George Karl Quotations

You always spend a little more time watching the guys you coached, to see how they're playing. And there's no question that when I check scores, I still go to the Nuggets scorer faster than any other scores. I have a lot of love for the players and a lot of love for the city.

In coaching, you don't ever really have that joyful fun, but there's no question that it's enjoyable.

I want to be the team that creates the action more than be the reactor.

The truth of basketball is done in competition and fundamentals and team, but there's a lot of other junk that goes around the game.

Coaches don't sleep for a reason. They don't sleep because it's a danger zone every night. Very seldom do you ever get two or three days off... The lifestyle of coaching in the NBA is a tremendous challenge that gives you tremendous highs but also tremendous lows.

I think we, as pro coaches, should have a consciousness towards having an image and a role model mentality for kids.

I truthfully think, a consistent coach over 30 years, probably, I'd rather be that than having one championship and mediocrity for years.

In the NBA, you win, and you think you're going to win tomorrow. But as soon as you lose, you don't think you're ever going to win again.

The best player I ever coached was Gary Payton.

Who is the ally of the coach? Who's going to write, 'Man, that was a well-coached game.' Players win, coaches lose.

I kind of lived by the code of 'I'm going to be a hard-working guy.' And no matter how successful, there is something I can do better. That's kind of the drive I live on.

I want to try to prove the world wrong - that you can run and win in the NBA, and you can win big if you keep running. The problem is, can you run for 82 games every minute, every possession of every game?

One thing I'll tell you is the food in Sacramento is off the charts. You've got good Asian food, the farm system where everything is natural, which I believe in. I like organic.

The great player, so much of the greatness, in my mind, is in his heart and his head. It's not in his body, in his skill set. It comes from having great talent but wanting to mold that and fit it together into being special. And being special means winning championships.

There should not be an entitlement that because you get paid the most money, that you should finish every game. But if you don't do it, then the agents are going to call, and the players are going to mope, and so you negotiate that. It's a compromise as a coach.

I don't think we're a pretty basketball team. We haven't been a pretty basketball team all year long. When we play with a mad-dog attitude and get aggressive defensively, we win games.

He understands as well as anybody how to win games. I think he has the head and sense and skills to be a good coach.

Kaman to me looked like he was hurt. He didn't seem like he had good bounce to anything.

I thought he got tired in January. He's been playing three months on will and energy and the whole thing without Earl.

I think this series we've spent too much time talking about what we have to do rather than just playing. That's why the last couple of game plans have been simpler. Trying to do little things rather than saturate the brain. I've always felt in the playoffs there is a balance between giving them too much information. We have so much information. We have a 280-page book on the LA Clippers.

I will talk to him and see what's happening. He told me and the staff at halftime that he couldn't go. Now, there's stuff filtering out that there's frustration there. We'll see.

I think I can get better because of this and hopefully he feels the same way.

I think he'll be able to play sometime in this series if we need him.

I thought he took a big step in last year's playoffs. Even though we didn't win, he got better control of Bruce Bowen (as the series progressed).

Melo has got to go through this. We can't teach with film. We can't teach it with books. . . . Maybe the year he's had we have too much responsibility for him. But he's listening. . . . He's trying to become special.

Will it energize us or de-energize us? I can't answer that. I'm hoping we'll all be strong and persevere and stay together. My gut says we're going to do that, but only (tonight) will tell us the answer.

Without Andre, we're done. We can't win without Andre.

The day when you get told is a tough day. It was a hard night, ... But once you get the news, it's living with it and getting stronger and knowing that you are going to be fine. And you are going to kick its butt. And those days got better every day.

When you have Ruben Patterson and Reggie Evans out there? When you don't know what play to run, just let them play? Let them go into the backyard, lower the fence and let the dogs go do it.

Energy. Rotation. To put my best teams on the court. . . . To cover Sam. To get more minutes of a strong defender on Sam as I can.

Anybody that knows basketball knows Melo has got to develop the other aspects of his game.

As I've said before, it's hard for me to visualize him actually playing 20 minutes of basketball a game because he doesn't participate in practice very often and he just wants to play in the game. That philosophically doesn't make any sense to me. I think he has a big- time heart. I think he's a big-time competitor and he did a hell of a job in the second half against Brand in Game 1.

You pick and choose your times you make your disciplinary statements and your dictatorial statements and I thought (this) was the time.

This is an internal matter that we will deal with in-house.

They are basically playing the box-and-1 on 'Melo most of the night. We have to find a way to move 'Melo around and help him and get the ball to him before the defense sets a little bit better. We also have to pass the ball and knock down some shots to get the defenders away from him.

It was nice to get a win when we didn't play well. I think we are going to have to play better and harder than we did Thursday to win Saturday.

I came here wanting to be a basketball coach and not wanting to be a politician, not wanting to be a disciplinarian. I like the gym. I like being with the team and I like coaching. And this is not a fun part of coaching.

I don't think that's on my list of priorities right now. But I would think the philosophy of coaching, yes (he will). But I'm not going to waste my energy thinking about (that now).

I don't think that's any problem. We've been playing poorly and we beat Detroit. We play great and we lose to a bad team. Of course, you want to probably be on a little better rhythm, but I think actually the first two weeks of April were fine.

I appreciate (the apology). But, right now, I'm worrying about coaching the games.

This is a harder game to play than most people think it is, where there's a little bit of an energy adrift.

All I know at halftime is he told us he couldn't go.

Andre, to me, is our guy. He makes us go. When he plays his 'A' game, we're a very tough team to beat. Andre has shown me he's a big-time point guard in this league. Can we do better than that or change it where we can be better, I don't know. But I think Andre can be part of the equation no matter what happens.

Just because we play in the NBA or coach in the NBA doesn't mean we are not human. We are supermen. For me, getting shot is scary.

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When your best player puts it on the line every day, the other guys can't cut corners

Everyday we are going to fight lazy and soft. It's completely unacceptable. You have to be demanding

I would never predict a run like that. Last season, that's beyond reality. I think we can go 25-14. I think we can play 10 games over .500, even more than (that) over .500, and that would be a great run. Any time you go 30-15 or something like that, that's pretty incredible basketball.

A coke machine can get a rebound in 20 minutes.

Good teams don't care about who scores. Good teams just care about scoring; they don't care who does it.

The truth of the matter is, we're not far away from where we should be. We can complain about the problem or we can go out and solve the problem. I choose to go out and try to solve the problem.