Throughout the history of the NBA, there have been some head coaches that get along magnificently with their players and others that haven’t. George Karl and Carmelo Anthony would certainly fall into the latter.
Anthony isn’t the only player who has had issues with Karl, as DeMarcus Cousins and Karl have fueded since their parts of two seasons working together with the Sacramento Kings in 2015 and 2016. But, the feud between Karl and Anthony is still going on to this deal.
Recently, Karl took to social media to wish current Denver Nuggets star Nikola Jokic a happy birthday. It would seem harmless at first, until you ready the message Karl wrote and realize that he also tagged Anthony in it.
“Happy bday to the champ, the ultimate team guy and the greatest player to wear #15 in Denver hoops history,” Karl wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
Karl just cannot help himself from trolling his former player, taking every opporutnty to poke and prod him that he can find. That is yet another shot Karl has taken at Anthony, somewhat unprovoked. Anthony had spoken recently about how he thought the Nuggets buried his history wearing No. 15 with the franchise on purpose by having Jokic wear the same number.
Anthony is free to feel the way he does about how his number was handled in Denver, but this level of success was not expected from Jokic. He was a second round pick whose draft selection was announced during a commercial break in the 2014 NBA Draft. Anyone who says they saw this coming, a future Hall of Fame career with multiple MVP awards, is lying.
Karl and Anthony were able to make their partnership work at least somewhat on the court as the Nuggets found success during their tenure together. Denver made the playoffs all seven seasons Anthony was on the team for, making one trip to the Western Conference Finals.
From the looks of it, this isn’t a relationship that is going to get better any time soon. They say time heals all wounds, but this one is far from being healed.
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