February 7, 2023 • 19 mins
George Karl takes us inside his journey from Western Pennsylvania to North Carolina, and then from the ABA to the NBA. George explains why attending North Carolina was the best decision of his life and then he shares his experiences playing in the ABA and NBA. Later, George talks about his first head coaching gig and then he shares stories about coaching the Cleveland Cavaliers. George shares how he wants to be remembered and how he pictures the legacy of the San Antonio Spurs.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:08):
Welcome to Sundos Furst Podcast presented by Self Financial. I'm
Bill Showen in a long time radio voice the Spurs,
and we are very pleased to be joined by George
Carl the Hall of Famer today. And we've got lots
to talk about with George. And first of all, congratulations
on your induction last September. I happened to be there
in Springfield. You did a great job and uh, you've
had an amazing career. Uh it's hard to even figure
(00:30):
out where to start, George. But first of all, congratulations
on all the accolades. They're well deserved. And uh, thanks
for joining us. This is gonna be a fun night
for your getting recognized here in San Antonio. Well, you know,
I always love Santonio. I have no idea why I
found Santonio except not I know. It was in nineteen
seventy three or fifty years ago. I drove. I drove
(00:53):
from North Carolina. My Guysian uh called me and said
they want to sign you and try drove across country
in about a day and a half and I remember
driving into the Kingto Hotel at seven o'clock in the
morning and go to practice at Blossom athletics center ten
o'clock and Santonio always has always been really special. I mean,
(01:20):
you know, the way the Spurs went from nothing to something. Uh,
you know, we had some good teams. We went to
the Western Conference Finals my first year in coaching here,
in my last year playing here, I mean the Eastern
Conference finals and lost to Washington in seventy seven I think,
and I think we were as good as anybody in
(01:41):
basketball that year. Yeah, well, that first Spurs team to
join the NBA lead league in scoring. We went to
get to all of that. Because this is a Saldi
Spurs podcast at the fiftieth anniversary, so we're bringing guys
like you back to talk about special memories. But let's
talk about your basketball journey. Let's go back to the
beginning in the Pittsburgh area, penn Hills, Pennsylvania. I was
kidding with you before we started that I'm an Eastern
Pennsylvan and you guy Philly guy, and we're known for basketball.
(02:02):
Pittsburgh's no football, but there are some very good basketball
players to come out of the Pittsburgh area, and you
certainly are one of them. What was it like to
grow up in western Pennsylvania during that period of time.
I'm a blue collar guy. I mean my father, you know,
I was a high school grad and didn't never went
to college, and very early and like ninth grade, he said,
I want you to go to college. And I actually
(02:24):
was a really good baseball player, and baseball players at
that time didn't go to college. They went to minor leagues.
And so I go, I'm you know, I knew that somehow,
some way to go to college, I probably had to
get a scholarship in athletics. And basketball was my next love.
And I actually went at once. When I signed this
and the letter of intent to go to Carolina, I
(02:49):
asked coach me if I could play baseball and he
said yeah, And I had back surgery my freshman year
and then he said no, And so he didn't want
me to play baseball after that because of my back
and swinging the ball, and but baseball was my first love.
Basketball came through. Um. I have great memories. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
(03:10):
is a totally different city when I grew there, but
it's still a cool city. It's really a good city
right now. Of course, the Pittsburgh had the condors and
the old A B A for a while, but I
was trying to think of there any other professional teams.
Was that the Pipers that were there for a minute,
or who were the professional pipers came first? Then the
Condors and they were renamed them the Condors and they
(03:32):
want the BA. The first year in the A B
A they won the Champiship with Connie Hawkins um and
I saw that game. Doug Moll was in that game
against Connie. Connie got fifty one. I think on dog,
I tell Doug all the time as it. Doug, I
thought you were a defensive player, just like a coach defense. Yeah,
I said, you gave up fifty one in the seventh
(03:54):
game of the baby. It was Connie Hawkins after all. Yeah,
conn It was a great player. And I actually played.
I had a forcing to play a couple of times
with CONNYE. Hapkins and I always remember those days, very
very memorable days. You got recruited by coach Dean Smith.
