Nuggets’ revival has Rebel roots

They run. They strut. They play awfully hard.

The roster is an assortment of guys who have bounced around and been traded and stumbled over a handful of life's speed bumps. They are eclectic enough to feature a guy nicknamed Birdman.

All that's missing from the Denver Nuggets is someone chewing on a white towel during games.

"It's a mix of Rebels flavor all the way through," Nuggets vice president of basketball operations Mark Warkentien said. "Just like when we were at UNLV, we're always more worried about ourselves than the other guys. We look at this series as if we play real hard and real unselfishly, we're going to be OK.

"Jerry (Tarkanian) always talked about playing your brains out and competing every play. That's all we can ask for here. We're just another kind of UNLV."

Then they better hope Stacey Augmon takes off his suit and begins to guard Kobe Bryant.

The Western Conference finals got under way in the NBA on Tuesday and Denver let one of those once-in-a-series opportunities slip away in a 105-103 loss to the Lakers.

Bryant scored 40 and his team didn't play all that well in winning. That's not a good sign for the eclectic bunch.

George Karl is Denver's head coach, but the staff he assembled to help lead the Nuggets within reach of the NBA Finals is dominated by those with direct links to when UNLV stood atop the college basketball landscape.

It's as if the Rocky Mountains have been painted scarlet and grey.

Warkentien spent 11 years in basketball operations for the Rebels and helped recruit and build their 1990 national championship team. He was recently named NBA Executive of the Year for piecing together a puzzle that fit well enough this season for 54 wins and the No. 2 seed in the West.

Tim Grgurich is a Nuggets assistant who was part of three UNLV sprints to the Final Four under Tarkanian, tutoring such names as Augmon and Larry Johnson and Greg Anthony and others over a 12-year period.

John Welch is a Nuggets assistant who played a season at UNLV before serving as a graduate assistant for Tarkanian and then a full-time assistant under him at Fresno State.

Then there is Augmon. The former UNLV great is a player development coach for Denver and handles advanced scouting.

But the comparisons run deeper.

Do you remember 1990, when unemployment increased and government budgetary deficits grew and gas prices soared and a depressed economy threw the country into a recession?

Las Vegas back then was a town that needed a team and UNLV a team that needed its town, much the way things are now in Denver.

The Nuggets who were swept by the Lakers last year in the first playoff round couldn't stop you from blinking. They treated defense as if it was some strand of swine flu. First team to 150 wins.

Tarkanian watched that series, saw the ineptness, shook his head as a guy whose defensive principals pretty much changed the game and picked up the telephone.

"I called Stacey and said, 'How could a team with you and Grgurich and Welch and George Karl coaching play such lousy defense?' " Tarkanian said. "I had never seen worse defense than that. Stacey said, 'Coach, they have to be willing to put in the time and effort and they weren't.' "

So they made changes. Karl put Grgurich in charge of defense, of making practice all about old-school philosophies. Rotate here. Shell drill there. Contest everything. Help early and often.

Marcus Camby and Eduardo Najera were out in Denver.

Warkentien then signed Chris Anderson (The Birdman) and Dahntay Jones before trading Allen Iverson to Detroit for Chauncey Billups. Nene bought into the defensive mindset. So did Kenyon Martin.

Results lead to confidence. Winning creates happiness. Once the Nuggets began defending the way Grgurich instructed, they became better than merely good.

They became legitimate.

"I've got four of my guys on that staff," said a proud Tarkanian. "I'm excited for them. I'm really excited. I'm rooting for them like crazy.

"As a team, they fear nobody, which is exactly how we used to play. Tough minded. Won't back down. They really remind me of the Rebel teams we had."

Throw in the white towel and it's nearly a mirror image.

Except for the part about the other team's best player going for 40.

Las Vegas Review-Journal sports columnist Ed Graney can be reached at 383-4618 or egraney@reviewjournal.com.