Monday, February 20th, 2012 at 9:21 am  |  41 responses

Kenyon Martin: ‘George Karl Needs to Keep His Mouth Shut’


In his defense of friend and former teammate Carmelo Anthony, Kenyon Martin ripped his old coach George Karl in hilarious fashion. From SI: “… after Martin left his Chinese Basketball Association team (Xinjiang) in late December and returned to the United States, he began to notice the anti-Anthony message coming out of Denver. Nuggets coach George Karl had routinely discussed his team’s new style and how the absence of Anthony made his job easier. The Melo-drama, as it was dubbed, clearly bothered Karl before Anthony was traded to the Knicks last February. Martin, however, said Karl’s comments went too far. ‘Man, listen, George needs to keep his mouth shut, first and foremost,’ Martin said. ‘Melo don’t play there no more. So Karl shouldn’t be commenting on Melo. If George was such a great coach, then Melo would want to stay. He wouldn’t want to leave. If the organization was ran right, he wouldn’t want to leave, so it ain’t Melo. With Melo, not one time when he was there did he bring that in the locker room when all that stuff was going on. Not one day. Everybody made it a bigger deal than it had to be. That’s a good kid. They act like this kid was a cancer, like he came in there and destroyed the locker room and made everybody hate him. No, it wasn’t nothing like that man. And it bothers me for people to be talking about how he’s a selfish player and he has to defend himself.’ The Nuggets, who got off to a 15-7 start but have lost seven of their last nine games, cut ties with a number of core players from their recent teams. ‘They’ve got the team they wanted now,’ Martin said. ‘They got all us out of there. They didn’t offer me an extension, they traded [Anthony], J.R. [Smith] is gone [to New York]. They’ve got the team they want. So why doesn’t [Karl] worry about coaching them and leaving Melo alone — bottom line? It bothers me for them to keep harping at that.’ Martin, whose Clippers fell to 19-10 on Saturday with an overtime loss to San Antonio, will be rooting for the Knicks as some sort of strange revenge. ‘I just hope [Anthony] comes in and they play well,’ he said. ‘Because if not, then it’s going to be a whole other can of worms.’”

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  • Tupack Shackur Posted: Feb.20 at 9:25 am
    Hmmm….might want to go easy with the cancer talk there, KMart.

  • bull22 Posted: Feb.20 at 9:25 am
    now kenyon is threatning coaches, LOL. can’t wait for kenyon to retire and go away without an nba title..

  • TSmoove Posted: Feb.20 at 9:27 am
    Glad someone from that locker room stood up for him…

  • tomtom Posted: Feb.20 at 9:39 am
    Kmart you are lucky that Deshaun Stevenson is in the nba because he is the only thing standing in the way of you being the dumbest mfer in the league. The immaturity and the massive ego this guy has always had is pathetic. George Karl is an nba legend already, and one of the most respected coaches in the league so that had nothing to do with melos decision to leave, he wanted to be in a big market and be part of one of these ‘super teams’ with amare. And if you look at the numbers, it would appear that melo (of whome I have always been a big fan) has been cancerous to both squads.

  • Jer Dawg Posted: Feb.20 at 9:41 am
    I love it. Defend your teammates. More then ever, i know Kenyon is going to stick up for Clippers and protect their superstars. A throwback real “tough guy” that will be a threat to kick ass to the opposition.

  • T-Money Posted: Feb.20 at 9:48 am
    tomtom: you missed kenyon’s point. why is george karl even talking about melo when melo has not said one bad word about him? george karl may be respected by media but players have always had a hard time dealing with his mood swings and general douchebaggery from gp, to kemp, to ray allen, to big dog, to chauncey, to ai, etc. how many guys do you ever hear saying they miss playing for karl? this guy has always had above average talent in seattle, milwaukee and denver but keeps getting passes for underachieving because he’s a good quote. when melo was there, he never said anything about his attitude or his play and now that he’s gone he’s talking? also, it’s quite funny to see that karl was talking a lot when denver was 15-4 but we haven’t heard from him recently. frontrunner.

  • Speedy Posted: Feb.20 at 10:12 am
    tomtom
    NBA legend? Did I miss something?

  • NastyTyler Posted: Feb.20 at 10:17 am
    Kenyon says Georgy shouldn’t be talking about Melo cuz he doesn’t play there anymore, then Kenyon goes off and talks about Georgy some more. The irony in his statements.

  • IAMORANGE4EVER Posted: Feb.20 at 10:21 am
    T-Money basically summed it up.

