George Karl addresses what went wrong in Denver

Posted by Unknown on Friday, June 14, 2013 with 2 comments
The NBA world was shocked when the Denver Nuggets and George Karl decided to divorce.  Karl recently spoke to the Denver Post about the decision that the Nuggets made to move in a different direction.
On his conversation with team president Josh Kroenke upon being fired: 
‘Josh was nice and complimentary, said he’d honor my contract and the coaches. The conversation was on the decision, and I said, ‘I think I should tell you, I think it’s very stupid.’ And since then, I don’t understand it.’ On this past season, winning 57 games, and criticism that he didn’t develop the team’s young players well enough. ‘We won 57 wins and are in a great place. Continuity, consistency, togetherness all are so much more valuable than they have on their priority list than playing JaVale McGee or the young players. And first of all, it shouldn’t be that I didn’t play young players, it’s I didn’t play young players enough, because we played a lot of young players — Kenneth Faried, Kosta Koufos, Evan Fournier at the end of the year, Ty Lawson. And I never had a meeting where that disappointment, in that part of it, was voiced to me. I never had that meeting. I heard through whispers. I’m sorry that 57 wins doesn’t make you happy.’ [...] 
On his relationship with the city and fans: 
‘I think the most important thing, whenever it all settles, is many fun chapters of coaching, and the most fun was the last 15-20 months with a team that is very young but also capable of being very good. Ten days ago, we were fired up, excited about the summer. My 8 ½ years, by far this is the most soulful connection I’ve had to the game of basketball, the city and the excitement of the city. A lot of it has to do what we’ve gone through. Initially you get Allen Iverson and that doesn’t work out, then you get Chauncey Billups and we’re near the top of the mountain. Then I get cancer. Then we come back. And so much of this stuff is all good – except we don’t win in the playoffs. I’m not going to stand here and justify my (playoff) record, I’m disappointed in my record.’”