- [Narrator] In 2003,
the dismal Denver Nuggets drafted a lifeline, Carmelo Anthony, a teenager with jaw-dropping skill and an extremely impressive resume. Melo was tabbed as Nugget savior, the centerpiece of a
hopeful new contender. To develop their prized youngster and manage the team around him, Denver hired veteran coach George Karl. Almost from the outset,
people predicted beef. Those people predicted correctly. (gentle music) So let's talk about why
beef between Carmelo Anthony and George Karl felt inevitable. At just 19, the rookie Melo took over as Denver's leading scorer, piloting what had been a 17 win club to a winning record and
their first playoff berth since the mid '90s. Still, Carmelo was a teenager and behaved immaturely at times. His shot selection
irritated veteran teammates. When they said so, the rookie responded by refusing to check into
the fourth quarter of a game. Melo made headlines off the court too. He appeared in the notorious
Stop Snitching video series, he had a rough summer
with the US Olympic team, he entered his second season amid reports of weed in his backpack
boarding the team plane, and people trying to extort him with video of a nightclub fight. It was a lot. That '04-'05 season didn't start too hot for the Nuggets on the floor. Denver racked up early losses, so they fired Coach Jeff Bzdelik, and after a brief interim period, hired George Karl as the
long-term replacement. Interesting choice. On one hand, Karl had a track record
of improving NBA teams. On the other hand, each of those teams
included at least one player butting heads with Karl. The coach was known for
pushing his players' buttons, criticizing them in public, and, he admitted, sometimes struggling with alcohol and anger issues. Most recently, Karl had
led the Milwaukee Bucks to the brink of the Finals while also alienating his stars. Ray Allen came to despise a coach he said, talked more than he listened. In Denver, Karl quickly lived up to both sides of his billing. He led the Nuggets straight
out of the losing column and into the '05 playoffs with the franchise's best
record in over 15 years, and he immediately
challenged Carmelo Anthony. From day one, Karl said he'd demand things his star might not like. He called Anthony, a great
talent who needed to learn professionalism and whose
performance had plateaued. Kind of backhanded, kind of paternalistic, but get used to it. Karl would continue to
praise Anthony's scoring, but almost always with the caveat about the other skills he lacked or some dig at his personality. Melo didn't help, issuing such ringing endorsements as, "He is the boss and we are the workers," and "we have no choice but to listen." So even as the Nuggets'
season turned around, reporters wondered how long this pairing of overbearing coach and
petulant star would last. Within just that first
half season together, George and Carmelo fed that narrative. During a February '05
win over the Grizzlies, Karl benched Anthony for overtime, and reporters said they saw Melo throw a towel at his coach. When asked about that,
the coach said, "Ask him," and the player refused to talk. Both later insisted the
towel stuff was fake news, but the fact of the benching remained and Karl raised further
eyebrows by sitting Melo again in the fourth quarter of
another game, two weeks later. Both parties downplayed these decisions. Melo said it wasn't a big deal. Karl said it led to a great dialogue. A Sports Illustrated
article that praised the Nuggets' second-half
success under Karl also described practice quarrels. Karl called Anthony "rebellious." Anthony said he'd improved under Karl, but also rolled his eyes about the coach harping on his ball-stopping tendencies. Much the same tone after some games too. Karl nitpicks, Melo's like
dude, we're winning, come on. But despite conflict, despite a quick playoff loss
to the powerhouse Spurs, Denver showed a lot of promise. The next three seasons sort
of stalled on that promise. The beef stayed quiet too, with only the occasional flare up. Like Karl benching Melo
again late in the '06 season, then saying he and Andre
Miller didn't deserve to play. Melo just wondered why his coach couldn't keep these criticisms in-house. He also said he was, "The most
unselfish player in the NBA." But consider the other Nuggets
storylines of this era. Injuries galore, Kenyon
Martin getting suspended in the middle of a playoff series, Karl's feud with Isiah
Thomas triggering a 2006 brawl that got Melo suspended for 15 games, and Denver trading for
superstar Allen Iverson during that suspension. That's a lot of action, a lot of potential heat beneath the beef, yet it merely simmered
at the usual temperature. Melo, Kenyon Martin, zany
sixth man J.R. Smith, they all had their tussles with coach, but nothing explosive. Anthony actually signed
a contract extension during this period for a full five years, not just three, like his fellow
big name draft classmates. Once Melo returned from
that brawl suspension, things went fine with Allen Iverson. The Nuggets flamed out
of the '07 playoffs, but reached new heights
in the first full season of the Anthony-Iverson partnership. Denver set a new high
watermark with 50 wins in 2008, which, in the deep Western Conference, was only good enough
for a playoff eight seed and a first round match up against the mighty Los Angeles Lakers. Noteworthy because LA
creaming Denver in that series directly inflamed our beef. First, Melo got a DUI arrest
days before the playoffs, so that's not good. On the floor, Melo, A.I. and company couldn't match the Lakers. Games one and two were
double digit losses, and by the end of an even more lopsided game three in Denver, tensions burned hotter than usual. During the fourth quarter
of a blowout loss, reporters observed Melo on the bench screaming at coach Karl repeatedly, Don't just sit there! Afterward, Melo chastised
his team for quitting. Karl disagreed and lamented his stars refusing to speak to media. He pointed out that Melo and Iverson had whiffed many easy shots, and he did have a point. The Nuggets went down in a sweep with no closure on that game three blowup. Denver Stiffs soon rang in
the era of Karl versus Melo, while local columnist Woody Paige diagnosed a broken truce between two egos that had once managed
a fraught coexistence. Their relationship, Paige
said, would not survive. A summer of Melo trade rumors
reportedly pushed by Karl, seemed to validate that prediction. However, the relationship did survive. For a time it flourished. Basically everyone