That must have been something, you know. Coach Smith didn't
(04:14):
recruit me until the end of recruiting process, and he
saw me playing the Dapper Day and Roundball Classic, which
is the first week in April, and he got in
late and I don't know why I fell in love
with it, but I have said since then that probably
the best decision of my life. Even though my wife,
my ex wife, and my my three kids, I say,
(04:38):
the best decision I've ever made was to go to
North Carolina Lea Ki and what about having kids all
that stuff. So you know, I'm now a part of
the Carolina fraternity. I'm a part of the Hall of
Fame fraternity. I coached realmateurd in Spain and that was
that has probably a hundred million people on his website.
(05:01):
And the Albody Patroons. Let's not forget about those guys
in the old c A right. And the one year
we were nominally when we went fifty and six was
a great year, a fun, fun year of basketball. Trying
to break a record of forty eight and six. We
had to go fifty and six and we had to
go I think the last sixteen games we had to
win the last sixteen games that break the record, and
(05:23):
we did it. That's pretty amazing. Uh. Let's talk about
your time in San Antonio. You do You talked a
little bit earlier about the drive that you made across
country to come here. Uh, And I just read a
little quick story and and maybe you can straighten this
out force Donald Dell was your agent, and was he
actually gonna play for part of your contract against Angelo
Ross in the match of a tennis match. Donald Dell
(05:43):
was a Davis Cup guy who played in wimbled. That
was That's the story that Donald always told was Donald
represented Kermit Washington and they were in a negotiation between
the Spurs and someone in the NBA, the NBA on
and I think Donald was here in town and he
had to stay overnight and they got into him. They
(06:06):
want they got in there well, and Angelo plate tennis.
It wasn't very good at it, but he played it.
Donald kind of said, well, what about I got George
carl here. He's a free agent in the A B A.
Because I was drafted by Memphis, they didn't tender me
and a contract the first week in September, so I
became a free agent. And I guess that the rumor
(06:27):
as they were going to play, you know, for my contract,
and I think it was pretty one side, because I
don't know, there's probably like at that time, there's probably
two or three people a compete Donald Hill, because he
was a really, really good tennis player, as you said
that David's cup player, and and maybe because of tennis,
I got on my contract. I gotta guarantee contract. But
(06:50):
they never played the match, right according to Donald, they
never played. But I don't know. But it was good
for you to come to San Antonio certainly, and that
that was that was your start. You got into coaching
right away. I want to talk a little bit of
your coaching career or your playing career, because you're here
five years and you play with some pretty pretty top
notch guys during your period of time as a Spur.
(07:11):
I love the A B A. I'm an A B
A guy through I don't know, I'm I'm doing a
documentary on the A B A N B A, on
the merger, the last five years of the A B
A and guys like how great and they became and
how far longer than that project because that's the first
(07:31):
I've heard of it. It's it will be out to summer.
We'll look forward to that. It'll be out to We're
hoping to get it out for the playoffs. We might
not get it out that fast. Amazon Prime is our partner.
It's gonna be a four episode kind of documentary. It's
gonna be a celebration of the great athletes and how
(07:51):
the A B A. There's a book Cox said, we
Changed the Game, written by an A B A guy,
how Bob Netta licking. And I think the NBA has
been unfair to the B A from the standpoint of
sweeping some history underneath the rug because in nineteen seventy
seven we once been after the second year of the merger.
(08:15):
After the merger, we played in the Eastern Conference Finals
against Washington and there are a lot of people have
a conspiracy that the NBA did not want us to
win that game. In that game, the lights went off
when we had this fourteen point lead. We kid with
Danny Ferry about his dad bombed Curnal lights off all
the time and he was the general manager. And so
(08:35):
you know, I have a lot of conspiracy theories in
my life because I've never won a championship, so we
have more conspiracy theories. The A B A, though, had
such a personality and really kind of that the four
teams that were taken into the NBA during the merger,
and we can talk a little bit more about the merger,
but obviously you're doing a whole documentary on that merger up.
