| 27 April 2008
(Boulder-CO) Those of you who know me, or have gotten to know me, know that I never leave a Nuggets game early. But, after yesterday's piss-poor effort against the Lakers I wasn't even in the Pepsi Center long enough to see the reserves enter the game in the fourth quarter. In fact, the game was still on by the time I sat down for dinner.
That's how disgusted I was with the effort, culture, selfishness, and lack of discipline the Nuggets displayed as they were throttled, 102-84, by a Lakers club that flat-out shamed them.
The Nuggets were in this game in the first half too, and that's what makes the unraveling that occurred in the second half so despicable. Carmelo said in his post game press conference, “Everybody. From the coaches to the players, we quit. And I said it.’’
I'm not breaking down the boxscore because all you need to know is Carmelo led the way with a measly 16 points, Camby led the way in passing and rebounds with a slim four assists and twelve rebounds, and the rest of it is all garbage.
Furthermore, these Nuggets are the most selfish, uncoachable, and undisciplined bunch I have ever seen don the Mile High City's NBA tank-tops and I think totally mutiny is upon the ship.
For instance, in the first half I counted five straight times the ball was brought up the floor and either one or not even a single damn pass was made before the Nuggets hoisted a jumpshot or turned the ball over. FIVE DAMN TIMES! What the hell is that? I can go to a YMCA for five bucks and watch teenagers play that kind of basketball. Let alone have to see a professional basketball team, in the playoffs no less, play streetball. And allow me to answer my own question: That's selfish, and at this point, Nuggets basketball at it's worse.
And in defense of George Karl and his staff (despite the fact that I think he is going to pay for this with his job), they didn't just all of a sudden "get stupid". They know how to play the game of basketball. Their credentials are solid and their experience is second to none. But somewhere along the line here in Denver the players tuned out their management and decided that the inmates were more capable than the guards of running the prison. Leaving a culture on this team where it's everyone for themselves, highlights and stats are the only things that matter, and all fundamental basketball principles are thrown out the window.
Thus leaving Monday night's game surely a spectacle to be seen. I can't imagine anyone in the Nuggets' locker room is all that fond of each other after Carmelo makes a statement like the one he did. The finger pointing has started. The Nuggets are down 3-0 (a deficit no NBA team has ever come back to win a series against). And I don't remember a time, other than in the Bernie Bickerstaff era, that this franchise's morale was ever as low.
And worst of all... The NBA's Grim Reaper just checked into a Denver hotel. This season and series is over. The last thing to do is cut the final thread holding this unraveled mess together.
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