Cabs play role on road for Nuggets

By Chris Tomasson, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published April 3, 2008 at 7 p.m.

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Photo by Photo by Laura Segall / Special to the Rocky

Yakhouba Diawara, left, and Taurean Green practice Monday at the US Airways Center in Phoenix. Several Nuggets players take cabs while on the road to arrive at the arena early for pregame workouts.

Photo by Photo by Laura Segall / Special to the Rocky

Players Linas Kleiza, left, and Eduardo Najera and Nuggets assistant John Welch catch a ride to the US Airways Center. With five arenas named after airlines, sometimes cabbies get confused.

Photo by Photo by Laura Segall / Special to the Rocky

John Welch, left, oversees Eduardo Najera in Phoenix. He and other Nuggets assistants regularly join the team's players in the taxicabs and participate in practices before road games.

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Five NBA arenas are named for airlines. Some Nuggets players now are much more aware of that.

Two years ago, forward Linas Kleiza was among a small group of Nuggets players and assistant coaches to take a taxi in Dallas. The plan was to get to the arena early for a pregame workout.

"American Airlines Center," the cab driver was told.

But the cabbie kept on driving. And kept on driving. Finally, Kleiza realized something was amiss.

"They took us to the airport," Kleiza said.

"We noticed it once we got there and started seeing signs. That almost killed (the workout)."

It happened again in Phoenix in January. A cab driver was told the US Airways Center, and soon the airport came into view.

Thankfully for the Nuggets, the Phoenix airport is not far from the arena. So little damage was done.

Now there is plenty of awareness whenever the Nuggets are in Dallas, Phoenix, Chicago (United Center), Miami (AmericanAirlines Arena) and Toronto (Air Canada Centre).

Kleiza is among several Nuggets players who regularly take a taxi to road games for an early workout with coaches. No name has been given to this group, with "taxi squad" already having been taken by other sports leagues.

For road games, the Nuggets have two buses that go to the arena. For a 7 p.m. game, the first bus usually leaves at 4:30, the second at 5.

But the Nuggets, like a number of other NBA teams, encourage some players to show up for early work. So cabs are hailed.

Free entertainment

For a 7 p.m. game, guard

Yakhouba Diawara and assistant Mike Dunlap leave the hotel by 4 p.m. By 4:15 p.m., Kleiza, forward Eduardo Najera, guard Taurean Green and assistants Tim Grgurich, John Welch, Jamahl Mosley and Stacey Augmon round up two or three taxis.

The players and assistants also arrive early for home games, but they get there on their own. And the stories aren't as good.

"A guy had a laptop in front of him and had all these NBA highlights of (Michael) Jordan," Dunlap said of a cab driver last month in San Antonio. "It was awesome. . . . He'd say, 'Check this out on Jordan. Check this move out.' . . . I gave him a good tip."

In Phoenix on Monday, Kleiza, Najera and Welch were together in a taxi. They weren't the ones talking about their sports careers.

"We got a (cab driver) from Iraq," Kleiza said. "He came over in 1985 or 1986, when he was 18. He said he played professional soccer in Iraq, and once, when they lost, they put him in jail."

In the taxi that left 15 minutes earlier, Diawara and Dunlap were driven by a woman from Switzerland who spoke French with Diawara, a Paris native. Alas, Diawara wasn't the most recognizable person to recently ride in Margurite Goldenson's cab.

"I drove Mrs. Muhammad Ali (Yolanda Ali last Sunday)," said Goldenson, who drives a Lincoln Town Car for The Ritz-Carlton, not the typical street taxi the Nuggets pile into.

Tuning out the noise

Leaving 10 minutes earlier than normal because of traffic, the ride in Goldenson's cab took 20 minutes. By 4:15, Diawara was on the court at the US Airways Center.

Minutes later, he was joined by Dunlap. The two went through their usual workout, which lasts about one hour, 15 minutes.

"He makes 250 shots, and we do it from seven spots," Dunlap said. "He already had made 150 (earlier in the day), so we're at 400."

Spots on the court include each corner, the top of the key and two more on each side. With ball boys rebounding, Diawara routinely makes between 70 to 80 percent from all spots, with Dunlap tracking the numbers.

That's not bad considering the distractions. Before Monday's game, Suns dancers and the Gorilla mascot were on the court, the lights were checked and all sorts of noise blared, including material that would be shown during the game on the JumboTron.

