George Karl interview: 1,000 reasons to root for the Nuggets...

George sounds like such a great guy. I’d love to sit down and have a life talk with him. I feel like he can give some of the best advice any man ever could and is just so educated and sharp on everything he says and talks about. He’s a great man and I envy him, his accomplishments and his strength through all of the personal and professional struggles he has endured in his interesting and eventful life. I’m glad he is the coach of the Nuggets, I am glad Ujiri is doing the right thing in keeping one of the best coaches ever to coach the game of basketball in Denver and I’m glad to be a Nuggets fan. Great Interview Andy.

Dude awesome interview. I loved how you popped in the JR question at the end. Classic!!!

To come back from not one, but two battles with cancer and acheive such a milestone is amazing and inspiring! I’m sure the Nugs will win against the ‘cats, they’ll do it for George! Great interview Feinstein.

man, what I wouldn’t give to be in the room when Josh and George pound down a case….or to have been in the room when Marty and George did, either

I’ll be typing in “Denver Stiffs” on the computer tomorrow morning.

Was that a joke, or is he really going to be on here tomorrow?

Had to laugh when you brought up McDaniels. Come on Andy, this is a Nugs interview! You are lucky enough to talk to George Karl and you start talking about the Broncos! lol

Glad you asked a semi-tough question about the blowing leads thing. I know you kind of have a relationship with Karl, so it’s probably hard asking him the difficult stuff, but you should continue to try and do it as nicely as you can. It makes things a lot more interesting when you get answers to questions you really want to know. Next time ask him what happened to the cough drops. I havn’t seen them this season.

George sounds like a guy who’d be a good dad; someone you just want to kick back and have a beer with and shoot the sh*t. Obviously I have my issues with his coaching (or lack there of) at times, but as a person you have to aknwolege his greatness. He really seems like a down-to-earth dude in the middle of a league full of “me first” types of guys.

After reading this I REALLY want him to get his 1,000th in Charlotte because of all the history. I bet we do it. Our guys know what’s at stake.

You should have won a championship with Seattle, too bad you ran into Jordans bulls, but I think you gave them their hardest effort in the finals, and I thought if you had put Gary on Jordan from the get go, you would have won the series, but at least you lost to a former Tarheel! Hopefully you win tonight, you deserve it and if you are reading this, make sure to tell Nene hey and if possible tell him to do just one Karl Malone “mailman” dunk if he can on a fast break! That would be awesome, and thank you for everything else, goodluck!

Why no mention of Melo’s meltdown in the Memphis game? Melo’s performance (or lack thereof) in the Memphis game has been a huge source of discussion/debate on this blog the last couple of days. I would be very curious what Karl’s thoughts are of Melo tanking it on Sunday night. Otherwise, great to hear Big George is doing so well…

Really great that he took the time for an interview for our site with you Andrew. Good work getting this set up for our readers!

Hopefully the team will get him win 1,000 tonight. Always interesting to hear what Coach has to say. Loved the McDaniels question as it related to Karl. And cool you pointed out that J.R. stat!

god i love rehabilitation…

and only asking fluff questions? I normally really like what you write, but to me you missed your opportunity here. The question about the blown leads was a good one, but why no follow up? Why not ask what he thought he could do, as the coach, to help keep that from happening? Why not ask him about not using timeouts to help stop the opposing teams run? Why not ask him about why Billups is playing so many minutes and if he is concerned about Billups wearing down like he did last year? Why not ask him about playing billups at 2 guard beside lawson when he’s got Afflalo, J.R. and Forbes? Why not ask him about the nuggets road record, and what he thinks can be done to improve it?

I know you can’t go in there and turn it into the inquisition, but the toughest thing you said was gee coach, maybe it would be nice if you kinda sorta considered the possibility of perhaps, if you get the chance, playing J.R. a little more.

