DENVER -- Denver Nuggets players insisted on Tuesday they
skipped practice the previous day because of fatigue from a long
road trip, not because of anger over the coaching style of Dan
Issel.
The 15 players agreed among themselves not to show up for the 11
a.m. practice after returning home from Boston at about 3 a.m., but
Issel and his assistant coaches weren't notified of the players'
plans.
Both sides called it a matter of miscommunication and said any
festering issues were resolved in a team meeting Tuesday morning.
But forward James Posey's comments in a newspaper article that
the players might boycott Tuesday night's game against the Miami
Heat led to speculation that Issel might have lost control of his
team.
Posey denied making any such statement, although it was captured
on tape in an on-the-record conversation with the Denver Post.
"I talked about missing practice, but I didn't say anything
about missing the game or boycotting, none of that," Posey said
Tuesday following Denver's morning shootaround, which was fully
attended.
"It was a team decision," Posey said about skipping practice.
"We were tired, we got in late and we just felt we needed the day
off. We said we'd accept the consequences, whether it was a fine or
not being allowed to play in the game."
Asked if Issel, who also is the Nuggets' president, has lost
control of the team, Posey said, "No, he hasn't lost control. We
have much respect for Dan."
The Post article indicated the players were protesting Issel's
apparent tirade against center Raef LaFrentz after his 0-for-7
shooting, five-foul performance in a 104-102 overtime loss to
Boston on Sunday night. LaFrentz was in Issel's doghouse last
season.
George McCloud, one of the Nuggets' captains, said the players'
decision to miss practice was "more or less that we were tired. We
played four games in five nights and arrived home at 3 o'clock in
the morning.
"At the same time, we discussed with Dan some of our issues. I
think he's going to back off of certain guys a little bit. We have
some guys on this team who can take criticism and some who don't
respond to it as well.
"Dan wants so bad for us to succeed. And when we don't play
well or we lose by a close margin and certain guys don't play well,
he gets on guys."
McCloud added that "everyone in that locker room still supports
Dan and still wants Dan to be the coach. It was not a boycott. It
was not anything where the team was trying to get Dan fired or
rebelling against Dan."
McCloud conceded that the players "should have handled it a
little more professionally. We should have talked to Dan directly
and told him we were tired and didn't think we needed to
practice."
The Nuggets went 0-4 on the just-completed road trip, falling to
10-12 on the season. Issel has felt pressure this year to succeed
after the team's new owner, Stan Kroenke, said Issel and his staff
had just one season to prove themselves.
"We really didn't need to practice yesterday, and that was my
fault," Issel said. "I was under the assumption that we were
going to get home at midnight, but we had a bad flight.
"The players should have come to me and said they didn't want
to practice. I did tell them I was glad they did it together.
That's probably the first thing we've done as a team this year.
They didn't handle it very well, and I didn't handle it very well.
They apologized, and that's the end of it."
Asked if he was concerned that he might be losing his players,
Issel said, "I don't think so. I can only go by what they tell me.
I don't believe anything in the media that comes from them. I
believe what they tell me face to face in my office.
"I guess the proof of that will be how we play (Tuesday night),
how we play the next week, how we play the next month."
LaFrentz said he hoped Issel would have a long tenure as coach
of the Nuggets.
"I don't foresee a problem playing for Dan," he said. "I
don't hold any ill will toward Dan, he doesn't hold any ill will
toward me. He's a passionate individual and very intense about his
job, and that's what you want from a head coach.
"There aren't that many problems between the coaches and the
players on this team. There are just some things that happened that
we felt needed to stop, whether it was miscommunication or
whatever. I think people feel better about the situation now."
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ALSO SEE
Posey speaks out on his AthletesDirect web site
AUDIO VIDEO
 After the Nuggets loss to Miami, coach Dan Issel felt his team handled the situation poorly.
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After the loss, George McCloud thinks the players will need to admit they were wrong.
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James Posey clears up the comments he made to the Denver Post.
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George McCloud says the team never thought about boycotting the game.
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Dan Issel responds to talk about losing his players.
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Dr. Jack Ramsay analyzes the situation with the Denver Nuggets.
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Dave Krieger of the Rocky Mountain News on the Nuggets players' decision to skip practice.
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