In Case You Didn't Hear, George Karl Really, Really Wants to Coach in NBA Again

George Karl knows how to market himself to NBA teams: obviously, without fear or regard for propagated desperation.

As first confirmed by Yahoo Sports' Adrian Wojnarowski, the Orlando Magic showed third-year head coach Jacque Vaughn the door on Thursday. Even though the Magic have lost 16 of their last 18 games, including 10 straight, their situation is among the most appealing for prospective candidates, as Wojnarowski notes:

Nine teams swapped out head coaches between last season and this one, so one-third of the league is basically guaranteed to stand pat on this front.

That's before including the legendary sideline-stalkers or expectations-exceeding clipboard generals—guys like Gregg Popovich, Doc Rivers, Brian Shaw Mike Budenholzer and Rick Carlisle, among others.

Beyond a slow-turning carousel, the Magic are also stocked with talent. They have two future stars in the backcourt (Victor Oladipo, Elfrid Payton), plenty of wing scorers (Evan Fournier, Tobias Harris) and an All-Star snub up front (Nikola Vucevic).

Not surprisingly, Karl, who has been out of the league since leading the Denver Nuggets to 57 wins in 2012-13, wants in on Orlando's coaching pool.

This is not conjecture or a gut feeling. This is fact, per Karl himself:

Seldom do we see unemployed coaches make such brazen beelines for open positions. This is all usually very hush-hush. There is an unspoken process to how these things unfold.

Searches are held. Interviews are conducted. Rumors leak. Speculated prospects and team officials recite flattering, totally inconclusive cliches.

But Karl doesn't have time for those games. Not only will he turn 64 in May, but he's been itching for an NBA return since leaving the Nuggets and has not been shy about his attempts to come back.

When the Cleveland Cavaliers were looking for a coach after firing Mike Brown, Karl declared his own candidacy via email, per The Plain Dealer's Mary Schmitt Boyer:

"

The year off has been enjoyable, but there is no question I have missed the gym, the games and being a part of a team and organization.

...

Feel great and would love to expand the challenge of putting an organization together and bringing a fun committed basketball team to Cleveland.

"

So much for beating around the bush.

Garrett Ellwood/Getty Images

There's a point where Karl's previous pleas and resume need to speak for themselves. He has reached that point. He has a lifetime winning percentage just under 60, has shown he can adapt to the pace-and-space niceties of modern-day basketball and the entire world knows by now that he's ready and willing to coach.

Maybe the 15-37 Magic will even consider him.

Alex Kennedy of Basketball Insiders cites Karl as a possible replacement for Vaughn—along with a slew of other established sideline warriors in Mike Malone, Mark Jackson and Scott Skiles.

Karl, then, seems to fit the bill of what Orlando is after. He need only let nature run its course and hope for the best.

After all, if Super Troopers taught us anything—which is to say, everything—it's that "desperation is a stinky cologne." At the moment, it seems Karl, for all his sideline sagacity, could benefit from a new personal fragrance.

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