Karl, the ultimate gym rat, finds his peace in Milwaukee
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Practice has a relaxed, almost collegiate, feel to it.
Inside the swirl of figure-8 fast-break drills, Milwaukee Coach George Karl is encouraging, teaching, teasing.
A dunk is missed and Karl hollers, "That looks like Glenn Robinson last night with five minutes to go."
Robinson raises himself from the training table where he's getting treatment on his sore wrist. "George, what are you saying about me now?" he asks, acting hurt.
On this last stop of a tortuous, winless West Coast trip, you might expect this team to be sluggish and surly. You might expect Karl to be disappointed and demanding.
But the Bucks are loose like the Los Angeles Lakers. Loose like their coach.
The gym still is Karl's sanctuary. No matter what the city — Seattle, Albany, Great Falls — no matter what the continent — North America or Europe — this is where Karl always has escaped his troubles, both domestic and political.
This is where sweat pants and baseball caps still are considered chic. This is where he always is in charge, always supremely confident in his decisions.
Here he is surrounded by like-minded basketball mavens. In every corner of this gym a coach is working with players. Familiar names like Tim Grgurich, Terry Stotts, Mike Thibault, Gerald Oliver, Don Newman and Ron Adams. Karl's posse. His second family.
There is an intimacy here. It is comfortable inside the gym. Here, away from the roar of the crowd and skeptical eyes of critics, is where, Karl still believes, championships are won.
And, despite the 0-3 trip, he thinks this team has the stuff of champions. Despite the trip, the Bucks are 9-4 entering tonight's game with the Sonics.
Four years removed from his last-season ordeal in Seattle, Karl seems happier than he has been since he won the West here in 1996.
His divorce is final and he has been dating his high-school sweetheart, Rosemarie Perla, for more than a year. He has the respect, the richest contract in coaching history ($7 million a year). And he has a team he thinks can be playing against the defending champion Lakers in June.
"I think we're going to be pretty powerful, but we're not playing 48 minutes yet," Karl said at yesterday afternoon's workout at Seattle Pacific. "Our frustration level is a little high, because of expectations. But we've got a lot of weapons. I enjoy the game, probably more than I've ever enjoyed it."
His daughter, Kelci, has graduated from SPU and is devoting the next two years to Young Life and is an assistant coach for the girls basketball team at Rainier Beach High School. And son Coby is a high-school senior in Milwaukee and may play basketball at SPU.
Karl is four years from his last jousts with Sonics team president Wally Walker. He hasn't been fined for his incendiary comments about the Sonics' upper management in more than a year and a half.
For the first time, probably, since he was an obedient point guard for Coach Dean Smith at North Carolina, Karl's life is turmoil free.
"The turmoil's always come from standing up for the right stuff," Karl said. "I don't think there's anything wrong if you stand up for what you think is right.
"Is that turmoil or is that right? I don't like backing down. And I do have a rebellious nature toward authority. But I also think I'm a very loyal person.
"And because of the stuff I had to take here (Seattle), I don't think I was able to show my loyalty. The stuff I had to put up with here I could write a book on. And that wasn't loyal? Keeping your mouth shut when you know things and then being blamed for things for not being loyal? It was like a Catch-22 of hypocrisy here toward your loyalty."
The philosophies of Karl and Walker were as different as Marxism and capitalism. Karl didn't want to rebuild the Sonics. He wanted to replenish with veterans the way the Portland Trail Blazers have done.
He believed enough in his abilities as a coach and believed enough in veterans like Gary Payton and Detlef Schrempf to think he could keep the Sonics in the playoffs.
"They (Sonics management) decimated a good team because they wanted to go younger," Karl said. "Now they have to find an answer to how to get better. That's a hard question to answer right now. That's where you're season tickets go down. That's when all your marketing goes down.
"There's something to keeping teams together that doesn't get enough respect. Old guys know how to win. Young guys don't win. But all these general managers are into talent and potential."
George Karl is into basketball. In the gym, in his sweats, on a dark Saturday afternoon, he still shines.
Steve Kelley can be reached at 206-464-2176 or skelley@seattletimes.com.