it's done by a sportswriter from your own town?
ing assholes.
Actually in my book, it is ok for the sports writer to bash (since it is his job) and it's not ok for the coach. Fact is, Karl could of benched Smith and not said anything to the press, but to bash him in public like that is the s of s
Actually, that's exactly what he said...
I agree. It's much worse for a coach to bash his own players.
Actually, I was wrong. It was Woody Paige who wrote the article: Who Shot the Nuggets? J.R.
Maybe George can get a gig as a sports writer after his coaching career falls apart this summer.
Actually as pointed out above, it was Woody Paige who slammed JR.
Although Kiszal's gutlessness in not taking Paige to task is par for his cowardice.
Shoog, it was me who backtracked and pointed out my own mistake.
First SW humbles me by showing my lack of reading comprehension, and now you do this to me.
Is this something against Argentines?
He's a thug because he plays for Denver. He's worth a lowball offer, and an expiring contract of a sucky backup is certainly that.
I've been living in Seattle for 3 years now after spending nearly 20 in SA. The more I see the methods of other coaches the more respect I have for Pop and the Spurs organization. I've been listening to Bob Hill all season. NOTHING is ever his fault. He's quick to name a specific player or the team as the reason for every loss but he never includes himself in the rant. When Pop criticizes something (like defense), he faults the entire team but never points out specific players. I love the way Pop and the players (usually) avoid airing their grievances to the media. After years of watching the way Pop, Tim and the rest of the Spurs handle the media I"m convinced that the less media attention you get, the better off you'll be.
Bob Hill did a lot of that when he coached the Spurs. It probably explains why the players went to Pop and asked for Hill to be removed.
I said it to a friend earlier today, but when I grow up, I want to be Gregg Popovich -- or at least be like Gregg Popovich.
This is why Karl never lasts too long in one place. You'd never see a quality coach blame a fringe bench player for a 3-1 deficit in a series.
And I still think JR Smith could turn out to be a very good player. The main problem with him is he's played for perhaps the two worst coaches in the league at developing young guards in Karl and Byron Scott. You put him on a team like the Spurs with a coach that will give him confidence and a bunch of veterans around him to show him how to be a professional, and he'd have a chance to be a great player.
It was no suprise when Hill was dumped by the Sonics. Some coaches never change. I think this article about George Karl touches on that fact. I think Pop has made mistakes in the playoff many times (he even admits that he may have stuck with Van Excel too long last year) but he seems to learn from them. I thought he did a great job in Game 4 against Denver. He was smart to go small if only long enough to grab a lead before going back to Duncan and also when he pulled Bruce for just a few moments and put in a shooting lineup. The Spurs got their shot, Denver promptly called a timeout and he re-inserted Bruce. Coaches like Hill and Karl never change.
what 50 foot 3 pointer is he talkin about?
JR Smith is a great prospect. There is enormous potential in this guy.
The comments by his coach after G4 just shows that the Nuggets are a bunch of players.
No coach of a TEAM would say anything of the sort.
No serious coach would make grotesque comments like that until the playoffs aren't over and the player is gone.
JR Smith should move on and find a decent environment to develop his talents.
Spurs, for example.
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