Al Harrington played two seasons with the Denver Nuggets under the guidance of Coach George Karl . While he didn't have a bad working relationship with the controversial coach, Harrington said it wasn't that good either, especially in the beginning.
According to "Baby Al," he couldn't remember the exact words that George said during their first talk, but he could still recall how strange it felt inside that room. Harrington revealed that other than that, he and Karl never really had a problem.
"One of my first meetings with him was, at the time, disturbing," Al once told CBS Sports of Karl. "But after that, I knew who he was, so I had no issues with him."
"I just never had a coach speak to me like that before," he shared. "He compared his coaching record to a player's record. I was just confused because I watched his teams play for years, and I never saw George Karl make a basket. Without going all the way into it, it was just weird."
As far as coaching abilities go, Karl was good at his job. He turned the Nuggets into a consistent playoff team the moment he was appointed as head coach in 2005 and was even named Coach of the Year after he led Denver to 57 wins in the 2012-13 season.
Harrington had played for four different coaches before he joined the Nuggets in 2010. For him, there wasn't anything too crazy about Coach Karl. However, Al admitted that there was something about George's energy and aura that made everybody around him feel tense.
"It was OK. We communicated, we never had any issues or nothing. George is an interesting person," Harrington further revealed. "He's not the type of coach that would put his arm around you. There is always this kind of uneasiness when you are around him."
Despite not having a perfect connection with Karl, Harrington thrived in Denver. In fact, he was a Sixth Man of the Year candidate in his last season with the Nuggets, having posted 14.2 points and 6.1 rebounds.
Perhaps Karl didn't have any serious issue with Harrington because he wasn't one of the most impactful players on the squad. For sure, Carmelo Anthony couldn't say the same thing, as well as Ray Allen , whom George coached during his time with the Milwaukee Bucks .
Like Harrington, Allen described his coexistence with Coach Karl as strange. Over time, Allen realized that George had a problem getting along with star players , and it was hard to explain why.
"It's just the strangest thing, because I always thought we had a good relationship as a player-coach. But he always found a way to bring team business into the media. Talk about what is happening in practice, talk about me," he explained .
"I didn't think anything was wrong until I would talk to the media and they would say that he had a beef with me," Ray added. "And I didn't know any better then, I didn't know what he was pissed off about."
All in all, there's no perfect coach, and certainly no ideal coach-player relationship. Whatever the case may have been with Coach Karl, it's a good thing that he and his players still managed to perform well.
This story was originally published by Basketball Network on Dec 17, 2025, where it first appeared in the Off The Court section. Add Basketball Network as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
