Laugh Out Loud George Karl: The George Karl Elimination Playlist
Every year George Karl, the head coach of the Denver Nuggets, has virtually no chance to win the Quest for the Ring. About the only way he could win would be if there were a tremendous number of injuries to key players on other teams. But Karl is just about every year in the playoffs for round one anyway because Karl works with a very rich owner who maintains a large player payroll. Also, Karl uses basketball strategies and tactics that work alright if not spectacularly in the regular season. But then those strategies and tactics backfire horribly in the playoffs. Every year history repeats itself, sort of like in that movie "Groundhog Day".
Every year there will be people fooled into thinking the Nuggets can advance far in the playoffs and every year those people are frustrated and disappointed.
As a public service, Quest for the Ring (QFTR) is providing a musical playlist (aka jukebox) that has two dozen songs in it with themes that relate to Karl's futile quest to win the Quest. This playlist is especially useful during playoff games when George Karl is actually being eliminated. The playlist is very accurately named "Music to Listen to While George Karl is Being Eliminated". Of course, the playlist could also be enjoyed at any other time; after all, the time during which Karl is being eliminated is only a very small fraction of the all of the time, especially since Karl is usually eliminated very quickly.
At the moment, in round one of the 2012 playoffs, the Los Angeles Lakers are leading the Denver Nuggets two games to one in the best of seven series. When your QFTR producer (which is me) watches the remaining games in the series, he plans to turn down the game play by play and commentary and listen to songs from this Playlist. It will be very enjoyable to block out any worshipping of Karl done by the game commentators as well as vague, overly rosy and unrealistic predictions about how the Nuggets are going to be better and go farther in the playoffs in years to come. No, instead of listening to those kinds of lame and very likely inaccurate predictions, I will be listening to the George Karl Elimination Playlist while the Lakers actually eliminate George Karl and the Nuggets. It will very enjoyable and there will be a lot of laugh out loud moments to be had as the Nuggets most likely and hopefully go down to defeat.
The first song in the playlist: "Alone Again Naturally" sung by Gilbert O'Sullivan is the current official George Karl theme song. See this Laugh Out Loud for details.
The second song in the playlist: "Like a Rolling Stone" by Bob Dylan was the previous Karl theme song.
The third song in the playlist: "Right Place, Wrong Time" sung by Dr. John was the Karl theme song previous to that and was the first official George Karl theme song. It was the theme song for roughly two years and in a way is still the honorary George Karl theme song because it is such a tight fit.
There have only been three George Karl theme songs. This is another example of a feature that there would be more of if we had more time to produce QFTR than we have. In a perfect world there would have been at least six official George Karl theme songs by now, but as just discussed there have only been three of them.
Songs four and five on the playlist are both "Even the Losers" sung by Tom Petty. One is a live concert version and the other is the recorded, album version. That song could have been (and probably should have been) the George Karl theme song for at least six months starting in May 2009. In the 2009 playoffs Karl’s' regular season strategies together with a good dose of luck enabled him to win not one but two playoff series. After those two series wins, however, Karl and the Nuggets were destroyed by the Los Angeles Lakers in game six of the 2009 Western Conference Final, which was an elimination game for the Nuggets played in Denver. Going into that game, the Lakers were leading the best of seven series 3 games to 2. In that elimination game the Nuggets were humiliated on their own court, 119-92, thereby losing the series 4 games to 2.
The next song on the playlist: "Wipeout," is another reminder of what happened to Karl and the Nuggets in 2009 and what happens more generally to the Nuggets in the playoffs in any year.
The next three songs, numbers 7 through 9, are all songs whose themes and lyrics relate to Karl's futile, inept and ill advised quest to win the Quest.
Songs 10 and 11 are both called "Nowhere Man" These are different songs from each other and they are also different from the five songs with the same title that are farther down the playlist. Songs 10 and 11 are different songs but they both have themes which relate to Karl's status as a Nowhere Man" in the Quest for the Ring. Whereas Phil Jackson is the opposite, so he must be the “Everywhere Man”!
Songs twelve through fifteen are four more songs whose themes and lyrics are about losing, hopelessness, loneliness and the end of the road. The common denominator is obviously that a coach who can never win the Quest for the Ring is subject to experiencing all of these themes. In recent years, so many key players have quit or been tossed off the Nuggets in a bid to cut payroll that Karl should be lonely because he no longer has enough strong superstars to have even a theoretical chance to win the Quest. Of course, most likely Karl likely isn't actually lonely, but as usual, what Karl should be is more important than what he actually is. The point is, Karl should be lonely due to the lack of strong superstars, and if he is not, well then that is yet another one of his faults.
Then for songs 16 through 20 we have five versions of the song "Nowhere Man" which the Beetles made famous. None of the five versions in the playlist are the Beetles but several of them sound very similar. The first one, song #16, is an instrumental version of "Nowhere Man" and is especially useful for use when watching a game. Since it is an instrumental, you can play that one as background music while watching the game and while listening to the game commentary, all at the same time.
The last four songs in the playlist, numbers 21 through 24, are four versions of the song "I Fought the Law". That song should have been named "I Fought the Law and the Law Won" because that is the theme of it and that phrase in its entirety is repeated many times (in all of the versions). This song is an especially tight fit to Karl, whose basketball strategies and tactics often exhibit what is in effect a rebellious streak Karl has toward the rules and nature of basketball. Karl has been to one extent or another fighting various rules and realities of basketball while implementing his own strategies and tactics which seek to exploit marginal advantages out on the fringes of the game. The trouble is, Karl's strategies and tactics work fairly well in the regular season but they do not work at all in the playoffs; instead they backfire in the playoffs. So Karl seems to always be fighting "the Law" (the rules and nature of basketball) and he is always losing in the playoffs. So the laws of basketball are always winning over Karl in the end.
Basketball may not be the most important thing in the world but it is big and complex enough to be bigger than any one man. No man can win big by deciding on his own what the best way to play basketball is and then go on to win big after implementing his way. It doesn't work that way. Instead, the winning coach has to know the real nature of basketball and then has to come up with strategies and tactics that are (a) in accordance with the real nature and the real rules of basketball and that are (b) in accordance with the real capabilities of his players. In other words, anyone who wants to win the Quest has to start with the nature of the game and the nature of his players and then produce strategies and tactics that fit with those natures and realities. If you try to do it backwards, if you try to choose strategies and tactics that you think will work but that are not a good fit for the real nature and rules of basketball and / or are not a good fit for the real nature and capabilities of the players, you are doomed to never ever win the Quest for the Ring.
So here now is the "Music to Listen to While George Karl is Being Eliminated Playlist" more simply also known as "The George Karl Elimination Playlist".
Note: All audio tracks were working as of the day of this posting. Internet features often do not stand the test of time and quit working at some unknown future date. The Internet in general is not as stable or reliable as people think it is. If music tracks no longer work in the future it will be for a reason that is completely out of the control of Quest for the Ring (QFTR).
QFTR will probably not have the time in the future to monitor whether these music tracks are working or not. Also, QFTR probably will not have time in the future to replace music tracks that are no longer working.
THE GEORGE KARL ELIMINATION PLAYLIST