These are questions myself and others on this site have been asking all season, and you skipped all of them. I understand that if you are dickish to Karl he will stop talking to you, but what is the point of keep access if you only get to ask him softball questions? The questions I listed above are legitimate questions, and maybe he has a good answer. Maybe, in response to the question about calling timeouts, he would say something about a strategy of tiring out the other teams so they are exhausted in the fourth. Apparently, just like the number of licks to get to the center of a tootsie pop, and how George W. Bush got elected (oh yeah, Florida cheated), the world will never know.

If it’s a blowout loss, he might play JR just to monkey with that stat.

Karl is simply a real good coach. His longevity, playoff appearance and career winning percentage says so.

It takes a lot of breaks, and things to go 100% correctly to come out on top of this league and I think when you have a guy with the basketball knowledge and overall savvy such as Karl’s, you don’t just go swapping a guy like that out on a whim (as many of us have requested be the case on occasion). I actually think the Kronk gang has been pretty good about having the patience and foresight to weather storms around here, and I’m glad we have Karl ultimately. He’s a good guy, smart as hell, and someone anyone could look up to or be proud to say they know, or worked with.

This guy COULD lead a team to a championship. It’s very possible, and guys you can say that about don’t grow on trees. He’s hit some unfortunate challenges along the way though (the Jordan era, etc), but if a break here or there went his way, there’s no doubt in my mind Coach Karl is in possession of a couple rings today. Sure he’s made his share of mistakes, you’re bound to make some over 26 years of coaching, but I’d rather have him in command of my troops than about 28 other teams coaches in the league today, and the others are simply peers, not necessarily guys that he couldn’t beat if, as I said, a break or two didn’t go his way (although AC inbounding vs. the Lakers will forever go down in history as one of his gaffes I think). Overall that ain’t a bad thing to realize. Sure I have my questions about how we’re going to get over the hump here, but Karl is NOT the problem ultimately. The league has certainly evolved over the last 26 years, becoming more and more difficult for coaches to coach in (diva players, franchise contracts for players that saddle coaches with bad roster constraints, rules changes, etc) and Karl is on a very short list of guys who’ve adapted successfully.

I’m a Karl fan now, thru and thru. I originally joined as a member of firegeorgekarl.com, but I’m not of that ilk anymore. Once you stop and think about things, and how elusive championships can be in any sport and all the truly great players and coaches in sports in general who had to retire without a championship, you have to kinda set aside that lack of rings sometimes, and know that who you’re going to war with is capable of winning the battle, regardless of rather he’s won it already or not. Karl is one of those guys, but still has a window of opportunity to write the history books on himself as a champion. Hopeful (skeptical at times too) but hopeful that it happens for him one day.

and Nuggs!

I only wish you would have mentioned how you started firegeorgekarl.com and give him your mea culpa right then and there….unless that already happened and I missed it:)

(just think, if it had been up to you, he might not even be at 1000 wins…..IRONY FTW)

but seriously great read and thanks for doing it!

http://blogs.denverpost.com/nuggets/2010/12/07/josh-mcdaniels-reaction-from-nuggets-coach-george-karl/

For a guy like Bowlen to try to get out of paying him…

personally I am amazed at the access that blog writers are getting these days and it will only continue. Eventually the paid “experts” who have completely lost touch of reality and are only credible because of “sources” will have to watch their back. Anyway hopefully GK gets 1000 tonight!

As a longtime fan of Coach Karl (lived in Oakland + then in Seattle = no-brainer), I want to thank Andy for this excellent “fluff” interview on the day of what we all hope will be Karl’s 1000th. Might as well admit it: it gives me goose bumps and a bit of a throat lump to type those four digits.

While I’m at it, I’ll also admit to having lurked here most every day for quite some time. Thanks to Andy and Nate for what you’ve created here – a very entertaining and informative cyberoutpost. And thanks also to many of you regular readers for sharing your knowledge of, and passion for, the sport of professional basketball and that confounding cohort of its practitioners known as the Denver Nuggets.

7 pm EST cannot come soon enough…

Would it be possible to put up a post before the next interview you have with George Karl. Where us fellow Stiffs could submit questions to ask George Karl?

Would like to see it before I go do weapons cleaning. Or maybe during…