You don’t want to make him angry. And everyone on the Nuggets knows it.
One of the biggest, baddest men in the NBA, powerful Denver forward Kenyon Martin fears nobody in basketball — with one notable exception.
Ask K-Mart how ticked he would be if the Nuggets fail to make the playoffs, and a horrible thought crosses his mind.
“It would make everybody around here mad,” Martin said. “But nobody would be madder than Mr. Kroenke. And we don’t need that.”
Stan Kroenke is the boss. He owns the team. Pays the bills.
Because Kroenke is a billionaire who avoids publicity like a tax audit, the cheap joke by his detractors endlessly teases Stan for being silent.
But anyone who works for Kroenke knows he demands success, and does not take any waste of his money quietly, or in good humor.
“Believe me, that’s one guy we don’t want to make mad,” Martin said.
So here’s the deal.
After beating Phoenix 126-113 Wednesday, the Nuggets stand in ninth place of the Western Conference, their noses still pressed against the chilly side of the window when peering in at the playoff picture.
I tried to ask forward Carmelo Anthony if he ever allowed himself to think the postseason could go on without Denver teammates, but before I could finish the question, Melo sternly said: “No. No. There’s no doubt in my mind.”
Time is becoming precious for a team with the NBA’s ultimate mañana attitude. The Nuggets are running out of tomorrows to get their act together and avoid the wrath of Mr. Kroenke.
“My whole thing is telling my squad that everybody else is kind of panicking. And we don’t need to. We still have an opportunity to get in,” said Denver guard Allen Iverson, whose 31 brilliant points and 12 dazzling assists were brighter than the Suns. “We just don’t need to panic right now. It’s not time to panic.”
Iverson and Anthony laughed that if Denver could play an elite NBA team every night, the Nuggets might go undefeated. What they lack is focus, not guts. While there is a website dedicated to firing George Karl, the only guy choking under pressure is Karl’s lawyer, who has threatened to sue some poor blogger for daring to criticize the coach.
A.I. has one word of advice: Chill.
“It makes it that much harder if you go out there and start panicking. It makes the next shot that much harder, the next pass that much harder, harder to get the next stop, the next rebound,” Iverson said. “So you just stay confident and believe you’re going to get it done.”
And should the Nuggets fail? Somebody’s going to lose his happy home in Denver.
While there was much loose talk prior to the trade deadline about the possibility of acquiring Ron Artest from Sacramento, maybe the most serious discussions involved moving Nene and his immense salary to the Eastern Conference. That’s no indictment of Nene, who’s recovering from a cancer scare.
But all the Nuggets should understand almost any player is vulnerable to trade, because Kroenke might be understandably reluctant to pay a luxury tax for a roster incapable of producing playoff revenue.
“To make the playoffs, it has to be about intensity and determination now,” Martin said. “Skills will play some part. But it’s going to come down to who wants it most at the end of the day. We’ve got to prove not only to ourselves but to everybody else that we can play with anybody in this crazy West.”
With his shoulders wrapped in icepacks that could sink the Titanic, Anthony sat in the Denver locker room, with no time to celebrate victory against the Suns. Next up on the schedule: San Antonio, the defending league champs. Games also remain against Utah, Detroit, Dallas . . . need we go on? To reach the playoffs, the Nuggets are going to endure pain.
“It ain’t going to get no easier for us,” Anthony said. “So we’ve got to put on our shoulder pads and our Teflon, go out there and go to work.”
Mark Kiszla: 303-954-1053 or mkiszla@denverpost.com.
