Brian Shaw’s ouster by the Nuggets hasn’t sat well with many of his former players, as well as those who so merely watched team’s spiral in recent months. The Nuggets, they say, quit on their coach.
Immediately after news broke Tuesday, Scott Agness of Vigilant Sports gave us David West’s reaction …
… and a day later, Paul George weighed in:
Don’t understand how you can’t play for B Shaw!
— Paul George (@Yg_Trece)
But it was Kevin Garnett, an NBA veteran who never played for Shaw but has always been outspoken, : “… They quit on Brian Shaw,” Garnett said of the Nuggets following their win in Minnesota on Wednesday. “I thought, you know, they’d quit again. A quitter is a quitter.”
While on The Sports Show on Thursday, former Nugget Chauncey Billups was, of course, asked about Garnett’s comments. His take:
“Kevin, he’s one of my best friends, actually, and he’s very emotional,” Billups said. “I’m sure he wasn’t happy to lose that game last night, but if you look at the last two games, (the Nuggets) are playing hard, look like they’re having fun, and it’s the same personnel, same guys there. So I can understand what he’s saying. Often times in our league a coach’s voice — there comes a point when it’s not heard anymore, and obviously that happened with Brian Shaw, for whatever reasons — none of us, I know I wasn’t in that locker room. I’m kind of outside looking in now.
“It’s unfortunate. It’s very unfortunate for B-Shaw. I was really pulling for him. He’s a friend of mine, as well. I hated to see that happen, but I can see what KG’s seeing.
“… I’ve always seen myself as a good leader. That doesn’t mean you’re going to win. Sometimes you don’t have the talent to win. However, the mindset of just going out there and playing and competing — I say this all the time — everybody always talks about the letters on the front of your jersey, which could change any day. But the letters on the back of your jersey are never going to change. The reputation that you’re going to build, good or bad, those letters on the back of that jersey, they will always remain the same. You represent that.
“I used to joke with guys a lot, saying, ‘Yo, my momma’s watching this game. My momma is proud of me.'”
Check out The Sports Show for Billups’ take on the Nuggets’ roster, Ty Lawson and more.
