Oakland, Calif. – For the purposes of both playing basketball and enjoying Thanksgiving, Nuggets guard Earl Boykins definitely had bad luck getting the stomach flu.
Boykins missed his second consecutive game Wednesday night against Golden State. He began feeling sick Tuesday morning and went to a Denver hospital. While Boykins wanted to play Tuesday against Chicago, that changed after he received intravenous fluids for four hours and had a hard time walking out of the hospital.
“I’m feeling a lot better today than (Tuesday),” Boykins said Wednesday in a phone interview. “(Tuesday), I was out completely. I’m able to do stuff now. I can hold something down.”
Boykins stayed in Denver on Wednesday, and with the team off today, he hopes to play Friday against visiting Golden State.
“I’ll be OK for Friday,” he said. “I’m going to be careful (eating Thursday). I’m going to be careful so I can play. I’m not going to eat too much. It was rough. I’ve never felt like that before.”
Nene up in the air
Nuggets center Nene underwent an MRI on his right knee Tuesday and the results were good.
The 6-foot-11, 268-pounder said it’s still uncertain when he will return.
“I got to do the right thing to get better. It takes time, patience,” said Nene, who previously had said he was unsure he would play any more games in November this season.
New to Turkey Day
Nuggets guard Yakhouba Diawara has been enjoying Thanksgiving since coming from France to play at Southern Idaho Junior College in 2001, but he is still confused about the American holiday.
“It means when the Indians come, something like that. There is a big meal. I don’t know,” Diawara said. “People were saying thanks for everything and having a good meal. I enjoyed it.”
Along with Diawara, the Nuggets have three other international players who have enjoyed Thanksgiving in Eduardo Najera (Mexico), Nene (Brazil) and Linas Kleiza (Lithuania).
Najera found the meal to be a “great surprise” in his first Thanksgiving as a senior at San Antonio Cornerstone Christian Academy in 1995.
Nene’s first Thanksgiving in 2002 as a rookie with the Nuggets was spent eating in Denver at the home of a Brazilian friend.
“In Brazil, I don’t know what we have like Thanksgiving,” Nene said. “But we have a lot of days off. You got days off for the fireman, the assistant coach, everybody got a day.”
Kleiza enjoyed his first Thanksgiving while playing at Rockville Montrose Christian High (Md.) at age 16.
“It’s definitely a great holiday,” Kleiza said. “You have the day off. You watch football. It definitely means a lot to United States people.”