  • tomtom Posted: Feb.20 at 10:28 am
    @speedy Ok so legend was an overstatement lol. I’ll give you that, but i tend to judge people by how they are viewed by there peers, when coaches and players around the league are asked they always say he is damn good at his job. AND @tmoney, AI hates most of his coaches, the guy begged for Mo Cheeks and even hated him, he also didnt get along with Larry Brown. And don’t get me started on Shaun Kemp. As for ray allen i really dont know anything about that but i do know that GP credits Karl for becoming ‘the basketball player he became’, they were both just highly strung. But my argument isn’t entirely pro-karl, its mostly anti-kmart, you have been back from china for a week and you are already talking sh i t in the media?? And don’t gimme that sticking up for your team mate junk cos they arn’t team mates no more. Melo deserves the criticism atm Tmoney, but your right Karl has been awfully quiet during this slump.

  • robb Posted: Feb.20 at 10:35 am
    ex-thuggets unite!

  • Speedy Posted: Feb.20 at 11:09 am
    tomtom again
    Does it come to your mind that they are not only former teammates but friends.
    If one of my friends gets bashed in the media( never gonna happen :-) ) , I would stand up for him too.
    I’m not defending melo but I understand what KMart is doing.

  • AQWORD Posted: Feb.20 at 12:12 pm
    RESPECT your elders beeeeehatch !!! phuck KMart & his B!t(h A$$ ticks !!! This dude better back up off a Georges or ima go down there & beat him ret@rded. Oh ok. He already there. We cool den u twitchin b!t(h.

  • Allenp Posted: Feb.20 at 12:18 pm
    T-MOney and I have been on the same page about this for years. Seriously. He kissed media a)ss and they protect him. He always has a built in excuse for why his team just won’t listen to him. It’s never his fault. Chauncey saved his butt by coming in and bringing a winning attitude and structure to their offense, it wasn’t about Karl. But he took shots at Iverson too. And Payton. And Ray Allen. He’s always taking shots at players and too many media members lap it up because they believe that’s “access.”

  • ENDS Posted: Feb.20 at 12:53 pm
    Stay Classy K_mart

  • Powerwitdapen Posted: Feb.20 at 1:35 pm
    K-mart is right, George Karl is the most overrated coach of all-time c’mon he had Payton and Kemp, great talent with the Bucks and Nuggets and never won nothing. He is the real team cancer.

  • riggs Posted: Feb.20 at 1:35 pm
    He’s got a point.

  • Jeremy Posted: Feb.20 at 1:50 pm
    I think you guys forget who the Sonics and Bucks were playing in the 90′s.. so yeah.. dude is a good coach and I love watching the new Nuggets. K mart should just keep quiet and play his game , not respond to quotes that happened a couple months ago. Out of all the dudes that switched teams in the last couple.. Melo’s was the most sickening considering he obviously just wanted a bigger market.. it’s not like the Knicks are beating Miami or Chicago in the ECF for the next few years. He shoulda effing jogged to New York so at least one team in his career could say he was in shape.

  • anthony y Posted: Feb.20 at 2:06 pm
    I don’t get why the guys hating on k mart are doing so. T money said it best as far as Karl is concerned, but I don’t see anything wrong with a player standing up for a teamate(former) if Karl was focused more on his team (instead of trying to throw EX players under the bus after they left cause he’s still butthurt about it) they wouldn’t be 7-9 thru the last 16..

  • gubbins Posted: Feb.20 at 2:07 pm
    Ran right…ha ha.

  • Chief Posted: Feb.20 at 2:38 pm
    Take that George Karl!

  • manu Posted: Feb.20 at 2:41 pm
    nuggets r gonna beat okc in the playoffs…..didnt even have gallo or nene last night wilson chandlers comin back

  • shutup Posted: Feb.20 at 2:44 pm
    I have a lot of respect for K-Mart hes only the second player that I know of that has had a successful career while battling turrets (Abdul-Rauf) was the first. Loyalty is a scarce thing now-a-days, its nice to see. @tom-tom with the Deshaun comment I see where your going, I think you should keep comments like that to yourself, or just save them for your Klan meetings.

  • Mike Mihalow Posted: Feb.20 at 4:40 pm
    @shutup
    “battling turrets”? What, is he playing Call of Duty?

  • Tim Posted: Feb.20 at 5:01 pm
    This is the same guy who threatened not to play cuz a ballboy popcorned his car. Fan of Kmart but maybe he should worry bout not getting a knee injury. Melo was a Cancer, and was the reason they got killed by Utar in the 1st round a couple years ago when Adrian Dantly took over coaching. Too many contested fadeaways, and no D.

  • unf*ckwitable Posted: Feb.20 at 5:02 pm
    Cosign Kmart.

  • Allenp Posted: Feb.20 at 5:03 pm
    The George Karl Sonics were the first team to lose as a one seed versus an 8th. I don’t know if most of you remember that. They would put up gaudy regular season numbers, then stumble in the playoffs.
    And Karl is always, ALWAYS complaining about his players to the media. I don’t like that. There is a double standard where coaches can take shots at players, but when players do it, they are being disrespectful. BS.

