Karl Must Win Or Else, By George Sonics Coach Hasn’t Received A New Deal Despite 64-17 Mark

When the Seattle SuperSonics open their playoff season, their future as well as their present will be at stake.

If the Sonics collapse in the playoffs for the third straight year, coach George Karl knows he could be fired and the team with the second-best record in the NBA dismantled.

“I’m very proud of the job I’ve done here,” Karl said. “I know it’s been first class. If they want to change it, they have that right. Then I have to live with it.”

Karl has not been offered a new contract despite the Sonics’ achieving their best-ever regular-season record, 64-17 after Friday’s home victory over Minnesota.

The Sonics have the option to pick up his contract for another season, but general manager Wally Walker has told Karl that decision will be made this summer - after the playoffs.

So Karl finds himself in basketball limbo.

In addition, six Sonics players - All-Star Gary Payton, Hersey Hawkins, Ervin Johnson, Sam Perkins, Frank Brickowski and Steve Scheffler - will become unrestricted free agents this summer.

And Vincent Askew has the option to be a free agent, or he can return for the final year of his contract.

“The situation for a lot of us is not well defined for the future,” Karl said.

“But the basketball truth is that this team has earned the right to stay together. This team has the right stuff to it. To change it would be a tremendous, tremendous mistake.”

Embarrassed by first-round playoff exits against the Los Angeles Lakers and Denver the past two seasons, owner Barry Ackerley is keeping Sonics’ players and coaches in the dark.

“It’s a business and the game of basketball doesn’t always dictate how business is run,” Karl said.

Playing without a dominating center, Karl has the best winning percentage of any coach in the Sonics’ history. Since replacing the fired K.C. Jones on Jan. 23, 1992, he has compiled a regular-season record of 265-103. That’s 72 percent.

But Karl’s playoff record in Seattle is a disappointing 17-20. Former general manager Bob Whitsitt left after the Sonics lost to Denver in 1994, though the team set a franchise record with 63 wins.

Fired as coach by Cleveland and Golden State in the 1980s, the 44-year-old Karl is aware his future is on the line when the Sonics open the playoffs against Sacramento in the Key Arena Friday night.

If Karl goes, Payton may go with him since he has developed into one of the league’s best players under Karl. Payton will be one of the NBA’s most sought-after free agents following the season.

Karl thinks he should have been offered a new contract by now, but said, “I don’t think upset is the word” he would use to describe his feelings.

He doesn’t blame Walker, who succeeded Whitsitt.

“I think Wally has been put in a very difficult position and he’s got to make some tough decisions,” Karl said. “For us, it seems like he’s decided to put them all in one bag and make all his decisions this summer.”

Under the contract Karl signed on June 21, 1994, he has earned $1.1 million for each of the past two seasons and would get $1.1 million next season if the Sonics bring him back.

If the Sonics don’t keep Karl, they are obligated to pay him part of the $1.1 million for next season, but not all of it.