But the respect eventually came, did it not for those
(08:57):
teams from the A, B A, Because the Pacers, the Nuggets, Nets,
and the Spurs all have a certain amount of tradition
right now, Well, San Antonio is the only team has
won a championship, and uh, I think we were the
best team out of the blocks. Early we went to
the conference finals and stand al but in the eighties
went to the conference finals I think a couple of times.
(09:19):
And then of course Pop gonehim over the top winning
age championship. But there's a lot of a b a
pride and all of them are about my age right now.
And we're losing a lot of guys and it's a
kind of a sad story, and a lot of it
is because we're bitter. There's some bitterness that we wish
it would have been handled better because you know, a
(09:41):
lot of our guys I mean talking, I'm talking all
star players. Uh, you know we lost a couple of
guys this month, and about every month we lose the
least one or two guys. How did that work with
former ABA players as far as pensions were concerned, Because
I hear a lot of the older ABA players are
not doing as well financially as they right, But we
didn't make the big money that today's game made. And
(10:04):
you have to remember I'm my contract, which, don't get
me wrong, I thought I was rich. I think I
made thirty five thousand, forty thousand and forty five thousand
my first three years in the league. I think I
got twenty thousand our bonus. I thought I was rich,
but that's not the money that people are making today.
And the merger, I think there was a lot of
(10:28):
conflictive attitude of who was going to take the responsibility
of the pension for the A B A, and I
think the A B A kind of got lost a
little bit. And then the health insurance is what is
killing kids people today getting health insurance at as an
older person, this very very expensive. And you know, the
(10:48):
documentary will donate ten percent of the profit we make
to UH, a nonprofit that helps ABA guys. It's great
that some older players love like you, that played in
the a BA or are doing some things to help UH.
You know your fellow guys that haven't done as well.
I wanted to ask you to also about the fact
that you went right into coaching right after your career.
(11:10):
You started coaching very very young. Uh, you only played
about five years, right. I tore my knees up. I
tore my left knee up really bad and hurt my
right knee. I wasn't good enough at the end, and
we had a bad court of Silas and Gurvan. Today
we're actually interviewed Gurvan for our documentary and he was
talking about how Bob Bass moved him to the guard
(11:31):
position and how that exploded his career. It lifted him up.
And I said, and I'm in the background, yeah, and
it ended my career than coaching. Now I'm behind George
and my my seventeen minutes the game went down about five,
and you got into coaching. You became an assistant coach
with the Spurs right away though man first time. Angelo
(11:53):
Jo also has paying me. I think it's twelve thousand dollars,
twelve thouars and all as it was tight, Yeah, as
it was tight, but he paid me twelve. I worked
with Doug for a year. Ah. He got fired after
at the conference finals when we lost. I think it
was that year, maybe the next year, and dog Doug
(12:15):
was the guy looked at me, and then I said,
George Doug said, you don't want to be an assistant
coachure head coach. And so I went into the cb A.
I went to Montana, to Montowa Golden Grizzlies. Is that nuggets?
Montana gold Nuggets and Great Falls Montana. There you go.
That's called paying your dues. Now learned about winter up there. Now,
we had a lot of trips when the city I've
(12:37):
ever lived in Great Falls, the wind blows big time.
What was the CBA like that? A lot of bus trips,
a lot of a lot of vans um At that
time there was Alberta, Canada, Great Falls, Billings and Casper
and Casper is like five hours from Billings and Great Falls.
(12:58):
And all those were bus trips or advanced trips. And
then the other continue in the Western Conference was Anchorage, Alaska.
So you got to fly to Anchory. That's good, They've
got to fly there. Terry stats is what are your players? Right?
I tell people all the time I recruited a lot
of guys the Great Falls Montana. It was hard to
do getting the brothers to come to Great Falls. That's
(13:22):
a challenge, right, But we had good teams and we
we did have good players, and Terry Stoughts was one
of them and played for me for three years. All
three years I played has some m vps. Robert Smith,
who played here in San Antonio a long time ago.
Bob Bass would call me and asked me all the
time who was the best player in the league. I
was looking at your roster in US read was one
(13:43):
of the players, not remember hmmitting that half court shot
in the Instigate Tournament for Arkansas. That game was played
in Austin. So now you get back to the NBA.
