A Check is on the Way

(Boulder-CO) Insurance is a beautiful thing. The NBA has a rule that once a team has been without one of their top eight players for more than 41 consecutive games its insurance policy picks up the remaining half of the season’s salary to the tune of 80%. This is critical for the Nuggets as Kenyon Martin has missed his 37th game of the season so far, and I bet Stan Kreonke is checking the mail for about a 4.8 million dollar check to cover 80% of K-Mart’s estimated remaining salary. I doubt ticket prices are going to drop, but at least the Nuggets are not at a total loss from having Kenyon be a complete wash for the season after having to endure another microfracture surgery on his left knee following having the same operation on his right knee the season before. Imagine for a second that K-Mart was playing and the Nuggets were starting Blake, AI, Melo, Martin, and Marcus Camby. That would be four guys that are of All-Star caliber on the same team! Sometimes it is easily forgotten that K-Mart is still on this team as there has been so many shake-ups so far, but if he can come back and contribute on even a similar level that he was. The Nuggets are going to be REDICOULUSLY good, at least on paper, next season.