You’ve probably seen George Karl get into a couple of social media spats and dust-ups; call them what you will.
We certainly have.
The 73-year-old Karl, who coached the Denver Nuggets (2005-13), has sparred with Carmelo Anthony, feuded with Nick Wright, and piled on Skip Bayless. All seems par for the course for a Hall of Fame coach who still wants his voice to matter in the game of basketball, as a recent profile in The Athletic details.
Well, not exactly.
In that profile, Karl revealed that the social media posts you’ve come to associate with his blunt, unfiltered voice are not actually written by him.
“I’ve gone on Twitter to find out what somebody said, but I’ve never, ever wrote anything,” Karl told The Athletic’s Jason Quick. “I’ve never done that my whole life, but I know it’s out there.”
The man behind the posts? That would be Brett Goldberg, Karl’s manager and business partner. Sometimes, Karl gives him a topic or reaction to post. Most of the time, though, it’s Goldberg running the show.
“It’s like 80 percent Brett,” Karl said. “He wanted me to have more of an online presence … and I don’t understand branding.”
Karl and Goldberg co-founded Truth Plus Media, a sports media company behind several podcasts and an upcoming ABA documentary acquired by Amazon. The two share a close partnership, and Goldberg tells The Athletic that he has a firm grasp of Karl’s voice and can often capture exactly how the longtime coach feels about current events and controversies.
“But I’ve lectured him on calming it down,” Karl says. “And, if he is going to say something difficult, to make sure he clears it with me.”
Karl knows social media can be a toxic place. He even considered pulling the plug on his X account when someone pointed out that using a ghostwriter undercut his whole truth-teller image. But in the end, he decided he’d rather confront the negativity than disappear from the conversation.
And that’s really the heart of the profile.
To be fair to Karl, it also highlights his ongoing battles with serious health issues, including multiple bouts with cancer, and his desire to stay connected to the game he’s spent his life in. In many ways, he still is. He doesn’t want to be forgotten. But know that when you see his name stirring the pot on X, the Everything App, odds are, he’s not the one doing the posting.