George Karl, NBA Hall of Fame Head Coach

Welcome back in. We continue this at the Yelp show coast to coast on CBS Sports Radio. We'll see if the Denver Nuggets will hoist the Larry O'Brien trophy later this evening. They're up three games to one up against the Miami Heat. Game five of the NBA Finals comes your way at 8 30 p.m. Eastern. And now joining us is a man that coached the Denver Nuggets from 2005 to 2013.

He was the 2013 NBA Coach of the Year and that of course is George Carle. Coach, appreciate the time as always. How you been?

I'm doing great. Excited about tonight and excited about the Nuggets and it's been a good run here out here in Denver. Yeah, assuming they get the job done and we'll see if it happens tonight or later on in their series. Only needed one more win to get that Larry O'Brien trophy. What would this mean to you, a place that you called home for a while to see Denver finally get that championship? Well, you know, I'm an old ABA guy so it all started back in the 70s when San Antonio and Denver had a pretty good rivalry going. You know, a lot of friends have coached here, Larry Brown, Doug Moe, myself and they've had a lot of great players. I think they've been a very good basketball town, a very good sports town. I know Denver doesn't get a lot of love, it's a sports town, but it's a pretty good town.

The Broncos, the Avalanche, the Nuggets, the Rockies haven't had a lot of success, but fans of Denver love sports and I think they're ready for a parade. We've seen what Nicole Jokic has meant to this sport to now to start to see him get that tag even though he's been the MVP twice as the best player in the sport. But what do you see using your coaching eye when you watch Nicole Jokic play? I think there are two guys in the last 30 years that have had a major impact on how the game has changed.

One of them being Steph Curry and I think the other one is Jokic. He's showing the basketball world that a big guy can still win a championship, a big guy is still valuable. But the thing I love about him is he's totally a team guy, totally a we guy. He tries to make people better every night. He's a triple-double machine and he has a great deal of humility, very humble in his success and I just love him. I think he's just a great ambassador for the game and I'm happy that he's finally getting some national recognition. I'm honest that he might be the best player in the NBA.

You're right about the no ego and how selfless he is, coach. It kind of does seem like he'd rather have more assists than more points in the way that he loves playing that team style of basketball. The one stat at the beginning of the series that I saw was, I don't know, there was 37 times this year or 38 times he had 10 assists in a game and he won 88% of those games.

Now that is an unbelievable number and when he didn't have 10 assists, their winning percentage wasn't that great. I mean he's really the point guard of this team, even though Murray is playing well at that position right now. But you know he's a point center and I think he's the best passing center ever to play in the NBA and I hope he wins tonight and I hope he wins a couple more because I think in my mind he might be the best center other than Shaq. In my career, the two guys I really admired were Shaq who was almost impossible to cover and now Jokic who I think is the same way. He's not as powerful and big as Shaq is but his complete game is amazing.

He's a triple double machine and I hope he gets his championship tonight. George Karl, I don't see the way that you could stop him but if you were still coaching, how would you try to just simply contain because that's where the point we're at when talking about Nicole Jokic. How did teams try to contain him moving forward? Well the stat I would take into consideration is to put pressure on his handle.

I don't know how you do that. He's a great pick and roll guy. He's a great handoff guy. He can score outside and he can score inside. He plays in the paint against the zone now very very well. But I would probably play different defenses against him. I'd probably try to double him some. Sometimes I'd play him straight up. Sometimes zone him.

But no one's had a lot of success. He's a very high. His basketball IQ is tremendous.

But whatever you throw at him, he'll figure out the answer in time. George Karl here with us on the Zach Gelb show. What do you say to people because the detractors say he's boring. The Denver Nuggets are boring. I'm not saying that but that's what some people are saying about this team and also the big man in Nicole Jokic.

