The Big Lead

George Karl Scored a Knockout in Twitter Fight With Mark Jackson

By Ryan Phillips

George Karl, Sacramento Kings v Los Angeles Lakers
George Karl, Sacramento Kings v Los Angeles Lakers / Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images
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As the Los Angeles Lakers and Portland Trail Blazers played Game 2 of their first-round NBA playoff series Thursday night, ESPN's Mark Jackson started insulting Carmelo Anthony's former coaches. George Karl was not a fan of it and lit Jackson up on Twitter.

During the broadcast Jackson essentially blamed Anthony's former tutors for his reputation as a bad defender. Karl, a former long-time coach of Anthony's, had a retort.

Damn George. That's a brutal takedown.

That last part is clearly a shot at Jackson's tenure with the Golden State Warriors. After he was fired, Steve Kerr took over and Golden State won three of the next four NBA titles, and went to the Finals in five straight seasons.

Here's what Jackson said to set Karl off:

It's pretty clear he's blaming Anthony's former coaches. He's played for a lot of guys, including Karl, Jeff Bzdelik, Mike D'Antoni, Mike Woodson, Derek Fisher, Jeff Hornacek, Billy Donovan and now Terry Stotts. He played for Karl the longest, spending six seasons under him with the Denver Nuggets. It's not surprising Karl took offense to the remarks.

After the game, Jackson took to Twitter and fired back at Karl:

While that's a decent comeback, Karl already buried him with the first tweet. The 69-year-old coach gets the win over Jackson in this one.