As the Denver Broncos’ 2022 season has quickly gone off the rails and turned into a widescale disaster, placing Coach Hackett on a seat hotter than a cast-iron skillet, and it now seems like a matter of ‘when’, not if, he’ll be fired.
Adding to that heat and discomfort is the fact that the legendary former head coach of the Denver Nuggets, George Karl, went to Twitter to publicly demand for Coach Hackett to be relieved of duty.
I always support coaches and would rarely advocate for their firing.
But Hackett needs to be done in Denver with the Broncos.
The search needs to begin immediately for someone who can connect with Wilson and make him a player again. Nathaniel doesn’t appear to be that person.
— George Karl (@CoachKarl22) October 25, 2022
“I always support coaches and would rarely advocate for their firing,” Karl wrote on the social media platform. “But Hackett needs to be done in Denver with the Broncos. The search needs to begin immediately for someone who can connect with Wilson and make him a player again. Nathaniel doesn’t appear to be that person.”
During his 27 seasons spent as an NBA head coach, Karl coached his teams to a 1,175-824 record (.588), coached his team through 185 playoff games and won 80, took the Seattle Sonics to the NBA Finals, won 12 Coach of the Month awards, and won a Coach of the Year award. He also managed personalities like Carmelo Anthony, Allen Iverson, Gary Payton, Shawn Kemp, and much more.
It’s safe to say he knows a thing or two about coaching.
Karl’s demand might sound strong to some, because only Urban Meyer has failed to make it to the end of his first year as a head coach, since 1979, and Meyer had a bevy of off-field distractions that made him infinitely more firable.
Unfortunately, at this point, the Denver Broncos’ season has been so calamitous and so poorly managed that Coach Hackett deserves to be on the hot seat. Execution and penalty problems plague the entire team, and the offense is somehow the worst of the post-Manning era, despite supposedly having the most talented quarterback they’ve had since Peyton Manning.