What could be next?
Kenyon Martin’s suspension is just the latest incident in a season full of turmoil. Less than two weeks ago, the Nuggets were reeling from the shooting of guard Julius Hodge. Coach George Karl called it the most interesting of his 18 NBA seasons as a coach.
Said center Marcus Camby: “We dealt with scandals, shootings, run-ins with the coaches, injuries. We’ve pretty much dealt with it all.”
Asked whether he had seen a season like this, he replied, “Not a shooting. That’s definitely a first. I’ve had strange seasons like this. Any time you play in New York it’s always strange.”
Camby let out a long sigh and laughed heartily when asked if he had any good news to report.
“I don’t know,” he said.
The Nuggets don’t have to look far to find a heartening parallel to their situation. Last season Washington fell behind Chicago 2-0 in their first-round meeting. The Wizards suspended center Kwame Brown and proceeded to win the series 4-2.
“Hopefully it sparks us. We need a spark,” center Francisco Elson said.
Guard Earl Boykins countered, “I don’t think they won four straight because they suspended Kwame Brown. I think we’ve just got to go out there and play better basketball.”
Double down
Nuggets forward Carmelo Anthony, on the Clippers’ continued double-teams against him: “A lot of time was spent on that (in practice). The Clippers, their No. 1 goal is to send two or three guys at me no matter what my other teammates are doing out there. They just want to take me out of the game. They want my other teammates to beat them.”
George’s world
Karl, on his team’s predicament: “I love being the guy that’s kicked right now.”
On his ability to patch up a bad relationship, as he will attempt to do with Martin:
“I told his agent yesterday that Gary Payton, after (our) second year together in Seattle, I didn’t think there was a chance of us having a relationship that I have now.
“Gary Payton’s one of my closest friends. I’m open to things. I’m open to communication. I think I can get better because of this. Hopefully he feels the same way.”
Footnotes
As of Wednesday afternoon, there were 1,500 tickets available for Game 3 and 2,000 for Game 4. … NBA great Magic Johnson on the Nuggets: “I’m fed up with them. The effort from Denver is just horrible for playoff basketball.” … Nuggets assistant and former head coach Doug Moe’s granddaughter, Lyndie, will sing the national anthem tonight.
Adam Thompson can be reached at 303-820-5447 or athompson@denverpost.com.
