Thread: The Official Denver Nuggets Thread!

Originally Posted by Denver Native (Carol)

Wonder if he goes there after practice, as a couple of nights ago, they did a little special on him, showing off his new truck, and he said that he lives in Larkspur.

Must be. Is his new truck a giant semi truck looking thing like his old black one or is that the new one?

Originally Posted by MasterShake

Must be. Is his new truck a giant semi truck looking thing like his old black one or is that the new one?

His new truck is a big black one that was designed for him, I think he said at Alpine - the place he does the commercial for.

It's not this one that they showed.

http://www.coolcarguy.com/2009/07/ch...monster-truck/

This must be what it is:

Alpine and our Community

Alpine Buick Pontiac GMC names Chris “Birdman” Andersen as their new spokesperson. In honor of the partnership, Alpine presented Birdman with a new special, “Birdman” Edition ’09 GMC 2500 HD Diesel Truck and donated money to Excel Institute Inc., one of the many local schools Birdman helps raise money for.

Or maybe it is this one - as you can tell - I don't know (haha)

http://www.celebritycarz.com/2009/11...-custom-truck/

CRAP - tough loss

Originally Posted by Denver Native (Carol)

His new truck is a big black one that was designed for him, I think he said at Alpine - the place he does the commercial for.

It's not this one that they showed.

http://www.coolcarguy.com/2009/07/ch...monster-truck/

This must be what it is:

Alpine and our Community

Alpine Buick Pontiac GMC names Chris “Birdman” Andersen as their new spokesperson. In honor of the partnership, Alpine presented Birdman with a new special, “Birdman” Edition ’09 GMC 2500 HD Diesel Truck and donated money to Excel Institute Inc., one of the many local schools Birdman helps raise money for.

Or maybe it is this one - as you can tell - I don't know (haha)

http://www.celebritycarz.com/2009/11...-custom-truck/

Yup, thats the one! And just to qualify, I've only seen him twice, but I've seen the truck 3 times. Thats how we know! The first time he was getting in and posing with some kids for a picture. Seems like a cool dude. I said something dumb while walking by like "Good luck in basketball!" and he just grinned and said thanks. I didn't want to bother him!

This was a great read.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/news/story?id=4997277

George vs. The Dragon

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By Rick Reilly
ESPN.com


DAY 17:


Tuesday, March 9, 7:30 a.m. -- Denver Nuggets coach George Karl pops in his mouthpiece and puts on his helmet and braces himself for a brutal 15 minutes, but this isn't football. This is cancer radiation.

We're at Denver's Swedish Medical Center. The helmet is actually a white, hard-mesh mask that fits to every contour of Karl's big bucket head. It has red crosses all over it, like a hockey goalie's. He lays his 283 pounds on the table and the technicians clamp the mask on hard. How Karl breathes I'll never know. They secure his limbs and ask him to hold a blue plastic donut so no part of him moves. He looks like Hannibal Lecter about to get fried.

"It makes you a little claustrophobic," the 58-year-old coach tries to say through the mask. "But what are you gonna do? Leave?" Coaching the wildly talented but wildly uneven Nuggets is hard enough, let alone doing it with throat and neck cancer, but that's what Karl is trying to do. Everybody tells him it's not possible, and today, maybe he's starting to believe them.

With only three of his torturous six weeks of treatment done, and the inside of his mouth looking like he just took 100 bites out of a lava-hot pizza slice, and his head throbbing and his eyes hollow, Karl looks like a guy who should be on a stretcher, not an NBA bench.

"George, this is only going to get harder," a nurse tells him. "You're not going to feel like working." Clearly, she's never met George Karl.

He shows me many things I don't want to see. He's doing it because he wants people to know exactly what it's like. Wants to take the fear and mystery out of it for people.


Suddenly, the huge gray machine whirs like a giant Transformer, turning sideways, first this side, then that, as though it's trying to decide how to eat him. Then it zaps his throat and neck lymph nodes, ravaging them. It gives him a radish-red rash that's covering his face, chest and back. I know. He shows me. He shows me many things I don't want to see. He's doing it because he wants people to know exactly what it's like. Wants to take the fear and mystery out of it for people.

"The rash is a good sign," says the technician. "It shows the radiation is working."

"Mine's not bad," Karl mumbles, hardly able to talk. "There's a guy in here who can't even lay his head on a pillow."

Karl absorbs the machine's worst for 15 minutes every weekday, except on Wednesdays, when he does it for 30.

Then he goes to work.

8:15 a.m. -- The coach with the seventh-most wins in NBA history is having a glass of water and looking at film of the Minnesota Timberwolves ahead of the game the next night.