"There are three things you get," Dunlap said of activity in the arena during workouts. "You get the scoreboard, you get the national anthem and you're going to get the cheerleaders practicing. . . . . Sometimes, the cheerleaders are running right through you. You're at the free-throw line and six girls are running around you and bumping into you."

It doesn't bother Diawara, who, in his workouts, also does one-on- one drills against Green and Augmon, who recently retired.

"I just do my work," said Diawara, unfazed when clips from the movie Happy Gilmore and the television show Flavor of Love are played at ear-splitting levels.

'World class' teachers

Green's workout, primarily with Mosley, lasts about one hour. And the sessions of Najera and Kleiza, primarily with Welch, run about 40 minutes - shorter because they play regularly.

Guard J.R. Smith, who takes the first bus, is not a taxi-riding member. But he usually gets in a half- hour pregame workout, being fed passes from Mosley.

"Our crew is world class," vice president of basketball operations Mark Warkentien said of Nuggets coaches who work with development. "I don't think our set of teachers takes a back seat to anybody on the planet."

Warkentien said one reason is Grgurich, who got the league's player-development trend really started when he went to Seattle in 1991 and hooked up with current Nuggets coach George Karl.

While Grgurich, 66, doesn't do as much hands-on pregame court work as he once did, Warkentien said he has become a "master teacher" to the Nuggets' other player-development coaches.

Warkentien said Smith, because of extra work with coaches, has become much more adept at taking the ball to the basket. He points at Kleiza, who has gone from playing sporadically as a rookie to an impact player who this season scored 41 points in a game.

Then there's Najera, who was 14-of-55 (25.5 percent) in his career on three-pointers before this season. With Najera shooting boatloads of three-pointers before games, he's 49-of-131 (37.4 percent) this season.

"We have our routine," said Najera, who, along with Kleiza, is fed passes by Welch and has to make 10 shots from spots throughout the court. "It does help."

Any Nuggets player who wants extra work is welcome, with young players encouraged to take advantage of the coaches. Veterans, especially those who log heavy minutes, usually prefer to get more rest before games.

But that's OK. It keeps down the taxi bill for the Nuggets, well above the luxury-tax threshold.

Dunlap said those in the workout brigade leave early in cabs for all road games except when the Nuggets stay in New York and play in New Jersey and stay in San Francisco and play in Oakland, Calif. The cab fare can run $150 for the former and $110 for the latter.

"If you're sending four cabs, that's a little much," Dunlap said.

For driving Dunlap and Diawara on Monday to the US Airways Center, Goldenson charged $28. Dunlap gave her an extra $7.

One assumes the tip wouldn't have been as good had the two ended up at the airport.

Sights and (lots of) sounds

When Nuggets players work out early before games, they must deal with plenty of distractions. A sampling before Monday's 7 p.m. game at Phoenix:

* 4:20 p.m.: Public-address announcer says the lights will go out, which they do for a few seconds. Yakhouba Diawara, shooting jumpers, never flinches.

* 4:24 p.m.: "Planet Orange" promotion blares on the JumboTron, publicizing Phoenix players. The best one is Shaquille O'Neal making like Godzilla as he wanders around skyscrapers that are his height.

* 4:29 p.m.: Suns dancer Amanda advertises on the JumboTron a gorilla-hair monkey on sale at the team store for half price at $6.

* 4:35 p.m.: Tom Petty's Runnin' Down a Dream blares at high volume. Linas Kleiza puts up a long hook shot.

* 4:57 p.m.: A JumboTron interview with Suns guard D.J. Strawberry in which he reveals his ultimate date would be Jessica Alba.

* 5:02 p.m.: JumboTron plays "Days of Our Playoff Lives," a spoof on the tight West playoff race.

* 5:23 p.m.: Suns dancers go through a routine.

* 5:24 p.m.: Suns Gorilla mascot prowls around the court. He makes no mention of the special on the gorilla-hair monkey.

Kleiza's climb

Since joining the Nuggets as a rookie in 2005-06, forward Linas Kleiza regularly has put in extra time with Nuggets coaches before games, including taking a taxi to arrive early before road games.

"It helps a lot," he said. "When I was a rookie, I was out there working for an hour and a half before games. Right now, I'm getting minutes, so you don't want to kill yourself. But you can still improve your game (with his workouts now about half as long)."

Kleiza's steady improvement in his per-game averages during three seasons:

Season Min. Pts. Reb. FG pct.

2005-06 8.5 3.5 1.9 44.5

2006-07 18.8 7.6 3.4 42.2

2007-08 23.8 10.8 4.2 47.0

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