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on Thursday, January 27, 2005
 Gary Dineen/NBAE/Getty Images |
Here are just some of the many quotes from the Nuggets' press conference on Thursday, January 27, 2005. The quotes included are from the official press conference involving Kiki Vandeweghe and George Karl, in which the announcement was first made that Karl would take over the head coaching position for the Nuggets.
Kiki Vandeweghe:
“We’re here to announce Coach George Karl as the new head coach of the Denver Nuggets, and I do so with great pride because he’s clearly one of the best coaches in the NBA, has always been so, and his record exhibits that.”
 Gary Dineen/NBAE/Getty Images |
“This is another step and another way for the Nuggets organization to exhibit to their fans that commitment to excellence. We’ve always said that great organizations need two things. First off is great fans and Denver has always had tremendous basketball fans, I think some of the greatest in the NBA. And second, is a great owner who’s committed to do what it takes, and has the passion to do what it takes, to provide for his community a great team. And we’re going to add one more to that, and that is a great coach. So, with a lot of pride, I want to introduce a good friend of mine as our new head coach, George Karl.”
“To me, what I was impressed with was the passion that George brings to the game and brought to that conversation. It reminded me many times of conversations that I was lucky enough to have with guys like John Wooden, and Dean Smith at times, and even Doug Moe, where they just love this game and they wanted to be a part of it and they wanted to be better.”
George Karl:
“Well, I think the best way to start is I’ve been out of basketball for 18 months and, first of all, I want to more than thank Stan and Kiki for getting me back in because I was going crazy.”
“I don’t know the goal for me right now, my goal is to get them to play good basketball, then very good basketball, and then special basketball. I think we can do all of that this year. Come April, hopefully we’ll also have the possibility of a playoff situation. I don’t think it’s out of the question.”
“I’m going probably start at the defensive end of the court and move towards the offense. Personally, I would like to play fast, faster, and fastest. Whatever way they would like to play, I’d like it to be fastest. I think they think they’re playing fast right now, I think they can play faster.”
 Gary Dineen/NBAE/Getty Images |
“Philosophically, I’m a North Carolina guy, I won’t be as crazy as Doug, I probably won’t be as stubborn as Larry, but I’ll probably be in-between on all of that. But I think we all believe the same thing Coach Smith taught us a long time ago, we’re going to play hard, you’re going to play together and we’re going to try to play as smart and focused as we possibly can be.”
“I feel pretty confident I’m going to be better because of what happened in Milwaukee and what happened here. I hope that I’m intelligent being that will learn from the mistakes that we made here but I also remember the good times we had here.”
“Its going to be emotional for me to be back in feeling the butterflies, feeling the nervousness, feeling the energy of your team, and the newness of it all is always going to be exhilarating.”
“To be honest with you, there have not been, in my opinion, been great jobs open up. My need, my desire is to be special, a champion type of team. I don’t know what jobs opened up, but the Lakers was a job that I probably had interest in and I think Denver was probably the only other job I really had great interest in.”
“But as I told a couple of guys this morning, the Chicago Bulls six weeks ago were unhappy, distressed, pressurized, frustrated, but now they’re the happiest bunch of NBA players I’ve seen in a long time. I’m hoping we could do that in Denver.”
“Yes, I don’t deny it. I’m not one of these coaches that’s going to rationalize. If I don’t win a championship in the NBA, I’m going to win it some place – Japan, the Phillipines, somewhere, South America, Argentina. I’ve been to two CBA finals, I’ve been to European cup final, I’ve been to an NBA final and have lost every game. Long time ago I wrote a kind of a paper for a program, a leadership program, on the difference between a winner and a champion is. It’s in me, I do want to some day end my season with a win. There is no question that would be probably the greatest thing in the world, to end the season with a win because 99% of all teams end their season with a loss.”
 Gary Dineen/NBAE/Getty Images |
“This is the time in the NBA season where most NBA teams are cutting back on their practice time and we’re going to tune up on our practice time. We might have a two-a-day coming up here. I think that any time they can get me on the court to help me help them. For two weeks, they are going to be helping me more than I’m helping them probably.”
“Losing in the NBA is miserable. I’ve said it a hundred times, winning is the best coach and losing is the worst coach. As soon as we get winning on my staff, I will be a hell of a lot better of a coach than I am right now, and I think that can happen pretty quickly.”
“I’m just going to talk with [Carmelo Anthony], communicate with him, coach him, mentor him, try to teach him professionalism. I see a great player that has plateaued. I think the kid can be fantastic.”
“[Kenyon Martin] can play in big time games, in big time playoff series, now our job is to get there. And give him that opportunity to do that again. Not many people want to be great in this league by being a defender, and that’s what he tries to do.”
“If Doug Moe and Bill Hanzlik come into practice today and teach passing game, I would love to play passing game. I’m not sure I have the courage to play passing game, but I think I’m going to play a style that is going to give them a lot of freedom to play basketball and play it unselfishly. If they play it unselfishly, they can play it anything they want to play.”
“My desire is to play free, play aggressive, but play together. If we can get that done, I think we have enough talent and skills to win a lot of basketball games.”
