Former Milwaukee Bucks head coach George Karl was recently inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. Throughout his 27-year career, Karl coached the Cleveland Cavaliers, Golden State Warriors, Seattle Supersonics, Milwaukee Bucks, Denver Nuggets, and Sacramento Kings. With those teams, Karl coached many Hall of Fame and All-Star caliber players. However, not all of them have had great things to say about him.
Karl’s long-standing feud with DeMarcus Cousins is well-known among NBA fans, and neither party holds back when discussing their disdain for the other. Recently, another one of Karl’s former players, Kenyon Martin, appeared on Run It Back on FanDuel TV, and was asked about his relationship with his former coach.
Kenyon Martin Does Not Hold Back on His Dislike for George Karl
Kenyon Martin and George Karl both arrived in Denver in 2004. Martin spent seven of his 15-years in the NBA playing for Karl with the Nuggets. The two famously clashed during halftime of a playoff game, an argument which resulted in Martin’s suspension for the remainder of the playoffs. When asked about Karl by FanDuel TV, Martin responded:
“Man, f— George Karl! I know it’s early, it’s seven in the morning, but that’s just the way I feel about George Karl. No love lost, as you can see, no love lost at all.
“What happened was, everybody knows I was going through some knee problems in Denver. I had two microfracture surgeries and I had my patella repaired. And I was having knee problems before the playoffs. Came up with the agreement that I was going to sit out a few games, get ready for the playoffs.
“George started Francisco Elson in my spot last few games. I got to him before the playoffs, ‘I’m ready to rock, I’m ready to start.’ He said he was going to start Francisco and reward him. Who the f— would want to reward a NBA player?
“And so when we lose Game One against the Clippers, we go Game Two, and I said to him, “We lost Game One. Am I back in the starting lineup?” And he says, “No, I’m going to start Francisco again.’ Now you messing with me. Now you playing with me.
“So we started the game and I played seven minutes in the first half. Like seven game minutes and we was down at the half. Towards the end of the second quarter, he put Greg Buckner in for Eddie Najera. Me and Eddie played the same position. I was steamed.”
Martin then described how he went into the hallway where the coaches were meeting at halftime and let Karl have. He said he went so far as to threaten Karl’s life at some point. His full interview and more of why he still hates his former coach to this day can be found in the video below:
“Any chance I get to put George Karl on the burner — on the grill, I’m gonna put his ass on the grill.”@KenyonMartinSr didn’t hold back when talking about his former Nuggets head coach on #RunItBack 😳@MichelleDBeadle | @ShamsCharania | @bansky | @ChandlerParsons pic.twitter.com/EbWXWcAj6G
— FanDuel TV (@FanDuelTV) June 5, 2023
Former Milwaukee Bucks Coach George Karl Responds To Kenyon Martin
After Martin’s rant about Karl, Run It Back invited the coach himself on the show to offer his response. Here is what Karl had to say:
“It made me sad. It disappoints me that I can get a person that angry. I want to love my players. I want to care for my players. But I am also the leader and the policeman of my team. And my response in that game, I don’t think was out of control or unusual. I thought I was doing something that I had to do for my team.
“I might have been wrong. When those things happen, you want to move forward and not backwards. The suspension in that situation was very difficult for the organization. I know it was very difficult for him. You know, I just want to tell you that he was one of the brightest defensive players I ever coached.”
For Karl’s full response, view the video clip below:
“It made me sad… It disappoints me that I can get a person that angry” ☹️@CoachKarl22 responds to @KenyonMartinSr’s comments from last week about suspending him in the 2006 playoffs#RunItBack with @ShamsCharania @MichelleDBeadle @ChandlerParsons & @bansky pic.twitter.com/TL6H8G3Zth
— FanDuel TV (@FanDuelTV) June 12, 2023
It certainly sounds like the disdain is a one-way street at this point. It was awfully big of Karl to praise Martin as a player after the former All-Star did nothing but put him on blast. Still, it is easy to see where both parties are coming from in this situation.
Social media was not as big of a thing back in 2006 when the incident happened. One would imagine the fallout of such a confrontation would be 10-fold today with videos and immediate reactions from the media. Perhaps Martin is lucky the Nuggets handled it in-house back then. Today, the NBA may be forced to step-in due to the negative publicity.
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