CHARLOTTE, N.C. _ When it comes to George Karl operating without a filter, no one has to tell Derrick Williams about the controversies surrounding his former coach.
Amid the tour promoting his new book, Furious George, Karl taken shots at everyone from Carmelo Anthony to Damian Lillard to Sacramento Kings owner Vivek Ranadive.
It was there, in Sacramento, where Williams had his own Karl moment, when, after going without a rebound in a game, Williams found himself compared by Karl to a vending machine.
"You shouldn't be playing 20 minutes a game and not get a rebound," Karl said of that April 2015 game against the Utah Jazz. "I mean, the Coke machine can get a rebound some nights."
The comment did not sit well then with Williams, nor does it now, as he attempts to resurrect his career with the Miami Heat. But with Karl being skewered by so many others, from Anthony to Trail Blazers coach Terry Stotts, Williams is fine remaining out of this fray.
"That just gets in a bad way when a player comes back and says something else. It is what it is," said Williams, with the Heat facing the Charlotte Hornets on Thursday night at the Spectrum Center. "I mean I see a lot of comments about it, players talking about George Karl and this and that. He was my coach a half a year. So myself and him really didn't get along that well, either. But I'm not going to bash him."
And if Karl were to go back to that Coke machine, with the digs from the long-time coach seemingly coming daily, Williams said, "If he wants to say that, that's fine, that's fine with me."
Stotts, a former Karl assistant coach, chose a different approach after Karl commented on the Blazers' Lillard.
"As you know, I owe a lot to George," he said. "I got my start in coaching with George. I wouldn't be here if it weren't for him. He's a successful coach. That being said, if he wants to diminish his chances for the Hall of Fame, if he wants to undermine his chances to being a head coach again in this league, if he wants to settle old scores with GMs or players or whoever else, that's his prerogative."
