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Much has been made about George Karl‘s relationship with former players that he’s coached.
In his memoirs years ago, Karl took a dig at former Denver Nuggets players that he coached in Carmelo Anthony, JR Smith and Kenyon Martin.
“Kenyon and Carmelo carried two big burdens: all that money and no father to show them how to act like a man,” Karl wrote.
Martin late responded to that notion via Twitter:
Some don’t share that level of dislike of Karl. Appearing on the Heavy Live With Scoop B Show, retired NBA sharpshooter, Michael Redd discussed his relationship with Karl.
“You know what, I had a different type of relationship with him,” Redd told Sean Deveney and I via Heavy Live With Scoop B.
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27 Nov 2001: Ray Allen #34 of the Milwaukee Bucks listens to Head Coach George Karl during the game against the Los Angeles Lakers at the STAPLES Center in Los Angeles, California. The Lakers defeated the Bucks 104-85.TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and/or using this Photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory copyright notice: Copyright 2001 NBAE Mandatory Credit: Donald Miralle /Getty Images
“I had a great relationship with him. I don’t know how he used me as compared to his disdain for Ray probably, but they definitely didn’t have the best relationship at the time. George challenged me every day in practice and threatened to send me to the CBA a couple times for some of the mistakes that I made in practice or games but, I didn’t play my rookie year at all. But he was gracious to me, man. And we made the trade with Ray, I was hurt. Me and Ray were both hurt. I’m saying to myself like, ‘Why did we trade our best player? I didn’t understand why…’ during that practice, in Seattle, George Karl comes up to me and says, ‘You know why we traded Ray?’ In the back of my mind I’m like, ‘You don’t like Ray and y’all don’t get along, whatever.’ But he actually said to me, ‘We traded for you. This is your time now. This is YOUR franchise.’ And so I’m sad but, at the same time I’m like ‘Wow!’ So, he believed in me from the beginning. He challenged me, he coached me really hard, but I got so much better under his leadership. I think with the trade it opened up the door to be the franchise guy but I loved playing with Ray. Especially as I got better and had more time on the court with him. There was one part where it was hard to guard both of us. You know, you look at Steph and you look at Klay; and I’m not saying that we’re them, but like, we had that dynamic as well where you have Ray on one wing and you have me on the other wing and I was coming into my own at the time and I would’ve loved to see that a little longer. But, the dynamics of the league were different back then. We didn’t play small-ball. You had to play with a center for you to play compared to playing together and seeing what that dynamic is.”
A one-time NBA All Star, a U.S. Olympic gold medalist Redd held the NBA record for most three-point field goals made in one quarter with 8. He’ currently listed fourth on the Milwaukee Bucks’ all-time points list, 5th in Milwaukee Bucks all-time scoring average list. Redd retired from basketball in 2012 with career averages of 10 points and 3.8 rebounds per game.
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