But we're not in his office. And the water just went into his stomach through a tube in his gut. And the hose from the liter bag of Erbitux, a cancer drug, dripping into his left arm hangs over the laptop he's trying to watch film on. And we're not in his office, we're at the Swedish chemo lab. This is the one day of the week he adds dripping to the zapping. You fight the dragon any way they tell you.

If there was a DL for coaches, Karl would be the first five names on it. He's not going to get on the team plane this afternoon for Minnesota. He won't coach them there. For a controllisimo like Karl, that's torture.

"I woke up today thinking of all the things that could go wrong," he tries to say through a mouth that sounds like it's full of rock salt. "Actually, I didn't really wake up. I didn't hardly go to sleep. Couldn't."

I don't know how your Monday was, but this was Karl's: He'd coached the Nuggets to a 12-point win over Portland the night before. Didn't hit the sack until 1. Got up at 5. Was at the hospital by 6. Had surgery at 6:30 to put in the stomach tube that, coming soon, will be the only way he'll eat. Out of surgery at 7. Radiation at 8. Home by 10. Nap. Then started working on preparing for the Minnesota game.

His doctors have called his cancer "treatable," but as a prostate cancer survivor from 2005, he knows there's no guaranteed contract with the dragon. Still, he refuses to play the victim card. "Nothing I do is painful," he tells the press.

But the players know he's lying. They hear him say less every day. It's getting harder to hear him. He almost never yells now. And when you have a team with divas like J.R. Smith and Kenyon Martin, that's hard to believe.

"I don't think all the guys know what he's going through," says Nuggets point guard Chauncey Billups, "but I do. [Billups' mom is a cancer survivor.] We've had a lot of talks. I tell him, 'Take care of yourself. Don't worry so much about us.' But he's stubborn. He's been really inspirational for us."

9:05 a.m. -- The oncology nurse asks Karl if there's anything she can do for him.

"Well," he tries to say. "I just think there ought to be somebody all the patients can just beat the crap out of. It's competitive for me. I get so mad, I just want to deck somebody."

They can't give him that, but they've given him all kinds of drugs for the pain he's going through. ("On a 1-to-10 scale of the most painful cancer treatments," says Karl's hematologist, Dr. David Trevarthen. "This is about a 9.") But Karl won't take the drugs, even though the pain is kicking his butt by about 40 points right now.

"Have you put on the [morphine] patch?" the nurse asks.

"No," Karl says.

"You will."

10:25 a.m. -- Karl keeps looking at the science-fair project going on under his shirt. "I gotta get something to cover my tube," he says to nobody. "Can't let people see my tube when I'm coaching."

11:15 a.m. -- The Erbitux bag is exhausted and so is Karl. He looks like a man who's lost a fight with a wheat thresher.


"I can't go to practice," he whispers, changing the day's plan. "I don't want the players to see the rash. That'll get them thinking negatively."

For only the second time in six seasons, Karl won't coach the Nuggets for a road game. And now he won't even be able to say goodbye. Assistant Adrian Dantley will take over. Get used to it.
Karl gets up to walk out. Nauseous, he grabs the wall as he turns the corner.




GEORGE vs. THE DRAGON, DAY 18:

Wednesday, March 10, 7:05 a.m. -- When Karl comes into the radiation room, he looks like a different guy. Somebody made a switch. This one seems rested. This one is smiling. This one can talk.

"The patch," he says, grinning. "I feel great."

The nurse rolls her eyes.

Karl was going to catch up with the team in Memphis in two days, coach them there, then coach again in Houston on Monday night. "But, man, I'm feeling so good, I might fly to Minnesota today!"

The Transformer will talk him out of that.

7:35 a.m. -- Freshly zapped, Karl gets a visit from his oncologist, Dr. Marshall Davis, who comes in wearing a stocking cap. He's got cancer, too -- testicular.

The doc is a Nuggets freak and he knows there's something secondary at stake here, beyond saving George Karl's life -- getting him back on the bench. "I think this could finally be the year we win it all," the doc says.

Karl doesn't fight him. "When we play right, I don't think there's anybody in the league who wants to play us."

Bonded, the two of them plot out the schedule: Three more weeks of treatment. The worst three weeks. Then at least three -- if not four -- weeks of utter exhaustion. Then -- and only then -- might he be able to coach again. That puts them at about April 26.

"When does it get intense?" Dr. Davis asks.

"April 20," says Karl (though the playoffs actually start April 17.)

Could be a problem.

For anybody else.

"I hope my team is ready," Karl says. "I hope I'm ready."

8:30 a.m. -- By his car, I ask Karl if he's scared to die.


"I'm scared every day," he says. "Scared all the time. But my kids, my family, my staff, they keep me thinking positive."

