Although 12 years has passed since George Karl was JR Smith’s head coach in Denver, it appears the contentious relationship between the two reached a fever pitch on Wednesday.
While appearing on The Old Man and the Three podcast with JJ Redick and Tommy Alter, Smith took a shot at his former coach, stating, “We didn’t have one out-of-bounds play, my whole time playing for this man.”
In response to that comment, the 2013 NBA Coach of the Year responded by joking that Smith’s marijuana use might have clouded his awareness during Nuggets practices years ago.
“I’m happy for @TheRealJRSmith these days with his education, golf etc,” Karl tweeted. “And he’s the second best athlete I coached after Shawn! Re: out of bounds plays, I’m sure JR was smoking weed when we practiced them but it’s 15 years ago so let’s just celebrate and move forward!”
Karl later posted that Smith had blocked him in the wake of the tweet, chiding his former player by writing, “This is JR with his passive aggressive BS.”
This is JR with his passive aggressive BS pic.twitter.com/Ic0x4h9aHJ
— George Karl (@CoachKarl22) May 17, 2023
Back in 2016, Karl described Smith as an “AAU baby” while calling him “entitled” in a book. Smith’s response at the time was simply: “Still trying to be relevant. Sad just sad.”
Now, it appears the two-time NBA champion has simply decided to remove any further communication with his former coach.
