Carmelo Anthony and George Karl could have had a great legacy together, but all they've got is beef

Almost from the moment the Denver Nuggets hired George Karl as coach, people predicted he would feud with young star Carmelo Anthony. Karl's history of conflict and Melo's demeanor seemed like a rough match ... and indeed they were. Even as Denver won games, these two egos clashed, and just when it seemed like success might bring a lasting peace, real life and the business of basketball intervened.

Directed and edited by Jiazhen Zhang
Written and produced by Seth Rosenthal

[Lampsadvice]

Finally a George Karl beef history. This guy could honestly have his own miniseries of beef.

[shaneclaycomb]

Imagine going 50-32 and being an 8th seed. That’s crazy

[boringbill]

Its ironic how Melo's career went. Coming out of college he was labelled a "winning player", but in the NBA his style and temperament was that of a great scorer without a winning mentality. He was a ball-stopper and was a bad defender for the most part. Karl was telling him the right things, but was telling him in the wrong way

[jacobwilliams]

George Karl is a good coach, and in moments like this he is technically right, but man did the guy have a talent with burning bridges with his players. So many feuds had Karl as the common link to them it was not just coincidence.

[YouCallThataKnife]

George Karl is a perfect example of how you can be right and still be wrong

[kingjayded]

You could make an entire movie of beef history for George Karl alone

[Simeautomatic]

*Damn. Carmelo gettin' drafted to the NBA is considered "back in the day" now 😭😔😭😔 I was in 5th grade*

[alpha]

Karl was the guy you called to rebuild. Not win championship. The one aspect that Karl really got lucky with was Gary Payton. Melo was a 19 year old multimillionaire who had access to things he never knew existed. Karl was an old head coach. Perfect seasoning for beef!

[stevencooke]

Melo at least was selfish, immature, and lacking focus. However, I feel there are signs he matured. I do not see the same with Karl, who despite a flirtation with death never seems to have gained perspective or grown-up himself. The fact that so many others find Karl impossible is telling too

[QuietRefl]

This was terrific. Well done! Both Karl and Carmelo, minus the cheap shots, were pretty accurate about each other. Carmelo never committed to defense; Karl could not be trusted.

[rumble]

It is funny that Karl's criticism of Melo (unwilling to change, listen, grow) is also his own biggest failure. Maybe they're not so different after all.

[FrankOceannOFWG]

Melo really said in that tweet “some people never seize to amaze me” 😂😂😂😂😂 I’m dead

[Rukhasu]

Karl was right, Carmelo always looks more interested on score points even if this mean loses the game. He could join the Knicks in the off, but he decided to force a trade( he said he would sign with nets instead), and Knicks needed to give their role players, but for Carmelo is cool, he wants the spotlight.

[cyrillesu]

George Karl is right about Melo (and most of the players he criticizes). The only problem is that it's the only thing he sees. To him, you're never enough. You could be putting up triple doubles every night and all he can talk about is how you can't put up quadruple doubles every night.

[TenThumbsProductions]

Watching what a past his prime Chauncey could get out of Carmelo makes that Darko draft hurt even more.

[mrwassef]

They’re both stubborn and poor communicators...although I put more of the onus on establishing communication on Karl. You can’t just think your coaching style is gonna work for every player and unwaveringly stick to it. But yea, they’re both hard headed and selfish.

[anthonysiraguse]

Lifelong nuggets fan here. Thank you for making this video. Been waiting years for someone to make a video like this. Nuggets fans are so weirdly vocal about their hatred for Melo, booing him when he returns etc. But George Karl never gets the same level of hate. There's a certain local nuggets podcast that always has him on as a guest like he's some sort of hallowed old basketball sage. The guy got us out of the first round of the playoffs exactly one time and chased the best player the franchise had ever seen (with all due respect to Alex English) out of town. I despise George Karl.

[rickmoreno]

This is a good even-handed look at those Nuggets teams. I covered the team in this era, and one thing that a lot of folks like to ignore is that Melo was nearly uncoachable before Karl arrived. I distinctly remember a game where Bzdelik tried to have Melo move into proper position for a set play, and Melo shouted back, "STOP TELLING ME WHAT TO DO!" Melo was never going to get the Nuggets all the way there, and neither was Karl. They needed each other, oddly enough.

[davidtogi]

To me George Karl is a very skilled coach but with bad diplomacy. While Carmelo Anthony is very skilled offensively but catastrophic defensively. You can say that both were at fault for not fixing their own lackings.

[tmzebe]

Look I’ve always melo. But when he said “I think I’m the most unselfish player in the nba” LOL 😂