You're the youngest coach the age of thirty three. I
believe you take the Cleveland Cavaliers job. George, Now, you
were one of the youngest coaches in NBA history at
that time. Right to be coach at that age, I
think there might have been an only one guy at
that time that was younger than me. I think maybe
(14:05):
it was David the Busher as a player coach. There
might have been someone else here. I'm not that's pretty
unknown to be a head coach in the NBA, and
in a lot of ways I wasn't ready. I was
very fortunate to be given the opportunity. I will tell
my first year in coaching. I started two and nineteen
and made the playoffs, and I think that's one of
my prouder moments of I mean, people had me fired,
(14:30):
they were they were yelling from my job, and somehow,
some way we turned it around. And it was one
of those years at thirty six wins, made the playoffs
and we actually played the Celtics, who won the championship
that year, in the first round and played him a
very close series. I think we had a lead in
every game under five minutes in the fourth quarter and
(14:50):
we only won one of them. But that was that.
I mean, I had a roller coach year. And um,
you know, I don't know what happened in Cleveland. Want
to talk about the bad stuff, but Don Nelson was
all I befriended On Nelson. Nellie became a really good friend,
and he came to me and wanted me to go
join his staff at Golden State at the time in
(15:12):
Milwaukee and walking and I went to Cleveland Converters and
told him. I said, hey, I love your the opportunity,
but I would like to go back to coaching. And
I told him that Nellie had offered me the job
him and I would like to pursue it, and they said, well,
we want you to stay around for a while because
I think what they think. They said, We're gonna make
some changes and you might be someone that would consider something.
(15:34):
I don't know what I did right or what I
did wrong, but I got lucky. I get it. You're
getting a job in him and getting a job in
the NBA. That is was It's a blessing. Yeah, but
but you stayed around to twenty two different seasons over
a thousand wins. When you look back at your legacy
as a coach, uh and all those fine players that
you had, and a lot of them of course paying
(15:56):
you homage. Last September when you were induct into Nice
with Mortal Hall of what would you say? George stan said, Hey,
you know, how does George Carl want to be remembered? Well,
I would no. One thing comes always comes in mind,
and that I wanted to remember is I played the
Carolina way, I learned my foundation of my growth as
(16:17):
a Dean Smith guy. And I think the one thing
I want is that Coach Smith would be proud of
me and of all of being in the Hall of
Fame is really important to me. But you know what's
really important to me is that now my name is
at the in the in the arena at Chappel Hill
with the twelve guys that made the Hall of Fame,
(16:38):
and those guys are pretty pretty damn good players. You're
you're a pretty good company there, I feel. I mean,
when that happened, it was, I I know, the Hall
of Famous big and it's bigger than probably being in
the rafters at Carla at the Arena and at the
Dean Dome in Carolina. You know, my life right now
is there's a lot of blessing and a lot of
(17:01):
celebration going on and well deserve and it's it's it's
fun not having win lose in your life but still
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(17:47):
you go, this is the fifty at anniversary of the Spurs.
As you mentioned, you were there at the very very beginning.
What's the legacy of this organization in basketball class class
tradition of playing the game the right way? I mean,
if I had to, I don't know this for a fact,
there might be an organization, but I think in a
(18:08):
lot of ways, I'm proud of my Carolina roots, but
the Spurs are the Carolina and a lot of ways
of the NBA, and they do it the right way.
They've done it's the right way for a long long time.
The city is in love with it. There's a spirit
to the Spur nation that is different than on most
(18:30):
most all of the NBA. And um, it's always fun
coming back here hanging out with guys, and you know,
I saw Terry Stimber's Last Night and Doug Moo and
Kobe D's Hurrican Gervan, and you know, it's just good memories.
Nothing quite like those old friendships. On George it's great.
It's great to have you know, as we get older,
(18:50):
all the stories get more embellished and and but the
friendships get deeper and stronger too along the way. Thank
you so much for taking time to share your stories
with us. We do it for shape that congratulations and
all of your accomplishments, and we look forward to seeing
down a line. Thanks for That's George Carl Hall of
fame coach and of course, one of the original Spurs
back in seventy three. Thanks for joining us for Sound
(19:11):
of Spurs podcast presented by self financial I Bill Shelden.
