Dan Le Batard and Stugotz used their interview with George Karl to mock Mike Francesa

Former NBA coach George Karl’s seemingly endless book tour is definitely starting to get annoying (fine, it’s been pretty annoying from the very beginning), but we’re going to forgive him for now because the spotlight on his controversial book is bringing attention to a good cause: making fun of Mike Francesa.

So on Thursday, when Karl appeared on The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz, the hosts had some fun at Francesa’s expense. Toward the end of the interview, Stugotz started quoting Francesa, then asked Karl a series of questions about the 1990s Utah Jazz, whom Karl of course did not coach.

Stugotz: If you take it back to your classic series with the Bulls, the great Bulls teams, that ended on the Jordan shot—which I know he pushed off on, I know he pushed off—but you guys played great the rest of that series. Then the classic play in Game 6, obviously, with Jordan and Russell. When you look back at that, does that haunt you at all?

Karl: That was Utah, man. I was coaching in Seattle.

Stugotz: Who’d you enjoy coaching more, Malone or Stockton?

Karl: (laughs) I would love to have one year of Stockton, but I never did. I had him in a couple All-Star Games.

Stugotz: When you were coaching Jeff Hornacek, did you think to yourself, he could do what I’m doing?

Karl: (laughs)

Le Batard: What were thinking when Francesa yesterday didn’t know who the hell you are? You’re sitting in studio with him and he’s asking you questions as if you’re Jerry Sloan. What were you thinking? You were very polite about it, but what were you thinking to yourself?

Karl: Well, I let it go one time, and then the second time I had to call him out on it.

Here’s the clip:

https://twitter.com/SportsFunhouse/status/819377830874247168

And if you missed the original interview with Francesa, here you go:

https://twitter.com/SportsFunhouse/status/819005725989105664

When Karl criticized Carmelo Anthony, J.R. Smith, Kenyon Martin, Damian Lillard, the integrity of the NBA, bloggers and the publishing industry we rolled our eyes. But we can’t fault him for poking fun at Mike Francesa. That would definitely make us hypocrites.