Anything good coming from all this?

"Oh, yeah. Lots. Sometimes, I feel the sunshine on my face and I just stop and think, 'Damn, this feels good.' I never used to think about sunshine, you know?"

He fairly beams saying it.

Guess there's more than one way to radiate.

Originally Posted by BroncoAV06

This was a great read.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/news/story?id=4997277

Thanks so much - great read. Just watched the pre-game for tonight's game. Coach Karl is there, and got a standing ovation when he walked to the bench - guess it will be both Coach and AD who will be the main coaches tonight.

Originally Posted by Denver Native (Carol)

Thanks so much - great read. Just watched the pre-game for tonight's game. Coach Karl is there, and got a standing ovation when he walked to the bench - guess it will be both Coach and AD who will be the main coaches tonight.

Was nice to see that...

Nice win also against the (doormat) Wizards after the give-away in Houston the night before.

i was at the game last night. the 2nd half was pretty fun to watch.

With 14 games left to go, the Nuggets are in a dead heat with the Mavs for 2nd place in the western conference. I'd love to see us get home court until we have to face the Lakers. I think we can steal a game in LA and hold home court here in Denver. A Melo-Lebron finals are in the works folks.

Junior owns Dallas... It doesnt matter if Denver has that 2nd or 3rd seed in my opinion. Sure the talent is pretty equal ever since the trade I just dont think Dallas has the swagger the Nugs poccess, and confidence goes a long way.

Its going to be a Lakers Nuggets rematch. Whether Denver can actually execute down the stretch is going to be the key.

The Lakers won theirs last year...

I wouldn't mind to see History...the Nuggs win it this year for Coach K....And for the first time ever.

May god be on your side and help you beat the battle that is REALLY important....Evil Cancer.

http://www.denverpost.com/sports/ci_14713246

The key to the Nuggets' success, one would argue, is in Carmelo Anthony's right hand, Chauncey Billups' heart or J.R. Smith's head.

But inside Kenyon Martin's left knee, how tendons respond to a revolutionary therapy could determine if Denver even gets a shot at the Lakers — much less defeats them.

On March 8, Martin underwent platelet-rich plasma (PRP) therapy, a painful but promising procedure that should have the power forward — who had suffered from patella tendinitis — back in the lineup by the playoffs in mid-April.

But for now, Martin can only wait. It's likely that early next week, which will be two weeks after the PRP therapy, he will return to the Steadman Hawkins Clinic in Vail, "and if he's doing well, we'll very, very slowly and carefully start to progress him forward," said Dr. David Karli, who specializes in PRP therapy at the clinic.

"If he's still sore, we'll have to give him four to five more days and then recheck. . . . We have our fingers crossed that Kenyon will come back strong. It's always tough with a patella tendon injury; they're really hard to get better. And if we need to do multiple treatments, we will. But my hope will be that one will be enough to handle it. We'll have to wait and see."

So what exactly is PRP therapy? In layman's terms, platelets from the patient's blood are taken and then injected into the injured part of the same patient's body.

"The thinking behind it," explained Dr. James Gladstone of Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, "is you're basically providing fluid from the patient themselves, and hopefully this higher concentration of growth factors can stimulate the body to heal itself in an area that hasn't been healing as quickly as you'd hope."

Or, as Karli put it, "In theory it makes a lot of sense — to help the body help itself."

The genesis of PRP therapy was actually at the dentist's office. Karli said that in the late 1970s, oral surgeons used a platelet concentrate to fill in gum defects.

"It was primitive at that time," Karli said, "but in theory, it made sense that we could apply that to orthopedic tissues — tendon, cartilage, meniscus — because the concept is the platelet is the gatekeeper with regards to the control of healing within the body. Platelets direct the healing process."

In sports medicine, even as recently as the past half-decade, some athletes trying to avoid surgery took recovery steps with anti-inflammatory medicine or forms of steroids. But doctors like Karli, inspired by the work of the oral surgeons, soon developed outside-the-box approaches to treating orthopedic injuries. And about five years ago, doctors began performing PRP therapy, which became the trend in no time. Leading up to the Super Bowl in February 2009, Pittsburgh's Hines Ward underwent PRP and surprised many by suiting up on Super Bowl Sunday. Karli said his clinic has treated more than 1,500 patients with PRP therapy.

Asked if there was any way PRP could backfire, Gladstone said: "The nice thing about it is that in theory — no. It's your own material, so there shouldn't be any reaction against it. The worst thing that happens is it doesn't help."