I don't know why they think we're boring. I mean they're explosive offensively and they've shown to me at least that when they have to be a good defensive team they can be. The NBA has gone to being very explosive offensively and Jokic makes everybody involved. I love a team that's won. They win a game with Jokic getting a triple double. They win a game when Murray and Jokic get a double triple double. But they win a game with Aaron Gordon giving them a game. And they can win with the others a little bit more than people think they are. And because we're not in LA or Chicago or New York or a big city doesn't mean that they're not spectacular.

I don't think they're boring at all. But everybody said Tim Duncan was still boring. And I think Tim Duncan is a great player.

Well Jamal Murray I think because of the injury everybody had questions would he be able to get back? And the truth of the matter is he's gotten back and he's actually better. He's smarter. He's a better ball handler and a better facilitator.

And I think for the last, now you've got to go all the way back to the bubble. So four years Jokic and Murray in the fourth quarter are somewhat unbeatable. We don't talk about their fourth quarter prowess. But I'm going to tell you, they win a lot of close games. Even when they're behind in the fourth quarter they never quit.

And they've had great comebacks. And a lot of it's because of Murray's growth. And I think Murray's moving up the ladder of great players in the league.

No question about that. And assuming they get one more victory, you know Mike Malone is going to get a lot of praise as well. You being a former coach in this league, you coached in Denver before winning a Coach of the Year award. What do you like so much about a Mike Malone coach basketball team?

Well, I think the management did a great job of kind of changing the mentality. And Bruce Brown and Caldwell Pope pickups over the summer were big time. Tristan Brown has turned out to be a hell of a draft pick. And I think Mike Malone has done a great job of messing the old with the new. And building around Jokic and Murray. I think he believes in Jokic and Murray before anybody else.

And I think I hit my hat to him with that. And, I mean, he's managed this team in the playoffs magnificently. I think they've lost three games, and they've never had any desperate games yet. But closing out a series, closing out the finals to win a championship will be some desperation tonight. They're going to have to play their A game.

George Karl, getting to the other side of things. We've now seen Jimmy Butler do a remarkable job in Miami, take this team to the finals twice. And I know you still have to lose one more game, but it looks like he's going to lose another NBA finals. I like Bam Adebayo as a player. I just think he's more of a three on a championship team, and they still need another star. You have all these rumors about Damian Lillard. Do you think if Miami ever wants to win a championship with Butler, they're going to have to add a player like a Damian Lillard? I think Damian Lillard would be really good for Miami. I definitely think Miami has a lower level of skills than even the teams that they beat in the East. I mean, Boston has more talent, more size, more skills than Miami, and I just think they know how to win. They play with an attitude that very few teams play with all the time. And I think if they would add another player, they would probably become probably one of the Milwaukee Boston, and them would be the leaders of the East.

Coach George, Carl, before we let you run, just want to get your thoughts. I'm sure, obviously, you know the news that Carmelo Anthony retired a few weeks ago. You and Carmelo will be linked for a while with what you guys did in Denver. Just how did you react, and how do you kind of look back on the career of Carmelo Anthony? Carmelo's the best offensive player I've coached in the league. I've never coached a player that could do what he did in games.

Night in and night out, he was almost unstoppable in many ways, one-on-one. We came close to getting to the top of the mountain, but we never did, and I can live with my career, and I think Melo's got a Hall of Fame career. I think in the near future, he'll get a lot of great accolades, and I hope his surgery somehow, some way, gets hung up here in Denver.

And I never know what exactly happens. We know it was an ugly end, but I kind of wish Melo would be in the building tonight. I don't know if Denver's reached out or not, but that would be pretty cool if Denver wins a championship tonight, and they could find a way to get Carmelo Anthony in the building for what he meant to that organization. Well, I don't know if he is going to be.

I have not heard that if he would be, but I think in the end, I think the nuggets, I think they're going to open up that window, and I think they will in the very near future. Well, Coach George Caro, good health to you and your family. Appreciate the time as always. Thanks so much. Okay guys, have fun watching the game.