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Karl will offer a watchful eye

Coach of the 2002 squad hopes team takes lesson from collapse at Worlds

Chris Tomasson, Rocky Mountain News

Published July 31, 2006 at midnight

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The games will be on at some strange hours. But George Karl plans to set his alarm.

Karl, the Nuggets coach, led Team USA in the 2002 World Championship in Indianapolis. The Americans finished a disastrous sixth, and Karl's coaching reputation took a hit.

But Karl vows to follow the Americans closely at the 2006 World Championship in Japan. So what if four of the first five games start at 4:30 a.m. Mountain time?

"I'm going to be their biggest fan," said Karl, Milwaukee's coach in 2002. "Coming in August, I'll be watching them. Basically, I want them to kick the world's (butt), and I'll be cheering them."

Team USA's troubling 2002 finish and a bronze medal showing at the 2004 Olympics prompted big changes in USA Basketball. Instead of choosing teams of NBA players for each event, for the first time, a core team has been selected, with 24 players giving a three-summer commitment.

For the first time, role players, such as Bruce Bowen and Shane Battier, have been named to Team USA, which is down to 15 for the World Championship and includes Nuggets forward Carmelo Anthony. After a five-day break, the team resumes training today in Las Vegas, with the final roster to be cut to 12 shortly before the Aug. 19-Sept. 3 event.

"I don't think there was any question that we needed to change the mentality of USA Basketball," Karl said. "I think we had been looking at it like an All-Star Game."

With some top players declining invitations or defecting, Karl didn't exactly have a Dream Team in 2002. But he did have Elton Brand, Antonio Davis, Baron Davis, Michael Finley, Reggie Miller, Jermaine O'Neal and Paul Pierce, who all had played in All-Star games, as well as Shawn Marion and Ben Wallace, who would go on to appear in All-Star games.

The Americans won their first five games by an average of 31.6 points. But Team USA then fell apart, losing three of its final four.

The Americans lost to Argentina, Yugoslavia and Spain. As the losses mounted, players squabbled and morale sagged.

"It think that, in a way, playing in America worked against us," said Karl, who also had current Nuggets guard Andre Miller on the team. "That gave us more of an arrogant attitude. We thought we had the home court and the home court never really was a home court."

Because of high ticket prices and a shortage of marquee names, the Americans often played in arenas less than half-full. Since NBA players became eligible for the 1992 Olympics, Karl's outfit became the first USA Basketball team to lose a game and remains the only one to not medal.

"It was a hard time for everybody," Karl said. "I was the leader and I took most of the blame. But I'm still glad that I did it. It was a privilege to be a USA coach even though my dream of winning a gold medal didn't happen."

Three players from 2002 are part of the current core team. Marion and Pierce won't play in Japan because of injuries, but Brand is expected to be on the final roster.

Brand still looks back on 2002. The memories aren't comforting.

"It still hurts inside of me," Brand recently told The Journal News, a suburban New York paper. "I was very disappointed in how that went down, so I'm very revved up (for the 2006 Championship)."

While Brand will have an opportunity to redeem himself, Karl won't. But Karl still will feel joy if the Americans strike gold in Japan.

ETC.: Nuggets owner Stan Kroenke is expected to return Wednesday from a European vacation. Discussions then will take place about Nuggets interim basketball boss Mark Warkentien soon having his interim tag removed. Such a move has been expected for more than a month, although it's unclear what title Warkentien, now director of player personnel, will have. Warkentien, the basketball point man since general manager Kiki Vandeweghe's contract was not renewed May 5, declined Sunday to speculate on his future . . . On his Web site, , Karl writes that "currently Steve Nash is probably my favorite (NBA player) because he makes everyone better when he plays." The Nuggets are going to an up-tempo style Karl said is similar to what Nash and Phoenix use on offense, but not on defense, because the Nuggets will use more pressure . . . Warkentien and Karl will discuss team business while in Las Vegas this week for a camp led by Nuggets assistant Tim Grgurich. The Nuggets continue to have interest in free agent guard Bonzi Wells, but it's unclear if he would consider a one-year, low-dollar deal to showcase his skills.

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