Furious George by George Karl

Author:George Karl
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2016-11-17T05:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 6

HOW TO BEAT MICHAEL JORDAN

A lot of coaches act like they’re getting a root canal without Novocaine. . . . George is one of the few who really seem to enjoy the give-and-take.

— CHUCK COOPERSTEIN, ESPN RADIO, DALLAS

I called Michael Jordan after the Biggest Upset in NBA History.

“Should we do this?” I asked.

I’d recovered in the six weeks since our loss to Denver, in that I didn’t constantly feel like crying or punching someone. But while the playoffs played off without us, chaos hit the Sonics.

In mid-May, our GM, Bob Whitsitt, was named NBA Executive of the Year. Two weeks later, our owner fired his ass. The torches and pitchforks came out: fans mostly liked Whitsitt, and they mostly didn’t like our owner. They hated that he’d cut down trees that blocked the view of his billboards—that didn’t play too well in eco-conscious Seattle. And while a new arena was being built on the same ground as the old one, the boss had decided to play next year’s home games in Tacoma. Which was inconvenient. And with higher ticket prices. Which pissed people off after the upset loss to Denver. I thought Ackerley was a good guy but my business and personal closeness was with Whitsitt.

After getting a few earfuls of anger from call-ins to KJR, the Seattle sports talk radio station he owned, Ackerley had second thoughts. He rescinded Whitsitt’s firing—sort of. Was he in or was he out? It was confusing for about a week. Nerve-racking, too. The draft was about to start. Janitors removed everything from Whitsitt’s office but a desk and a chair and the dust bunnies. Whitsitt was advised to report to work anyway. Lawyers were involved.

My lawyer got involved after Ackerley told me to be ready to run the draft myself. Warren LeGarie advised it would be a bad idea. He also reminded me that job was not in my contract and that I was already underpaid. I’d met (and liked) LeGarie in Spain, where he represented a few American players. “It’s not something George is comfortable doing,” Warren told a reporter. “It’s not his expertise. Do you know his drafting history?” Referring, of course, to the part I’d had in selecting Turpin, Washburn, and Keith Lee.

Ackerley finally let Whitsitt go, so we went into the draft with no GM. I tried and failed to get them to hire my UNC teammate Mitch Kupchak, or Rick Sund, both very creative and experienced basketball men.

Then out of the blue came Walter “Wally” Walker, a former Sonic who’d been the color man for the team’s radio and TV broadcasts for two years. Ackerley assigned him to be our “basketball consultant,” in part because he was smart and in part because he was already on the payroll. Right away, Wally and I didn’t see eye to eye. We were an unsettled bunch. Would someone try to take advantage of us?

The Bulls saw an opportunity. Four days before the draft, Jerry Krause called. The Chicago GM, who’d visited me in Spain, had a proposal: Kemp, Pierce, and our number one for Scottie Pippen.

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