Nuggets coach George Karl said he is making steady improvement in his fight against cancer, but still battles fatigue and pain.
“I’m hanging in there, man,” said Karl in a phone interview Saturday afternoon. His radiation treatments for throat-and-neck cancer ended 22 days ago.
Karl would not put a timetable on a possible return to the sideline should the Nuggets advance in the NBA playoffs.
“I can’t answer that, I think that’s been speculated too much,” said Karl. “When I feel better enough to make a prediction I will, but right now I don’t feel good about that.”
The Nuggets trail 2-1 in their opening round playoff series against Utah, with Game 4 Sunday night in Salt Lake City.
“The series is just beginning,” an optimistic Karl said. “The only thing I’m going to criticize – I wish our defense would be more 48-minute oriented, more possession oriented. We’re turning our defense on-and-off too much.”
Karl’s battle against cancer has inspired a community of both basketball fans and fellow cancer-fighters. Asked what has motivated him, the coach said: “Most of it is a lot of correspondence from people who had done it before. Them saying, “You’ve got to hang in there, get through it and you just have got to keep fighting it. I’m still in that position right now. This is still the recovery stage, and there are still a lot of tough days.”
Asked when the recovery process will end, Karl said, “It probably doesn’t end for about three or four years until you know you’re cancer-free, but your mouth is going to improve, your mucus is going to (decrease), your taste buds – a lot of things haven’t come back yet. It could be two weeks, a month, there’s no timetable.”
Benjamin Hochman: 303-954-1294 or bhochman@denverpost.com