Until next time, see everybody,
Welcome to Sundos Furst Podcast presented by Self Financial. I'm
Bill Showen in a long time radio voice the Spurs,
and we are very pleased to be joined by George
Carl the Hall of Famer today. And we've got lots
to talk about with George. And first of all, congratulations
on your induction last September. I happened to be there
in Springfield. You did a great job and uh, you've
had an amazing career. Uh it's hard to even figure
(00:30):
out where to start, George. But first of all, congratulations
on all the accolades. They're well deserved. And uh, thanks
for joining us. This is gonna be a fun night
for your getting recognized here in San Antonio. Well, you know,
I always love Santonio. I have no idea why I
found Santonio except not I know. It was in nineteen
seventy three or fifty years ago. I drove. I drove
(00:53):
from North Carolina. My Guysian uh called me and said
they want to sign you and try drove across country
in about a day and a half and I remember
driving into the Kingto Hotel at seven o'clock in the
morning and go to practice at Blossom athletics center ten
o'clock and Santonio always has always been really special. I mean,
(01:20):
you know, the way the Spurs went from nothing to something. Uh,
you know, we had some good teams. We went to
the Western Conference Finals my first year in coaching here,
in my last year playing here, I mean the Eastern
Conference finals and lost to Washington in seventy seven I think,
and I think we were as good as anybody in
(01:41):
basketball that year. Yeah, well, that first Spurs team to
join the NBA lead league in scoring. We went to
get to all of that. Because this is a Saldi
Spurs podcast at the fiftieth anniversary, so we're bringing guys
like you back to talk about special memories. But let's
talk about your basketball journey. Let's go back to the
beginning in the Pittsburgh area, penn Hills, Pennsylvania. I was
kidding with you before we started that I'm an Eastern
Pennsylvan and you guy Philly guy, and we're known for basketball.
(02:02):
Pittsburgh's no football, but there are some very good basketball
players to come out of the Pittsburgh area, and you
certainly are one of them. What was it like to
grow up in western Pennsylvania during that period of time.
I'm a blue collar guy. I mean my father, you know,
I was a high school grad and didn't never went
to college, and very early and like ninth grade, he said,
I want you to go to college. And I actually
(02:24):
was a really good baseball player, and baseball players at
that time didn't go to college. They went to minor leagues.
And so I go, I'm you know, I knew that somehow,
some way to go to college, I probably had to
get a scholarship in athletics. And basketball was my next love.
And I actually went at once. When I signed this
and the letter of intent to go to Carolina, I
(02:49):
asked coach me if I could play baseball and he
said yeah, And I had back surgery my freshman year
and then he said no, And so he didn't want
me to play baseball after that because of my back
and swinging the ball, and but baseball was my first love.
Basketball came through. Um. I have great memories. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
(03:10):
is a totally different city when I grew there, but
it's still a cool city. It's really a good city
right now. Of course, the Pittsburgh had the condors and
the old A B A for a while, but I
was trying to think of there any other professional teams.
Was that the Pipers that were there for a minute,
or who were the professional pipers came first? Then the
Condors and they were renamed them the Condors and they
(03:32):
want the BA. The first year in the A B
A they won the Champiship with Connie Hawkins um and
I saw that game. Doug Moll was in that game
against Connie. Connie got fifty one. I think on dog,
I tell Doug all the time as it. Doug, I
thought you were a defensive player, just like a coach defense. Yeah,
I said, you gave up fifty one in the seventh
(03:54):
game of the baby. It was Connie Hawkins after all. Yeah,
conn It was a great player. And I actually played.
I had a forcing to play a couple of times
with CONNYE. Hapkins and I always remember those days, very
very memorable days. You got recruited by coach Dean Smith.
