George Karl (@CoachKarl22) is a basketball lifer. He learned his basketball playing and coaching from Dean Smith, the late, great University of North Carolina coach and PCA National Advisory Board Member. Karl became just the seventh coach in NBA history to reach 1,000 career wins. He earned the NBA Coach of the Year Award in 2013 and has served as head coach for the Cleveland Cavaliers, Golden State Warriors, Albany Patroons (CBA), Real Madrid (EuroLeague), Seattle SuperSonics (which he led to the NBA Finals), Milwaukee Bucks, Denver Nuggets, and Sacramento Kings.

Karl always wants a positive energy in his team's practices. Still, he realizes it is often a coach's job to correct players. Here, he explains the struggle to strike the right balance and what coaches should consider when establishing the overall tone of a practice in both words and body language.