What does a coach have to do?

Karl’s Nuggets, the third-youngest team in the NBA, a team without an All-Star, won 57 games in the regular season. It was the Nuggets’ best NBA season, and, accordingly, Karl was voted the league’s Coach of the Year, hardly a firing offense.

So, this firing is weird, although Nuggets general manager Masai Ujiri left Denver for the Toronto Raptors and when a GM leaves, the coach is vulnerable. The coach is especially vulnerable when his team is favored but gets eliminated by the Warriors in the first round of the playoffs.

I admit I have a personal interest in Karl, 62, a two-time cancer survivor. He coached the Warriors when he and I were young men. And although I never become friends with the people I cover, I like Karl a whole lot. He is an irresistible guy.

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