Karli made it clear that in the offseason, athletes naturally have more time to rest after their first PRP therapy than during a season. The most systematic improvement is seen three to six weeks after the procedure — that's when the doctor would normally decide if an athlete needed to undergo PRP therapy again. But in Kenyon's case, the NBA playoffs are looming. That said, Karli is cautious.

"We're going to be working with the team's trainers very carefully to try to get him back not only as quickly as we can, but as safely," he said. "The worst thing would be to push him back too quickly and have a larger, more-catastrophic injury that would require surgery."

Benjamin Hochman: 303-954-1294 or bhochman@denverpost.com

NOTEBOOK

Nuggets: Reserve guard Ty Lawson likely won't play, but he will attend shootaround and see how his left shoulder feels. . . . The Nuggets are 30-5 at the Pepsi Center and are on a seven-game home winning streak, the fourth such streak this season.

http://www.denverpost.com/nuggets/ci_14722131

At the point in the NBA season when the Nuggets must make a statement, has the team lost its voice?

There's nothing anybody can do except pray for coach George Karl during his fight against cancer. But, in Karl's absence, the Nuggets cannot afford to stumble if they want to be taken seriously as a championship contender.

On a Saturday, when Denver could have strengthened its hold on the No. 2 seed in the Western Conference, the Nuggets instead looked disturbingly indecisive during a timeout in the fourth quarter with a game slip-sliding away against Milwaukee.

To tell the truth, at that crucial moment, the Nuggets appeared lost and uncertain where to turn for guidance.

Looking for an offensive play to give them a shot at pulling out a victory in the final minute, Chauncey Billups and his teammates watched and listened as Denver advance scout Chad Iske scribbled X's and O's.

Assistant coach Adrian Dantley, the Hall of Famer assigned to lead the Nuggets in the absence of Karl, watched as the team put its crunch- time strategy in the hands of Iske.

Did anybody else find this strange? Iske is a good, smart basketball man. But coaching by committee is no way to win in the NBA.

And the Nuggets lost 102-97 to Milwaukee.

When I inquired why Iske was drawing up a key play, Dantley replied: "He had something diagrammed in the playbook that he wanted to run that I didn't see. So, therefore, I didn't have a problem with it."

It's reassuring to know Dantley won't let his ego get in the way of doing what he thinks is in the best interest of the team.

But if Dantley is the coach who has to take responsibility for wins and losses as Karl endures chemotherapy, then Dantley must be the man who stands up and speaks during crisis situations that inevitably occur during a game.

Input from Iske, Tim Grgurich or any other Denver assistant coach is always welcome. The final message, however, needs to be delivered to the players by Dantley.

"These are times when you learn about your team, and learn about the guys you got. It's tough, man," said Billups, whose 29 points weren't enough to beat the Bucks.

"It's tough without George (Karl), without having that leadership up top. A.D. is doing a good job. (Dantley) has done a really good job. He just hasn't had a lot of head coaching experience. You get used to hearing one voice, one dominant voice at all times, and you grow accustomed to that. When it's gone, it's a little different."

On a night when Dallas lost to Boston, the Nuggets squandered an opportunity to take a step forward in the race for playoff seeding.

And now for the tricky part: Denver embarks on a road trip that invites heartburn, with five games in seven nights, including stops in New York, Boston, Toronto, Orlando and Dallas.

"It's going to be tough. But we knew that all along," Dantley said. "You see it on TV all the time. We have the toughest remaining schedule of all the teams in the conference."

We might find out real quick if the Nuggets are the greatest challenge in the West to the Lakers, or if Denver will be satisfied to finish fourth in the conference.

"I feel like this is a huge, huge trip for us," Billups said. "It's not make or break, but it is huge."

I believe Billups could coach this team. Right now.

Yes, I think he could have the final say on substitution patterns and diagram plays while he also plays point guard. In an era where NBA benches are overcrowded with guys in suits, we tend to make the game more complicated than it needs to be.

In Karl's absence, the strongest, most-respected voice in the locker room and on the court belongs to Billups.

If I were Nuggets owner Stan Kroenke, I would have Billups serve as player-coach until Karl's health improves.

Denver management, however, has decided Dantley should be in charge of game- day decisions. He's capable. His record as acting head coach is a very respectable 5-2.

So do the job, A.D.

We've reached the point of the NBA season where there is no time for messing around.

Somebody has to be the boss.

Ah lose to the Knicks then Boston tomorrow night, Nuggets always have to make it hard.

I usually dont complain about the refs but tonight was just horrible.

Denver was down 3 late in the 4th quarter when JR Smith takes what the baseline ref thought was a charge on David Lee, about 3 seconds later David Lee then gets in the Refs face saying "that was my 6th foul" the ref then switched the call to a block immediately and David Lee gets free throws. 4 point turn around.