  • DruNyce Posted: Feb.20 at 5:34 pm
    It’s funny how quick we forget George Karl has a history of clashing with his star players. He threw Gary Payton, Ray Allen, Allen Iverson, & ‘Melo under the bus. He’s the one that started this whole “Melo is selfish” BS around the league. The media loves drama; so they took it & ran with it. People used to think Ray Allen was ‘selfish’ because of Karl. Also, Melo has a bad rap now for the perception that he ‘forced’ his way out of Denver. In reality, he told the Nuggets he didn’t want to resign with them and THEY decided to trade him.

  • Dutch Rich Posted: Feb.20 at 5:51 pm
    And his wife as a media personality had professional aspirations, that Melo as a father and husband, took into consideration as well. Melo was classy about the whole ordeal before during and after. I’m happy K-Mart spoke out. He is a throwback. I’m ok with Karl trying to boost his troops with psychological build up, but it always seems to be at the expense of his previous superstar. The cake was the pity plea for Chauncey, as if Melo had ripped the roots out of Chauncey’s backyard himself.

  • Jono Posted: Feb.20 at 6:07 pm
    Kenyon Martin, leader of the Thuggets.

  • shutup Posted: Feb.20 at 6:25 pm
    auto correct on my phone lmao. But if you ever watch an interview with him you can see the tick I never understood how they can stop that from happening while playing.

  • Ugh Posted: Feb.20 at 11:55 pm
    He’s right. George Karl always slanders his players as not being good enough once they’re out the door. Plus he’s a choker and he won’t coach his way to a title.

  • Caboose Posted: Feb.21 at 1:08 am
    Who has more of a dick attitude through the media to his players, George Karl, SVG, or Scott Skiles?

  • AQWORD Posted: Feb.21 at 3:05 am
    Its called modern coaching beehatches ! Man up & quit yer beehatchin. Seriously

  • Justin G. Posted: Feb.21 at 3:36 am
    Saying George Karl is an overrated coach is laughable. The fact that the Sonics lost to Denver is irrelevant. The Heat lost to the Knicks in 1999 so I guess Pat Riley is an overrated coach as well? Also saying he’s overrated because he had Kemp and Payton is dumb. All the great coaches in the history of the league have had great players playing on their teams. Again, with the Lakers teams of the 80′s for Pat Riley or the fact that Phil Jackson has had 4 of the 50 greatest players in history on his teams doesn’t seem to make anyone think they are overrated as coaches. Red Auerbach had how many Hall of Famers on his Celtics teams? George Karl is a great coach and will probably go into the Hall of Fame. Once again, people on this site tend to forget that people aren’t just saying things out of the blue like Karl does about Melo (or other past players), much the same way as Dwight isn’t just coming out and saying the dumb things he does. They’re being asked questions all the time by the media and Karl has always been outspoken. Some guys need to learn to say “No comment” but they don’t. It doesn’t take away his abilities as a coach though

  • SikhWitIt Posted: Feb.21 at 3:56 am
    GP on his relationship with Coach Karl: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PpLpx1HJPI

  • Jones Posted: Feb.21 at 8:24 am
    Karl was saying what a lot of people have been thinking for years though. KMart a good dude for sticking up for his teammate though. Melo IS a guy who holds the ball though and he IS a guy who is unmotivated and untalented on D though.

  • dfrance21 Posted: Feb.21 at 11:17 am
    I think the thing with Karl and him bashing Melo is, if you feel that way about a player, why not say it WHILE they are playing for you. If you really thought he was a cancer, why weren’t you trying to trade him or something? These coaches/owners/gms kiss the players butt, then when they leave they bash them. Same thing Gilbert did to Lebron. Its like a dude who wants to holla at a chic, then when she turns him down, she’s an ugly beeyotch all of a sudden.

  • LA Huey Posted: Feb.21 at 4:24 pm
    Kenyon’s right. If this was coming out of someone with a better rep, there would be no controversy. Melo has flaws in his game but we didn’t hear this chatter from Curious George before the trade. If you don’t have the testicular fortitude to bad mouth a player/teammate when you’re together, you forfeit the right to say it after you part ways. Unless, you’ve long since retired, that is.

  • ctaglia Posted: Feb.23 at 12:01 pm
    the streets of denver are now safe.that is because known gangster jr is out of town and blue lips special a.k.a.kmart has shown he didnt listen to karl while he played here. George made comments as soon as melo left while kmarts dumba** still played for denver. U stick up 4 melo but not your own mom when mark cuban was harassing her. When linsanity cools off it will be back on melos lack of defense.

  • ClydeSays Posted: Feb.23 at 12:36 pm
    I kinda dislike Karl/KMart/Melo equally. They all a much bigger game then they’ve ever been able to show. Kill the chatter & just play.

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