That must have been something, you know. Coach Smith didn't
(04:14):
recruit me until the end of recruiting process, and he
saw me playing the Dapper Day and Roundball Classic, which
is the first week in April, and he got in
late and I don't know why I fell in love
with it, but I have said since then that probably
the best decision of my life. Even though my wife,
my ex wife, and my my three kids, I say,
(04:38):
the best decision I've ever made was to go to
North Carolina Lea Ki and what about having kids all
that stuff. So you know, I'm now a part of
the Carolina fraternity. I'm a part of the Hall of
Fame fraternity. I coached realmateurd in Spain and that was
that has probably a hundred million people on his website.
(05:01):
And the Albody Patroons. Let's not forget about those guys
in the old c A right. And the one year
we were nominally when we went fifty and six was
a great year, a fun, fun year of basketball. Trying
to break a record of forty eight and six. We
had to go fifty and six and we had to
go I think the last sixteen games we had to
win the last sixteen games that break the record, and
(05:23):
we did it. That's pretty amazing. Uh. Let's talk about
your time in San Antonio. You do You talked a
little bit earlier about the drive that you made across
country to come here. Uh, And I just read a
little quick story and and maybe you can straighten this
out force Donald Dell was your agent, and was he
actually gonna play for part of your contract against Angelo
Ross in the match of a tennis match. Donald Dell
(05:43):
was a Davis Cup guy who played in wimbled. That
was That's the story that Donald always told was Donald
represented Kermit Washington and they were in a negotiation between
the Spurs and someone in the NBA, the NBA on
and I think Donald was here in town and he
had to stay overnight and they got into him. They
(06:06):
want they got in there well, and Angelo plate tennis.
It wasn't very good at it, but he played it.
Donald kind of said, well, what about I got George
carl here. He's a free agent in the A B A.
Because I was drafted by Memphis, they didn't tender me
and a contract the first week in September, so I
became a free agent. And I guess that the rumor
(06:27):
as they were going to play, you know, for my contract,
and I think it was pretty one side, because I
don't know, there's probably like at that time, there's probably
two or three people a compete Donald Hill, because he
was a really, really good tennis player, as you said
that David's cup player, and and maybe because of tennis,
I got on my contract. I gotta guarantee contract. But
(06:50):
they never played the match, right according to Donald, they
never played. But I don't know. But it was good
for you to come to San Antonio certainly, and that
that was that was your start. You got into coaching
right away. I want to talk a little bit of
your coaching career or your playing career, because you're here
five years and you play with some pretty pretty top
notch guys during your period of time as a Spur.
(07:11):
I love the A B A. I'm an A B
A guy through I don't know, I'm I'm doing a
documentary on the A B A N B A, on
the merger, the last five years of the A B
A and guys like how great and they became and
how far longer than that project because that's the first
(07:31):
I've heard of it. It's it will be out to summer.
We'll look forward to that. It'll be out to We're
hoping to get it out for the playoffs. We might
not get it out that fast. Amazon Prime is our partner.
It's gonna be a four episode kind of documentary. It's
gonna be a celebration of the great athletes and how
(07:51):
the A B A. There's a book Cox said, we
Changed the Game, written by an A B A guy,
how Bob Netta licking. And I think the NBA has
been unfair to the B A from the standpoint of
sweeping some history underneath the rug because in nineteen seventy
seven we once been after the second year of the merger.
(08:15):
After the merger, we played in the Eastern Conference Finals
against Washington and there are a lot of people have
a conspiracy that the NBA did not want us to
win that game. In that game, the lights went off
when we had this fourteen point lead. We kid with
Danny Ferry about his dad bombed Curnal lights off all
the time and he was the general manager. And so
(08:35):
you know, I have a lot of conspiracy theories in
my life because I've never won a championship, so we
have more conspiracy theories. The A B A, though, had
such a personality and really kind of that the four
teams that were taken into the NBA during the merger,
and we can talk a little bit more about the merger,
but obviously you're doing a whole documentary on that merger up.
But the respect eventually came, did it not for those
(08:57):
teams from the A, B A, Because the Pacers, the Nuggets, Nets,
and the Spurs all have a certain amount of tradition
right now, Well, San Antonio is the only team has
won a championship, and uh, I think we were the
best team out of the blocks. Early we went to
the conference finals and stand al but in the eighties
went to the conference finals I think a couple of times.
