Carmelo Anthony: 'Don't have to speak' on George Karl's remarks
Channel: sport motivation
Date: 2016-12-23

NEW YORK -- Carmelo Anthony took the high road in response to former NBA coach George Karl's criticism of him during their time together with the Denver Nuggets.

"I just hope that he finds happiness in what he's doing. His book, hopefully, will bring him happiness," Anthony said late Thursday night, adding that he isn't disappointed by Karl's remarks.

"I'm past being disappointed," he said.

Mostly, Anthony said he was pleased that former Nuggets teammates J.R. Smith and Kenyon Martin defended him in the wake of Karl's assertions in his book, "Furious George," that Anthony is selfish, a "user" and played with a lack of commitment on defense.

"It's irrelevant to me. It's irrelevant at this point," he said. "The truth of the matter is, everybody else is kind of speaking up for me from their own experience. So I really don't have to speak on it."

Karl coached Anthony in Denver from January 2005 to February 2011, when Anthony's demand for a trade was fulfilled and he joined the Knicks. Karl said in the book that the trade was "a sweet release for the coach and the team, like popping a blister," according to an advance copy obtained by the New York Post.

"Carmelo was a true conundrum for me in the six years I had him," Karl wrote in the book. "He was the best offensive player I ever coached. He was also a user of people, addicted to the spotlight and very unhappy when he had to share it.

"He really lit my fuse with his low demand of himself on defense. He had no commitment to the hard, dirty work of stopping the other guy."

Anthony said he never heard such criticism from Karl or other members of the coaching staff when he was in Denver.

"When you're there it's a different story than what you hear after the fact. I never knew it was this much," he said. "I never knew I was a -- what was the word -- conundrum? I don't even know what the hell that means, to be honest with you.

"I never knew that. That never was brought up, anybody that you ask -- assistant coaches, players, front-office people -- anybody you ask will sing a different tune when it comes to me, when it comes to our mentality, that team."

Anthony joked that he might have more to say on the matter when he writes his own book someday.

Asked what the title of the book will be, Anthony said, "Stay Melo. Not Furious."

Several other members of Karl's Denver teams fired back at the ex-coach via Twitter earlier Thursday.

Martin and Smith were among players whom Karl called out in his book. Karl compared those two, along with Anthony, to "the spoiled brats you see in junior golf and junior tennis."

Of Anthony and Martin, Karl wrote they were negatively affected by not having fathers in their lives.

"Kenyon and Carmelo carried two big burdens: all that money and no father to show them how to act like a man," Karl wrote.

Martin didn't take long to respond, unleashing a series of tweets directed at Karl later Thursday.