HOF Coach ridicules Nick Wright’s hoops knowledge: “When you were getting picked last at recess, we were determining how to guard the GOAT”
TV personality and NBA pundit Nick Wright recently found himself on the receiving end of some criticism from Hall of Fame coach George Karl. The 2013 NBA Coach of the Year, who spent nearly 40 years of his life as a head coach, never shies away from voicing his opinions on social media.
When a fan weighed in on Nikola Jokic's play against Rudy Gobert, pointing out that nobody discredits Gary Payton for being unable to contain Michael Jordan, Nick Wright responded. As indicated, Payton did contain Jordan in the '96 Finals after Karl assigned the Defensive Player of the Year to guard Jordan.
Before that, however, Karl wouldn't let Payton guard Jordan 1-on-1, leading to the Super Sonics going down 3-0 in the series. Based on this, Nick Wright questioned his decision-making during the 1996 NBA Finals. The criticism from Nick Wright didn't go unnoticed.
Rather than setting the record straight, Karl decided to take a jibe at Nick Wright, referring to his track record as a coach:
"Nick, in 96 when u were getting picked last at recess, we were determining how to guard the GOAT and a 72 win team all without our glue guy Nate McMillan. Call me sometime and I can teach u Hoops 101 for free. Ok?" Karl tweeted.
George Karl's previous feuds with NBA players on social media amid Nick Wright's spat
While it's Nick Wright on the receiving end of the latest back-and-forth with Karl, in the past, several other players have been involved in feuds with the ex-coach.
Earlier this year, Karl and Carmelo Anthony continued to go at it on Twitter, with Karl calling his former player overrated for the second time.
As Anthony mentioned on a podcast, Karl had been calling him overrated from the beginning. Karl called Melo into his office after his first session with the team, when he was only 21 years old, and told him he thought he was overrated.
The year before, he and JR Smith, another player whom he coached during his career, went at it on social media after comments made by Smith on JJ Redick's podcast. In that instance, Smith indicated that Karl never had any SLOB (Sideline Out Of Bounds) plays prepared.
Karl responded, indicating that he was glad to see Smith getting an education now; however, when the team was practicing SLOB plays, Smith was likely using marijuana instead. The comments followed similar ones made years prior in Karl's book, which was released in 2016, in which he called Smith entitled.
The 2023 situation didn't sit well with the NBA vet, who went so far as to block his former coach on social media to end the feud.