(09:19):
And then of course Pop gonehim over the top winning
age championship. But there's a lot of a b a
pride and all of them are about my age right now.
And we're losing a lot of guys and it's a
kind of a sad story, and a lot of it
is because we're bitter. There's some bitterness that we wish
it would have been handled better because you know, a
(09:41):
lot of our guys I mean talking, I'm talking all
star players. Uh, you know we lost a couple of
guys this month, and about every month we lose the
least one or two guys. How did that work with
former ABA players as far as pensions were concerned, Because
I hear a lot of the older ABA players are
not doing as well financially as they right, But we
didn't make the big money that today's game made. And
(10:04):
you have to remember I'm my contract, which, don't get
me wrong, I thought I was rich. I think I
made thirty five thousand, forty thousand and forty five thousand
my first three years in the league. I think I
got twenty thousand our bonus. I thought I was rich,
but that's not the money that people are making today.
And the merger, I think there was a lot of
(10:28):
conflictive attitude of who was going to take the responsibility
of the pension for the A B A, and I
think the A B A kind of got lost a
little bit. And then the health insurance is what is
killing kids people today getting health insurance at as an
older person, this very very expensive. And you know, the
(10:48):
documentary will donate ten percent of the profit we make
to UH, a nonprofit that helps ABA guys. It's great
that some older players love like you, that played in
the a BA or are doing some things to help UH.
You know your fellow guys that haven't done as well.
I wanted to ask you to also about the fact
that you went right into coaching right after your career.
(11:10):
You started coaching very very young. Uh, you only played
about five years, right. I tore my knees up. I
tore my left knee up really bad and hurt my
right knee. I wasn't good enough at the end, and
we had a bad court of Silas and Gurvan. Today
we're actually interviewed Gurvan for our documentary and he was
talking about how Bob Bass moved him to the guard
(11:31):
position and how that exploded his career. It lifted him up.
And I said, and I'm in the background, yeah, and
it ended my career than coaching. Now I'm behind George
and my my seventeen minutes the game went down about five,
and you got into coaching. You became an assistant coach
with the Spurs right away though man first time. Angelo
(11:53):
Jo also has paying me. I think it's twelve thousand dollars,
twelve thouars and all as it was tight, Yeah, as
it was tight, but he paid me twelve. I worked
with Doug for a year. Ah. He got fired after
at the conference finals when we lost. I think it
was that year, maybe the next year, and dog Doug
(12:15):
was the guy looked at me, and then I said,
George Doug said, you don't want to be an assistant
coachure head coach. And so I went into the cb A.
I went to Montana, to Montowa Golden Grizzlies. Is that nuggets?
Montana gold Nuggets and Great Falls Montana. There you go.
That's called paying your dues. Now learned about winter up there. Now,
we had a lot of trips when the city I've
(12:37):
ever lived in Great Falls, the wind blows big time.
What was the CBA like that? A lot of bus trips,
a lot of a lot of vans um At that
time there was Alberta, Canada, Great Falls, Billings and Casper
and Casper is like five hours from Billings and Great Falls.
(12:58):
And all those were bus trips or advanced trips. And
then the other continue in the Western Conference was Anchorage, Alaska.
So you got to fly to Anchory. That's good, They've
got to fly there. Terry stats is what are your players? Right?
I tell people all the time I recruited a lot
of guys the Great Falls Montana. It was hard to
do getting the brothers to come to Great Falls. That's
(13:22):
a challenge, right, But we had good teams and we
we did have good players, and Terry Stoughts was one
of them and played for me for three years. All
three years I played has some m vps. Robert Smith,
who played here in San Antonio a long time ago.
Bob Bass would call me and asked me all the
time who was the best player in the league. I
was looking at your roster in US read was one
(13:43):
of the players, not remember hmmitting that half court shot
in the Instigate Tournament for Arkansas. That game was played
in Austin. So now you get back to the NBA.
