Nuggets report: Spirit of 2009
By Chris Tomasson, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)
Published January 21, 2009 at 12:07 a.m.
"He and I have been together so long, we don't like to be around each other. We're just tired of each other."
George Karl, joking about assistant Tim Grgurich.
A festive spirit surrounded the Nuggets on Barack Obama's Inauguration Day as the nation's first black president.
Dahntay Jones and Renaldo Balkman arrived for Tuesday's game with Obama T-shirts. Carmelo Anthony said he wore a red tie because Obama had.
"I'm excited about his presidency," said Nuggets coach George Karl, who added his eyes welled up watching. "Never in my life have I ever had as much hope. . . . There was an amazing amount of people there. That (Washington) mall area looked like Martin Luther King (giving a speech) in 1963. It's a good day for America."
Of his players, Karl said "about 60 to 70 percent are in (Obama's) pocket ready to support him in any way."
BROTHERS MEET
Sacramento coach Kenny Natt had lunch Tuesday at the ESPN Zone with his brother, former Nuggets player and Denver resident Calvin Natt.
"He's proud of what I've come from," said Kenny Natt, whose NBA career was brief. "I didn't have the bonus of a career like he did, but I kept fighting and working hard and earned my way."
Calvin Natt is a minister and mortician and has a charity.
DECISION TIME
Karl said his son, Coby Karl, will decide by around Thursday whether to play the rest of the season with a Spanish team or remain with the NBA Development League's Idaho Stampede.
If Coby Karl goes to Spain, his father said he will be back for the NBA summer league.
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January 21, 2009
1:01 p.m.
Suggest removal
jersey writes:
Good for you GK and I agree as to Obama. Now if you could only get me to agree with you as to your coaching philosophy I would stop calling for your head. Calvin Natt........Was a rebounding BEAST!