Saw George Karl at the Broncos game Monday night. The old point guard looked ready to take a charge. Raring to shoot some 3s.
As he sat in his office Wednesday exactly two months removed from prostate cancer surgery, he was looking ahead to the opening of Nuggets camp Wednesday. The Broncos got him thinking.
“I am amazed at the level of coverage that team gets,” Karl said. “Not only have they won a couple of championships, but they have a foundation of excellence and do it the right way. They stay pretty close to the top of the mountain and give themselves a chance in some years, by making just the right moves, to get to the top.
“This is a big year for the Denver Nuggets to prove that we can stay near the top of the mountain. To build a foundation like that, one very few organizations have.”
Big year. Right man.
I believe Karl is in for a mild surprise at how much his team, if it reaches its potential, will be embraced and will become even more of a fixture here and nationally. He got a taste of it when he took charge last season of a club with a 17-25 record. He guided the Nuggets to victories in 32 of their remaining 40 games, to a 25-4 record after the all-star break and to their first-round playoff loss to eventual champion San Antonio.
The Nuggets are capable of winning their division this time around. They should advance further in the playoffs. If both happen, and they continue their free-flowing, push-it style, their place in this city’s sports landscape will continue to blossom. And, like their game, in a hurry.
Karl, 54, who says his body sometimes feels that age but his mind always feels younger, conducts his first training camp in three years. He enters with a retooled perspective.
Facing what he called “The Big C” will do that.
Cancer kills, he said.
And when he was diagnosed, he handled it like the get-into-
the-fray coach he is. He talked to half a dozen doctors. He read books, worked the Internet. He became an amateur expert on the subject, he said.
He had undergone surgeries before: six on his knees, a couple on his eyes and one on his back.
“The success rate for this surgery was more than 90 percent – but that is not 100 percent,” Karl said. “I started wondering if there were other cancers in me. Before you go in, no matter how strong a person you are, you are weakened. I had thoughts I did not share with anybody. I was nervous, fearful.”
He wondered if he would ever get back to his team. Get back to basketball, his love.
He found support, spirit, a kindness in Denver through the process. He discovered a natural, earthy feel in Denver, a people and a city with bounce to it. This city, team and franchise behind Karl in his dark hours helped lift him to rapid recovery, he said.
He was playing golf 3 1/2 weeks after the surgery when doctors said it should have taken him six weeks.
He is back with a team that is even stronger, deeper. He said this will be a distinguished, competitive training camp. The emphasis will be on defense, 70 percent, compared with 30 percent on offense, he said.
“I came in last year wanting to improve our defense, and it was our offense that improved most,” Karl said. “We may have more traps, more pressure on the ball. And we might do that because we have so much talent. We could have a 10-man rotation. I tell the players, ‘You may have guaranteed contracts, but you do not have guaranteed minutes.”‘
The regular season begins with Karl missing the first three games. He is suspended for working with college players before the draft, an oversight, he said. We should gain another measure of the quality of his coaching in those three games. Karl agrees the best coaching is done in preparation. Right from the start, we will see how much these players this season are an extension of their coach.
“You are always earning that,” Karl said of players’ trust.
He has earned our attention, his team an early buzz.
Karl used to drink diet Mountain Dew like it was water, but now he drinks, simply, lots of water. No carbs after 3 p.m. He is a coach who in past years rode his players hard and rode himself harder. But there is a kid-like enthusiasm and wiser-
for-the-experience glow evident with Karl now.
Just last month, after wearing them for a year and half, he had lower braces removed from his teeth.
Everything has its season.
Staff writer Thomas George can be reached at 303-820-1994 or tgeorge@denverpost.com.