You're the youngest coach the age of thirty three. I
believe you take the Cleveland Cavaliers job. George, Now, you
were one of the youngest coaches in NBA history at
that time. Right to be coach at that age, I
think there might have been an only one guy at
that time that was younger than me. I think maybe
(14:05):
it was David the Busher as a player coach. There
might have been someone else here. I'm not that's pretty
unknown to be a head coach in the NBA, and
in a lot of ways I wasn't ready. I was
very fortunate to be given the opportunity. I will tell
my first year in coaching. I started two and nineteen
and made the playoffs, and I think that's one of
my prouder moments of I mean, people had me fired,
(14:30):
they were they were yelling from my job, and somehow,
some way we turned it around. And it was one
of those years at thirty six wins, made the playoffs
and we actually played the Celtics, who won the championship
that year, in the first round and played him a
very close series. I think we had a lead in
every game under five minutes in the fourth quarter and
(14:50):
we only won one of them. But that was that.
I mean, I had a roller coach year. And um,
you know, I don't know what happened in Cleveland. Want
to talk about the bad stuff, but Don Nelson was
all I befriended On Nelson. Nellie became a really good friend,
and he came to me and wanted me to go
join his staff at Golden State at the time in
(15:12):
Milwaukee and walking and I went to Cleveland Converters and
told him. I said, hey, I love your the opportunity,
but I would like to go back to coaching. And
I told him that Nellie had offered me the job
him and I would like to pursue it, and they said, well,
we want you to stay around for a while because
I think what they think. They said, We're gonna make
some changes and you might be someone that would consider something.
(15:34):
I don't know what I did right or what I
did wrong, but I got lucky. I get it. You're
getting a job in him and getting a job in
the NBA. That is was It's a blessing. Yeah, but
but you stayed around to twenty two different seasons over
a thousand wins. When you look back at your legacy
as a coach, uh and all those fine players that
you had, and a lot of them of course paying
(15:56):
you homage. Last September when you were induct into Nice
with Mortal Hall of what would you say? George stan said, Hey,
you know, how does George Carl want to be remembered? Well,
I would no. One thing comes always comes in mind,
and that I wanted to remember is I played the
Carolina way, I learned my foundation of my growth as
(16:17):
a Dean Smith guy. And I think the one thing
I want is that Coach Smith would be proud of
me and of all of being in the Hall of
Fame is really important to me. But you know what's
really important to me is that now my name is
at the in the in the arena at Chappel Hill
with the twelve guys that made the Hall of Fame,
(16:38):
and those guys are pretty pretty damn good players. You're
you're a pretty good company there, I feel. I mean,
when that happened, it was, I I know, the Hall
of Famous big and it's bigger than probably being in
the rafters at Carla at the Arena and at the
Dean Dome in Carolina. You know, my life right now
is there's a lot of blessing and a lot of
(17:01):
celebration going on and well deserve and it's it's it's
fun not having win lose in your life but still
being involved. What's the name of basketball? Meet Self. We're
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(17:47):
you go, this is the fifty at anniversary of the Spurs.
As you mentioned, you were there at the very very beginning.
What's the legacy of this organization in basketball class class
tradition of playing the game the right way? I mean,
if I had to, I don't know this for a fact,
there might be an organization, but I think in a
(18:08):
lot of ways, I'm proud of my Carolina roots, but
the Spurs are the Carolina and a lot of ways
of the NBA, and they do it the right way.
They've done it's the right way for a long long time.
The city is in love with it. There's a spirit
to the Spur nation that is different than on most
(18:30):
most all of the NBA. And um, it's always fun
coming back here hanging out with guys, and you know,
I saw Terry Stimber's Last Night and Doug Moo and
Kobe D's Hurrican Gervan, and you know, it's just good memories.
Nothing quite like those old friendships. On George it's great.
It's great to have you know, as we get older,
(18:50):
all the stories get more embellished and and but the
friendships get deeper and stronger too along the way. Thank
you so much for taking time to share your stories
with us. We do it for shape that congratulations and
all of your accomplishments, and we look forward to seeing
down a line. Thanks for That's George Carl Hall of
fame coach and of course, one of the original Spurs
back in seventy three. Thanks for joining us for Sound
(19:11):
of Spurs podcast presented by self financial I Bill Shelden.
Until next time, see everybody,
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