A little over a month ago, my Coach informed me that the Denver Nuggets wanted to bring me, Carlos Powell, and Dontell Jefferson in for a workout when we came to Colorado to play the 14ers. The thing about workouts is that you have an hour to show a team something that they may not have been able to see while watching you play a game. They give you some gear, put you through some drills, and maybe drop some per diem in your pocket boom boom. I was excited for the workout, but I knew that the Colorado trip was a month away, so I bottled it up. 

I guess time really flies. On Saturday we were up at 7:30 a.m. waiting for someone from the Nuggets to come pick us up from our Boulder hotel. 

We pulled up to the Pepsi Center at about 8:30 and headed into the locker room where our workout gear (I needed some light blue shorts) was waiting for us. We got dressed and when we were ready they took some measurements such as height (6'9 3/4" w/o shoes) and wingspan (7'2 1/2") before heading out to the court. A few assistant coaches were there to run the workout while George Karl sat at a table and watched everything. 

We had a long warm-up and did some dribble drills and shooting. We actually did shooting contests from various spots and I won four out of six from the NBA three-point line. It was a great day to have a good shooting touch.   

We got to work as we were put through a series of two-on-two live situational drills. Carlos and Dontell guarded each other while I was matched up with Stacey Augmon. I didn't know that it was Stacey Augmon when he said his name was Stacey. I always tend to remember unisex names like Kelly, Stacey, Pat or Jessie so I just thought it was another guy named Stacey. Interesting. Then I started to wonder. I thought that it could be Stacey Augmon, and that maybe I should ask him, but in an effort to avoid embarrassment I figured I should just keep my mouth shut. Maybe I should have put it together when he went left five straight plays.   

We only went for about 45-50 minutes, but we were all out of breath because of this mile high air. I play 40 minutes a game and I was sucking wind like the fat guys who play ball on Sunday at the YMCA. I was playing well actually for how tired I felt. I was hitting jumpers at a pretty good rate. After we finished, the coach who ran our workout said that I showed my ability to be a pick-and-pop guy. I was satisfied with that. I showed them something that they had not yet recognized about my game. Solid. 

The ordeal was brought to a close as we went to give Coach Karl a handshake. I wanted to think of something witty to say, but I figured I would save it. Besides, all I could think of was bringing up his son Coby and how we all play in the D-League. I could bring up the whole "NBA All Access" thing and make small talk. In the middle of this thought, I realized how lame I was sounding to myself. Then Coach Karl asked Carlos what school he went to. Carlos told him that he went to South Carolina. They laughed about something South Carolina-related. Coach then asked Dontell the same.   

"So where are you from?" He finally asked me. 

"Cal," I told him. 

"California's a big country kid. Where are you from?" 

"Oh. I'm from San Diego," I tried to say over the laughter. I don't think anybody heard me. Embarrassment was not avoided that day. He clearly called California a country, by the way. 

I headed back to the locker room and went to grab a Gatorade. I never ended up getting one. Why? Because they had my favorite drink in the world, Gatorade Nutrition Shakes, in the same refrigerator as the regular Gatorades. I could have cried tears of joy because these things are so delicious. If I was one of the Scots on "Braveheart," I would readily give my freedom if they promised me vanilla flavored nutrition shakes. They are that tasty. I wanted to take 10 of them home with me, but there was a clearly posted sign that said that only two drinks could be taken home. Damn. I drank two real quick and put another two in my bag for home use. Perfect. We got showered up, changed, and we went back to Boulder feeling good about ourselves. 

I don't know what, if anything, will come from this workout. Maybe they make a call, maybe they don't. At the end of the day, it's more exposure which is always good. One thing I've learned is that the NBA doesn't waste time or resources on things they don't consider to be serious. Heck, George Karl was there. If he thought something else was more important, he wouldn't have come to see us. If he thought someone else was more important, he wouldn't have invited me. I guess all I can do is wait and see.

Related: Too much Rod Benson