George Karl to take a medical leave of absence

[NuGGeTs-FaN]

DENVER - Denver Nuggets Head Coach George Karl will miss several games because of a medical issue, 9NEWS has learned.



Karl will inform his players tonight that he has a serious illness and needs to leave the team for an undetermined amount of time.

The 58-year-old underwent surgery for prostate cancer in July 2005. A year later, his son Coby had a cancerous tumor in his thryroid removed.

Karl is the seventh winningest coach in NBA history and coached for the NBA All Star Game over the weekend.

Karl's longtime assistant, Adrian Dantley, is a likely candidate to direct the Nuggets during his absence.

:depressed Hope it isn't cancer again. Which team in the NBA has had to deal with their coach getting cancer and one of their top players getting it?
:depressed

[XFactor]

Get well soon

[Allanon]

Alot of people hate on Karl but I think he's a pretty decent coach.

[HarlemHeat37]

I hate on his coaching ability all the time, but it has nothing to do with him as a person or anything..hopefully he gets better..I didn't know that Coby Karl went through that too, that really sucks for their family..

[Kai]

Sad news. Best of wishes to the Karl family.

[Sportstudi]

I hate on his coaching ability all the time, but it has nothing to do with him as a person or anything..hopefully he gets better..I didn't know that Coby Karl went through that too, that really sucks for their family..

Agreed, some sad news. Get well soon.

[cobbler]

Get well George.... we need you there in May.


I hope the cancer isn't out of remission and it's something easy to treat.

[Muser]

Damn, Get well soon.

[Phonzie20]

:depressed Hope it isn't cancer again. Which team in the NBA has had to deal with their coach getting cancer and one of their top players getting it?
:depressed

Not to mention his son.

Sure we'll here more later tonight.

[Pistons < Spurs]

insidehoops

Uh oh, now I hear George Karl may be sick with something serious

[duncan228]

Sorry to hear this. Hope he's okay.

[Pistons < Spurs]

RicBucher

George Karl is battling cancer again. Story on the mothership should be up shortly. Won't keep him from coaching, but he'll miss some games.

[Pistons < Spurs]

:depressed

[Killakobe81]

That sucks. I think he is a choker ...but a cool guy!
UNC is my 2nd favorite cbball team he is part of the fam get well soon ...

[NuGGeTs-FaN]

If it something real serious, i hope he takes the rest of the season to deal with it. BBall can wait.

He may be the type of guy that just wants to keep going though. My old man battled cancer 3 times and never stopped working.

[Muser]

Cancer? Fuck man hopefully it's in the early stages.

[lurker]

It's pretty shitty that the news source knew he was planning on telling the team tonight and chose to beat him to it.

[Pistons < Spurs]

Nuggets coach Karl to miss time after cancer resurfaces (http://www.nba.com/2010/news/02/16/nuggets.karl/index.html?ls=iref:nbahpt2)


Denver Nuggets coach George Karl is expected to miss several games during the rest of the regular season while he undergoes chemotherapy treatments to deal with a recurrence of cancer, the 58-year-old told NBA.com Tuesday afternoon.

Karl will not take a formal leave of absence during his treatments, which have already begun, but will obviously not be able to be on the bench all the time during the treatment schedule.

Karl is a prostate cancer survivor, having undergone successful surgery in 2005 after his initial diagnosis. But the cancer that has been discovered this time is not in the same area, according to sources. Karl knew the diagnosis last week, before coaching the Western Conference All-Star team in Dallas.

Karl is hoping to just miss nine games while he undergoes the chemotherapy treatments. He will coach the Nuggets for the next three weeks while the treatments continue, but will then take selected games off in March and April. The Nuggets return from the All-Star break on Thursday with a game at Cleveland, and play at Washington Friday before returning home for a Sunday afternoon game against Boston.

"I'm probably going to miss a couple of games in the middle of March," Karl said in a brief phone interview Tuesday. "And then come back, and then a game here and there... For me, not being a part of the team would be worse than being a part of the team and being out of it a little. My basketball family is my family, too."

Karl signed a one-year contract extension for the 2010-11 season last week after spending most of the season negotiating with the team for a long-term deal.

He informed the team of his diagnosis Tuesday afternoon.

It is not known whom the Nuggets will select to be their interim coach while Karl is out. His most veteran assistant coach is his longtime friend, Tim Grgurich, who is renowned around the league for his work with players on many teams at his summer camps in Las Vegas. But Grgurich is notoriously media averse. Hall of Famer Adrian Dantley has been an assistant coach in Denver for four seasons and is thought of by many as a potential head coach. Denver's other assistant is John Welch, in his second season after spending many years on the bench in college at Fresno State.

