The Collateral Damage of George Karl
George Karl is one of the best regular season coaches in NBA history. Winning over 1,000 games between 6 different franchises is remarkable. But his postseason failures followed him to three places where some of the best talent in the NBA at the time were playing It all began really in Seattle during the 1991-92 season. That was when the hopes would be raised and dreams would eventually be shattered.
Karl coached the Seattle Supersonics from 1992-1998. Of those seven seasons he had six with the combination of Gary Payton and Shawn Kemp and Detlef Schrempf was with Payton and Kemp for four seasons. Six of the seven seasons in Seattle were full seasons and in each of them the Supersonics won 50 or more games and won 60 or more in 3 seasons. However, they made it to the Conf. Finals just two times, the NBA Finals once, and were upset in the first round of the playoffs twice; once being the no.1 seed with 63 regular season wins. During the seven seasons Karl was just 40-40 in the playoffs despite being 384-150 during the regular season. It's easy to say that Payton, Kemp, and Schrempf didn't get it done but in most of their disappoints Karl was out coached.
Karl's next stop was Milwaukee from 1998-2003 with the trio of Sam Cassell, Ray Allen, and Glen Robinson waiting for him. This was in 1998 and the Eastern Conf was wide open with the dismantle of the Chicago Bulls. This roster was full of talent from top to bottom during Karl's tenure but like his stop in Seattle it was filled with disappointment. The team managed to win 50 or more games only once during the five years. They missed the playoffs in one year and made it out of the first round only once. Cassell won two championships with Houston and gave the team the veteran playoff experience it needed but with Cassell's wisdom and the youth of Allen and Robinson wasn't enough to overcome Karl who was 205-173 in the regular season and 14-18 in the playoffs.
Karl's last relevant tenure was in Denver from 2004-2013. There he got a rising superstar in Carmelo Anthony, and veterans Kenyon Martin and Andre Miller. Martin had played in back-to-back Finals with the Nets and Miller was a solid point guard who made great decisions with the ball. While Denver made the playoffs each year they made it out of the first round only once. In addition, they managed to win only one playoff game or less in 5 of the 9 seasons. The franchise was so impressed with what Karl accomplished that in 2013 despite being the NBA Coach of the Year for the first time he was fired. In the playoffs with Denver Karl was 21-38 and in the regular season they were 423-257. See the difference.
Karl coached 27 seasons in the NBA making 22 playoff appearances. He has 14 first round exits, 1 Finals appearance, and 4 Conf Finals appearances. Five times he lost in the playoffs as the higher seed including 1994 when his top seeded 63 win Seattle team lost to the 8th seeded Nuggets. It's easy to point the finger at the star players of each of these three franchises' but the one common denominator is the head coach, George Karl.
