Nuggets head coach George Karl taking leave of absence
Adrian Dantley expected to take the reigns for the rest of the season.
- Image by Getty Images via Daylife
Coach George Karl has announced he will be taking a leave of absence from coaching due to health issues. Karl will be treated with chemotherapy as he takes on a second bout of cancer. This time it is a “very treatable and curable” form of throat cancer. Karl was treated for prostate cancer through July 2005.
The team is expected to receive official confirmation tonight at practice.
Assistant coach Adrian Dantley is expected to take Coach Karl’s place for the rest of the season. What this means for the team is that for now all game time decisions will lay in the hands of Coach Dantley, a retired 7 year memeber of the Utah Jazz and committed player who spent 15 years in the NBA. Coach Dantley was an inductee to the Basketball Hall of Fame in 2008. Dantley shares the one game free throw record of 28 with the legendary Wilt Chamberlain and was also named rookie of the year in 1977.
The Denver Nuggets are in their 5th of a 6 day game break since losing to the San Antonio Spurs 111-92. The all-star has provided the Nuggets with valuable rest as they head on a collision coarse to meet “King” James and “The Diesel”, Shaquille O’Neil, in Cleveland on Thursday, then tour south to meet Gilbert Arenas and the powerless Washington Wizards.
Denver currently sits alone atop the Northwest Division and ranked 5th among the NBA’s top teams.
I guess we’re about to see how much a coach really means to a team, huh?
I’m not all that optimistic, except that I’d rather they just come out and say that Chauncey is now “player-coach”.