{"id":704565,"date":"2026-04-08T04:38:14","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T04:38:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/704565\/"},"modified":"2026-04-08T04:38:14","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T04:38:14","slug":"word-he-said-that-to-you-kenyon-martin-was-baffled-by-george-karls-vision-for-carmelo-anthony-in-denver","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/704565\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cWord? He said that to you?\u201d – Kenyon Martin was baffled by George Karl\u2019s vision for Carmelo Anthony in Denver"},"content":{"rendered":"

Back in the mid-2000s, plenty of NBA coaches would have done anything to get a small forward like Carmelo Anthony. But George Karl, who actually had him with the\u00a0Denver Nuggets<\/a>, wasn\u2019t sure that was the version of Melo he wanted.<\/p>\n

Kenyon Martin recently pulled back the curtain on how clear that became during his and Anthony\u2019s time under the 2013 Coach of the Year. It didn\u2019t take long for it to surface \u2014 according to K-Mart, it came up right in their very first meeting.<\/p>\n

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The infamous Detlef Schrempf comparison<\/p>\n

Recently,\u00a0Martin<\/a>\u00a0sat down on Byron Scott\u2019s \u201cFast Break\u201d podcast. During one segment, he\u00a0recalled<\/a>\u00a0what longtime NBA fans may remember hearing years ago.<\/p>\n

By his account, Karl told Anthony, in their first meeting after taking over in January 2005, that he wanted him to play like another forward he had coached. According to Martin, that meant playing\u00a0\u201cmore like Detlef Schrempf.\u201d<\/p>\n

Schrempf<\/a>\u00a0had been a two\u2011time All\u2011Star with Karl\u2019s Seattle SuperSonics teams in the 1990s. Karl admired him deeply. He once called him\u00a0\u201cthe most efficient player\u201d<\/a>\u00a0he\u2019d ever coached. He even suggested Schrempf was Hall of Fame\u2011caliber.<\/p>\n

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While some of it might be a little over the top, Schrempf indeed was efficient. Take his 1994\u201395 season with the\u00a0Sonics, for instance.<\/p>\n

The Grand Teuto shot well over 50 percent from downtown with a 56.9 percent effective field goal percentage. He\u00a0averaged<\/a>\u00a019.2 points per game that year. Years later, Karl also called Schrempf one of\u00a0the best international players ever<\/a>\u00a0on social media.<\/p>\n

Put it all together, and Karl was trying to help. He wanted Anthony, never known for efficiency, to take something from the former German forward. It didn\u2019t come across that way, though.<\/p>\n

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Melo, just 20 and fresh off a playoff\u2011leading rookie season, was irritated. Martin remembered his own reaction, stating,\u00a0\u201cWord? He said that to you?\u201d<\/p>\n

Hosts Scott and Jay Wagers were equally surprised. Melo, after all, is regarded as one of the greatest scorers in the game, and being likened to a more role\u2011oriented player in Schrempf didn\u2019t sit right with them.<\/p>\n

Related: “Gimme a break, you’re just a golfer” – Charles Barkley on why Tiger Woods wasn\u2019t fun to be around<\/a><\/p>\n

Locker room issues<\/p>\n

There was confusion and irritation in the studio when Martin shared the story. Right after, he actually made a great point.<\/p>\n

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The comparison itself wasn\u2019t the issue, the 2004 All-Star said. The problem was\u00a0that Karl<\/a>\u00a0was\u00a0\u201cnew to the situation.\u201dHe hadn\u2019t \u201cchecked the pulse.\u201d\u00a0He made that call before really getting to know Anthony.<\/p>\n

How was he supposed to know Melo would be fine with that? That it would even land? Shouldn\u2019t he have figured out first how his franchise player was wired?<\/p>\n

Ultimately, Karl didn\u2019t. The writing was already on the wall.<\/p>\n

A young, high\u2011flying player who was feeling himself, a little bit stubborn, clashed against an old\u2011school head coach who felt he could coach anyone the same way.<\/p>\n

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Martin empathized with Anthony in that clash. Had he been told in that situation to play more like the Grand Teuton, K\u2011Mart would have just shrugged and gone,\u00a0\u201cLike, who?\u201d<\/p>\n

Ultimately, that not\u2011seeing\u2011eye\u2011to\u2011eye situation was just one of the many things where many Nuggets players just couldn\u2019t coexist with Karl, Martin added.<\/p>\n

It felt off, as the 2000 top\u2011draft\u2011pick said, right from the start. The wins kept piling up, nonetheless. It made it all go away. But as soon as that stopped, the energy was\u00a0\u201cshifting.\u201d<\/p>\n

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By Martin\u2019s account, Karl\u2019s personality in particular didn\u2019t match the locker room. And that first meeting with Anthony showed that.<\/p>\n

K\u2011Mart isn\u2019t the first to have pointed that out. In recent years many former players of Karl have spoken publicly about that. One of the most vocal ones? You guessed it \u2014\u00a0Anthony<\/a>. It all adds up to why the Hall of Famer and his former Nuggets head coach have a longstanding feud.<\/p>\n

Related: Fred VanVleet explains the harsh reality for undersized NBA players: “People don’t understand how good you really gotta be”<\/a><\/p>\n

This story was originally published by Basketball Network<\/a> on Apr 8, 2026, where it first appeared in the Latest News<\/a> section. Add Basketball Network as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Back in the mid-2000s, plenty of NBA coaches would have done anything to get a small forward like…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":704566,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3],"tags":[7,3628,187,45409,6507,7598,13795,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-704565","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-carmelo-anthony","10":"tag-denver-nuggets","11":"tag-detlef-schrempf","12":"tag-george-karl","13":"tag-kenyon-martin","14":"tag-melo","15":"tag-nba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116367242711896108","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/704565","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=704565"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/704565\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/704566"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=704565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=704565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=704565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}