Friday, September 24 Nuggets' ways not golden By David Aldridge Special to ESPN.com

Mike D'Antoni knew it was over, he said, when he walked into Dan Issel's office and saw the team's attorney sitting next to Issel.

"I knew I wasn't in trouble with the law," D'Antoni said.

	Nick Van Exel didn't get along well with Mike D'Antoni last season.

Unfortunately for him, he was in trouble with the Nuggets. And fired as head coach a few minutes later.

So what, you might say. Changing head coaches comes with the thin air in Denver. D'Antoni's one-year stint followed Bill Hanzlik's one-year stint, which followed Dick Motta's one-year stint, which followed Bernie Bickerstaff's two years, which followed Gene Littles' 16 games, which followed Issel's two and a half years, which followed Paul Westhead's two. All this decade. (That doesn't count the 76 players who've blown through Denver in the last five years.)

But D'Antoni's ouster was particularly small. Small because the Nuggets should have done the deed months ago, to give D'Antoni time to find another gig. Small because the Nuggets knew they were going to break the bank for Nick Van Exel, and that Van Exel and D'Antoni were oil and water. Small because D'Antoni knew he was on thin ice months ago, and asked the Nuggets if they were going to fire him, and they said no. Small because Issel had made no secret that he wanted to be on the bench ever since he returned to the team to be its GM in March 1998.

"I knew he wanted to coach," D'Antoni said over the weekend. "Before he hired me he said, 'If I coach, will you be my assistant?' I said sure. And when it looked like Bill Laurie (the businessman whose group initially tried to buy the team from Ascent Communications) was going to get the team, I knew Dan was trying to coach. When that fell through (and billionaire Donald Sturm purchased the team), I thought it wouldn't happen until maybe the end of the year."

During the season, D'Antoni benched Van Exel on a couple of occasions. When Van Exel balked, D'Antoni says he went to Issel to get reassurance.

"Dan just wouldn't back me," D'Antoni said. "He read me the riot act. I knew after we didn't trade (Van Exel) that I was in trouble. Dan told me 'He's going to be here, and you better get used to it.' And to be truthful, Nick kind of turned around at the end of the year, and his attitude got better. But when (Issel) did the deal, I told Dan, 'This is not a great deal we're doing for the franchise.' But he kept saying Nick was a top-10 point guard."

It's Issel's prerogative to hire and fire whom he likes. That's his job. And he's under the gun, too; Sturm has made it clear to Issel that he expects big improvement after doling out big bucks for Van Exel, taking on the bulk of Antonio McDyess's deal and at least being willing to talk to Ron Mercer about an extension, though likely not at the inflated numbers Mercer is seeking.

This, of course, does D'Antoni no good. Most teams have filled whatever coaching vacancies they had by now, though D'Antoni will have $1.8 million to fall back on until he finds a gig. After years of waiting and coaching in Europe, D'Antoni might wind up back there. With a valuable lesson.

"I just didn't learn the politics," he says. Chuckling.

Are you ready for the feud?
Circle Oct. 22 and Oct. 29 on your calendars. That's when the best feud this side of the Hatfields-McCoys continues. The Sixers play the Nets in preseason tilts on those dates, but the undercurrents of dislike will be far greater than in your usual exhibition game.

The latest installment is Larry Brown's public criticism of the Nets for what he feels was a conspiracy to fire John Calipari as head coach last season.

Brown went on a local radio station in Philadelphia two weeks ago to counter the host's contention that Calipari's ways may be a little grating to some Sixers players. He then went on to blast just about everyone in the New Jersey organization: owner Lewis Katz, team president Michael Rowe, general manager John Nash, head coach Don Casey and players Jayson Williams and Kendall Gill. All, Brown said, part of the cabal that did Calipari in.

While Calipari has tried to take the high road, Brown hasn't backed off one bit.

"I know what happened," Brown told me. "I don't think. I know. There's a difference. Nash told Lewis Katz to fire (Calipari). Lewis Katz was with John. He knew what was going on even before. The guy used to call me all the time and ask me my opinions on things. After he fired John, he didn't call me. My wife saw him a few days later and said, 'You know, Lewis, you don't have to stop calling us.' "

The Nets won't return Brown's fire for the record, though Nash denied telling Katz to fire Calipari.

"All I'll say publicly is that it didn't work out (for Calipari)," Casey said. "It didn't work out for me at the Clippers. It didn't work out for Chuck (Daly) in Cleveland. Sometimes it just doesn't work out."

But privately, they're seething. They point out that Brown left the Nets with six games to go in the 1982-83 regular season, on the eve of the playoffs, to take the University of Kansas job. And that he left Kansas for the Clippers job just as the Jayhawks were being investigated by the NCAA.

"How does he define loyalty?" one member of the braintrust asked.

Another wearily recalled what daily life with Calipari was like.

"He was like Captain Queeg," the source said. "Somebody was always stealing his strawberries."

These franchises are rife with incestuous relationships. Just about everybody involved has worked for the other team at one point or another: Nash was the Sixers' GM for nine years; Williams played in Philly for two years; Brown, of course, was New Jersey's head coach. And remember Keith Van Horn's insistence three years ago that he wouldn't play for Philadelphia, forcing the Sixers to ship him to New Jersey on draft night?

Stay tuned. And if you see starters in the game in the fourth quarter, pressing full court, you'll know why.

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