Karl has been with the Nuggets since 2005, when he won 32 of 40 games after replacing Jeff Bzdelik midway through the 2004-05 season. Karl has won two Northwest Division titles in Denver -- including last season -- and led the Nuggets to the Western Conference finals last year, where they lost to the Lakers in six games. He has 968 career victories as a head coach in 22 NBA seasons, including nine seasons with 50 or more victories.

Karl coached the Western Conference All-Star team last week in Dallas, although the Nuggets did not have the conference's best record. The Lakers did, but coaches are not allowed to coach the All-Star game in successive seasons, so their coach, Phil Jackson -- who coached the West in the 2009 All-Star Game -- was not eligible this season.

Karl's son, Coby, also has suffered from cancer. Coby Karl returned to Boise State in 2006 after being diagnosed with thyroid cancer, but he recovered and was able to complete school. Coby Karl was just released by Golden State last week after signing a 10-day contract with the Warriors. The separate diagnoses of father and son had a major impact on Karl, who was no longer the firebrand behind the bench that he'd been earlier in his career in Cleveland and Seattle.

He has become one of the chief contributors for Hoops for St. Jude, a program that supports St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, one of the world's best pediatric cancer centers. The Hoops for St. Jude program has drawn the support of several NBA players over the last two years, including Memphis' Rudy Gay, Minnesota's Kevin Love, the Lakers' Pau Gasol, Indiana's Danny Granger, the Clippers' Steve Blake and Houston's Shane Battier, who are each donating at least $20,000 this season and will make a separate per-point scored this season donation as well. Karl is also giving $20,000 to the effort.

"Eventually, after this kind of diagnosis, the family grows," Karl told ESPN.com in 2008. "You hear all kinds of stories from people that strengthen you. There are trees of communities out there -- people who want to help you. That's the silver lining of the whole thing."

[sribb43]

As some who has beatin cancer every 6 months I go back to the doc I pray that it doesn't comeback....it's some scary shit. Hope he recovers well

[ElNono]

Yeah, I don't like his coaching, but not the person.

Hopefully he can win this battle again... Get well

[weebo]

Horrible news. I hope he recovers soon. Wish him the best.

[Phonzie20]

http://www.9news.com/

to stream the conference in 10 mins if anyone cares.

[loveforthegame]

Best wishes and speedy recovery for him.

[duncan228]

As some who has beatin cancer every 6 months I go back to the doc I pray that it doesn't comeback....it's some scary shit.

Glad you beat it. Hope you stay well. :toast

[sribb43]

Glad you beat it. Hope you stay well. :toast

Thanks:toast

[Cane]

Get well ASAP. If you can survive real cancer and Allen Iverson then you can survive anything ;)

[itzsoweezee]

that sucks. hope he pulls through.

i can't believe the breaks the lakers keep catching.

[cobbler]

glad you beat it. Hope you stay well. :toast

+ 10000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 0

[cobbler]

that sucks. hope he pulls through.

i can't believe the breaks the lakers keep catching.

Not sure how you equate this to be a break for the Lakers seeing as how Karls coaching has been pathetic over the years against them. Doesn't matter either. Some things are more important than basketball and this is one of them.

[DJ Mbenga]

may god be with you karl. heal up

[Bob Lanier]

http://icanhascheezburger.files.wordpress.com/2007/05/ha-ha-ha2.jpg

[Cry Havoc]

Sad news. Throat and neck cancer.

"I still wake up and think, 'Oh shit, I have cancer.'" - Karl

That's about the best way to summarize how much hell he's in. :(

Best wishes to George and Sribb.

[sabar]

Treatable throat cancer. Will have to have a feeding tube, chemo, and radiation. Guess he'll miss a bunch of games about a month from now.

Good luck to him.

[timvp]

Get well.

[Kamnik]

Get well Karl :( :(

[NuGGeTs-FaN]

Nuggets 2010 NBA Champions, book it :toast

Billups is going to rally the troops and they will win it for coach :lobt2:

[urunobili]

Get well soon George! you got this!

[lefty]

Alot of people hate on Karl but I think he's a pretty decent coach.
He is a good coach, but some of his decisions are retarded


I mean, Anthony Carter on Kobe ?
And the same Carter to inbound?


And get well, coach Karl

[mudyez]

aside from all the trade talks, we should not forget about life and health!

so all my best wishes to coach karl!
may he fight it successfully!

[TheManFromAcme]

Fight the fight Mr. Karl.
You WILL win. :toast

[phxspurfan]

Wow that really sucks man. He's a good coach and the Nuggets are in trouble without his steadying influence. But who knows maybe he will miss some games to rest up and the players will have someone to rally around.

Btw not missing games, or even trying to not miss any time, while going through chemo is badass. What a warrior.

[The Gemini Method]

Definitely bad news for the Nuggets and George Karl's family as a whole. Hopefully he'll be back to coaching the Nuggets sooner than later...