credits Chauncey Billups with helping restore peace. In November, 2008, Denver traded
Iverson to acquire Billups, a local-born veteran point guard with championship experience alongside Karl's close friend, and fellow curmudgeon, Larry Brown. Billups had enough of a
reputation to earn Karl's trust and Chauncey got along with Melo, plus, you know, he was still
quite good at basketball. It's not like Melo versus Karl was over. For instance, the '08-'09 season included an incident in which Anthony
defied a Karl substitution, refusing to leave the
floor for Linas Kleiza. The Nuggets suspended Melo, Melo kinda apologized, Karl reveled in getting to play policeman, and everyone moved on to bigger things... ...like a 54 win season and, at last, some playoff success. Denver made their first
Conference Final since 1985 and came remarkably close to upsetting the eventual
champion Lakers. That first season of George, Carmelo and Chauncey was terrific, and '09-'10 looked even better. Denver kept winning, and
at the 2010 All-Star break, our guys got to show off
together in the main event. Articles from this period paint the sunniest picture
of this relationship. Friends? No. But no longer enemies,
they were making it work. Soon after that exciting
All-Star Weekend though, the coach revealed something he had known for a little while. George Karl, already a cancer survivor, had cancer for the second time. A malignancy spreading from his neck that would require chemotherapy. Karl thankfully got better,
but it required a longer, more difficult leave of
absence than anticipated, spanning the rest of the
2010 season and playoffs. Playing for interim coach, Adrian Dantley, the understandably shaken Nuggets
suffered critical injuries and slumped into the postseason. They suffered a grim,
grumpy first round loss against the lower seeded Utah Jazz. Bad timing for a dip. The Nuggets were ready to offer Melo an extension in the 2010 off-season, but he delayed signing it. Meanwhile, his friends
made huge free agent moves and teased him about leaving Denver at his wedding in front
of Nuggets executives. Indeed, by the time coach Karl came back for 2010 training camp, Melo had not only punted
the extension offer, but stoked trade rumors, which turned into a trade request, which turned into tedious
months of waiting. Then, at last, a mid-season
trade to the Knicks, Billups too. That's a hell of a work situation to return to after a
grueling cancer recovery. Once the trade finally resolved
the melodrama distraction, Karl fired a giddy parting
shot in a TNT interview. - Defense is commitment. You just gotta handle what Melo gives you. You gotta manage what Melo gives you. Melo's a great offensive player, the best offensive
player I've ever coached. But his defensive focus, his demand of himself, is what frustrated us more than anything. - [Narrator] Melo's response
to media was dismissive. On Twitter, it was a little beefier. I think we know who the snake is here. Each guy enjoyed success
in his new situation. Each would weather breakups
and tough seasons thereafter. For Karl, that was more player beef, more people calling him a snake. For Melo, it was late-career life as more of a journeyman
role-player than star. Both these guys' careers faded. You know what didn't fade? Beef. After coaching, George Karl
leaned fully into a career of multi-platform hateration. In 2016, he published this book. I count two shots at Melo
right in the subtitle. But if that's too oblique
for you, let's read. "Carmelo was a conundrum,
a user of people, addicted to the spotlight. A low demand of himself on defense, no commitment, an insufficient leader, not as much effort on defense as offense, not a winner, and not
happy when called on it." All familiar criticisms, both in that Karl had expressed these sentiments many times before, and in that plenty of others have said the same about Carmelo Anthony. This, however, was something else. Karl singled out Melo and Kenyon Martin, as people who had made lots of money, but grew up without their fathers, and thus weren't shown
how to "act like a man." That line, combined with
one about J.R. Smith's, "distracting posse,"
ventures past the realm of professional critique
and into personal attacks, flecked with trite,
racist-sounding language. When those excerpts came out, Smith and Martin told
the world how they felt. Melo just sounded tired
and laughed it off. - Everybody else is kind
of speaking up for me, and then, you know, from
their own experience. So I really don't have to speak on it. I never knew it was this much. I never knew I was, I mean, I don't know, what's the word, conundrum? I don't even know what the hell that mean, to be honest with you. - [Narrator] Karl later expressed regret for those lines in his book, but the regular, old basketball critiques continued at pace on TV. - [Dan] So how tough was it to coach him? - Melo?
- Yeah. - I don't think it was as
tough as people think of it. You know, it was frustrating. He could get 10 assists a game. He could get 15 rebounds a game. I think he could be a damn good defender. We never got those buttons pushed to where he would commit to
being a triple-double star. - [Narrator] On his own podcast. - [George] You know, he
wasn't a rebellious guy, I guess is the best wording. He expressed his disappointment passively and sometimes selfishly, mostly selfish. - [Interviewer] What did that look like? - [George] You know, taking shots that aren't in the shot selection. Basically he's saying, "I'm
better than these guys. I deserve more, and I
deserve more attention." - [Narrator] On Twitter. Karl's commentary is so
persistent, so repetitive, that reporters don't even bother asking Melo about it anymore. Reasonable, because Karl
has basically confirmed that he just gets a kick out of trolling, despite the response he might receive. This sucks I think. I don't wanna overstate it, both men can claim successful, fulfilling basketball careers, including their time together, but still it's a bummer. In an alternate universe, maybe George Karl and Carmelo Anthony become one of those odd sports
couples who made it work, who buried their differences or reached the mountain
top in spite of them. In our universe, those differences will define their shared legacy. Melo and George looked
fraught from the outset, and sometimes brought out
each other's worst tendencies. And just when it seemed like winning might help them overcome,
real life interrupted, and then the business of basketball divorced them for good. George Karl and Carmelo
Anthony never achieved closure, and so all we're left
with is a lingering beef.
