Buck Harvey: Karl’s hope: It’s against all he knows
Web Posted: 04/21/2007 09:50 PM CDT
San Antonio Express-News
George Karl comes out of the locker room to talk, and he chooses a seat that fits his mood: a large, rubber ball used for exercise.
He bounces playfully, and soon ideas spring from him with similar verve. He talks up Carmelo Anthony’s maturity, and he says “the basis of all great teams is defense,” and he explains why these Nuggets are better than they were two years ago.
Karl thinks, if things go right, he can win this series with the Spurs.
But Karl — going by everything else he has said — knows he shouldn’t win. He’s trapped by changes in the sport he can’t control, and he’s stuck making compromises.
The ball still bounces for him, because he earns a lot of money, and he’s madly competitive. But if he could change a few things?
He’d be coaching the Spurs tonight.
Trading places wouldn’t be hard for him to imagine. He and Gregg Popovich, after all, are built alike.
Both are bright, both spent some time this season railing at Isiah Thomas, and both can treat their players the way Alec Baldwin treats his 11-year-old daughter.
According to Karl, he and Popovich talk to each other, too. In an interview last month with a Denver newspaper, Karl said:
“I give Pop all kinds of grief. I tell him, ‘You’re not coaching in the NBA. You’ve got a no-maintenance superstar (Tim Duncan). You’ve got an organization that is totally supportive. You don’t even know the nightmares that we’re going through.’”
There might have been some humor intended; at least those in his organization would like to think so. But Karl is probably serious when it comes to the so-called “nightmares.”
Karl arrived in midseason in Denver two years ago without time to worry about the details. He slimmed down the playbook and told his guys to have fun. It worked, and now he’s had to scramble on the run again, with the Allen Iverson trade changing everything. This has also worked.
The only problem along the way, according to scouts, is the Denver defense. Two months ago, they thought it ranked with the worst they had ever seen, which is saying something with Marcus Camby defending the rim. They say now it’s average at best.
That’s not the way Karl coached in Seattle, and here’s the theory of one scout: Karl gave in to his talent. He’s pushed and demanded, but eventually, he’s had to accept that the resistance is too strong.
Karl and Popovich endured the same resistance during the 2002 World Championships. Some stars weren’t as interested in the team concept, and, as Karl put it, he and Popovich shared the “misery.”
For most pro coaches, that’s the profession. For Popovich, that’s just a bad summer. With the tone set by Duncan, Popovich and his staff have continued to maintain a group that will listen to and follow the plan. This is what Karl means when he says Popovich doesn’t coach in the NBA.
That said, it took Popovich half of this season to get his veterans in sync on the defensive end. That’s how hard this chore is for coaches.
Karl would never admit he has surrendered, but he’s always candid about the problems he has faced. In that same interview, he said, “There are days I wake up, and I feel like I don’t understand J.R. (Smith).”
He also talked about a recurring theme for him — how the elements of celebrity and money and ESPN work against the game itself.
“Everything is pulling us away from the soul of the game,” Karl said then. “The truth of basketball is done in competition and fundamentals and team, but there’s a lot of other junk that goes around the game. There’s a point where all coaches might reach and say it’s too much.”
Karl saw the Spurs as a hoop oasis two years ago, and now he calls them the Green Bay Packers of basketball. He says he “loves” Manu Ginobili, and he marvels at Duncan’s “'60s mentality to the way he approaches the game.”
Karl, ever looking for a psychological edge, might be underselling his team. Except, he also said this in March about the Spurs:
“In a seven-game series, they have more experience and more spirit of how to win games than any team in basketball.”
Karl will look for the cracks in that spirit. Anthony will play hard, and Iverson always does, and that’s why the Nuggets are scary. There will be games in this series when these scorers will override everything.
Denver will want to play defense, too. But it takes discipline to make the right rotations, and it takes time to build the right habits.
The Spurs have been doing this for years and have honed it over the last few months. What’s the chance the Nuggets find the same on the fly?
Karl, even while bouncing in anticipation, knows the answer.