He used to be called "the Billy Martin of basketball." One time he got so incensed with the lackadaisical play of his 7-foot center, Joe Barry Carroll, that he beat up Carroll's locker. He tore the door off the toiletries section; really let it have it. Mennen Speedsticks were flying everywhere.
His CBA team in Albany once lost a game and he responded by teeing up the game ball at centercourt and kicking it, Jan Stenerud-style, into the cheap seats.
He was fired from his first two NBA coaching jobs, first in Cleveland and then in Oakland, because his demands exceeded the supplies. The Golden State Warriors got rid of him in 1988 when the team was 16-48 and he asked for a contract extension.
Now, George Karl is back in business in the NBA as head coach of the Seattle SuperSonics - the Utah Jazz's current playoff obstacle - and you'd never know he was once a madman. Lunacy does not become him anymore. Here it is almost a month into the playoffs and he hasn't blown up at a single object, animate or inanimate. He loosened his tie once, and that's been about it.
After his Sonics practiced at the Seattle Center Coliseum Monday afternoon - in preparation for game four Thursday night in the Jazz-Sonics series - Karl leaned back in a chair at courtside and talked about his former self.
"I used to get too high when we won and too low when we lost," he said. "The thing I had to learn was that you have to be stable emotionally. When you're always going up and down, you can't relate to anyone."
Karl was all of 33 years old - and a two-time CBA Coach of the Year - when he got his first NBA head coaching job at Cleveland in 1984. By the time he was 37, and the Warriors let him go, he was already a two-time NBA loser. He thought about getting out of coaching altogether but couldn't abide the thought, so he returned to the CBA and coached the Albany Patroons to two winning seasons. In between he coached Real Madrid, a Spanish professional team.
He was in Spain this past February when the SuperSonics called and asked if he would be interested in flying 7,000 miles for a job interview. The next thing the Sonics knew he was on their doorstep, paying the cab driver in pesetas.
He told them he'd learned his lessons; he told them he'd exorcised his demons; he told them he didn't feel like he had to prove himself as a coach like he used to.
"I'm not concerned with what Chuck Daly or Dean Smith think of what I'm doing anymore," Karl said to the Seattle media upon his arrival. "Once I got away from the NBA I could see I was coaching from fear - coaching to protect my shield of knowledge or something."
He said this time would be different - and so far it has been. The coach is as intense as he ever was, but without the tirades. In the process, he has sent the Sonics to new heights. The team that was 20-20 when he arrived - and replaced K.C. Jones - went 27-14 the remainder of the regular season and then opened the playoffs by upsetting the Golden State Warriors in the first round, three games to one.
Karl still decries half-hearted efforts and showboating and seeks perfection. The highest compliment he has paid his Sonics was when he said recently, "Sometimes we hurt after a win because we didn't play well. That's the sign of a good team developing into a great team."
But he doesn't hide in a cave between games anymore. During the Sonics-Warriors series, for instance, he went out to dinner with Warriors coach, and personal mentor, Don Nelson, and they stopped talking basketball long enough to discuss body weight.
"We agreed we're both fat, but I figured out he weighs more per inch," said Karl.
Such levity would have been out of the question in the old days, before Madrid. But it's amazing what the Spanish Pro League can do for your perspective.
Just before he got the phone call from Seattle this past winter, Karl was on the phone with University of Utah coach Rick Majerus, a long-time coaching friend and a kindred spirit.
"I think we're a lot alike in the way we see the game," said Karl yesterday, "I told him I heard Vegas (UNLV) was interested in him and I said I wanted to be his assistant. And I was serious."
He smiled at that one. He wound up getting even a better deal back in America. It's a funny game. That's George Karl's new philosophy. Better to let the game do the punching - instead of the other way around.