How George Karl Couldn’t Get Past Kobe Bryant Years After Getting Beaten by Michael Jordan

Former Denver Nuggets coach George Karl, who faced Michael Jordan in the 1996 Finals, once benched Kobe Bryant in an All-Star game and he never seemed to forget it.

Bryant made history in 1998 by becoming the youngest All-Star at the age of 19. Karl, who was then the coach of Seattle Supersonics, was selected as the coach for the Western Conference team in the All-Star game.

A lot of focus was on a 19-year old Bryant. Even the Eastern Conference team, as The Last Dance had shown, was discussing Kobe Bryant. He dropped 18 points in the first three quarters of the game.

However, he didn’t come out to play in the fourth quarter. Bryant was disappointed with Karl’s decision to bench him.

Kobe Bryant & Lakers denied George Karl a playoff series win thrice

Years later, Bryant would say on a podcast that it became his motivation to never let Karl’s team win a playoff series. George Karl coached the Denver Nuggets for eight seasons between 2005 and 2013. Bryant’s Lakers eliminated them from the playoffs on three occasions- 2008, 2009, and 2012 with the last one being the Conference finals.

“Later in years (that) became my motivation against Denver, to never let them win a playoff series because he didn’t play me the whole fourth quarter of that game,” Bryant said in 2019. “So when we played the Denver Nuggets in the playoffs, it was like, ‘Hold on — you’re never, you will never, beat me in the playoffs.’”

George Karl once ignored Michael Jordan and got paid

Karl’s subject resurfaced in the basketball community with the latest episodes of The Last Dance. He was the coach of Seattle Supersonics when Chicago Bulls formed their dynasty in the NBA during the 1990s.

He met the Bulls in 1996 NBA Finals. Before the finals series was to start, Karl and Jordan apparently had been at the same restaurant. But instead of exchanging pleasantries, Karl decided to ignore Jordan as was shown in The Last Dance.

“He walked right past me,” Jordan said in the docuseries. “I said, ‘It’s a crock of s—.’ We went to Carolina. You know Dean Smith … You’re gonna do this? Okay fine. That’s all I needed. That’s all I needed — for him to do that — and it became personal with me.”

Jordan wasn’t impressed and the Bulls won the series rather comprehensively. Not that they wouldn’t have given the kind of season they had.