The head coaches of Suns and Nuggets give a detailed introduction, thank you.

Gender: male

Nationality: USA

City of birth: Penhill, Pennsylvania

Date of birth: 195 1 May 12.

Team: Denver Nuggets

[Edit this paragraph] People and things.

When Michael Jordan left the NBA to play baseball, a group of teams were coveting the championship trophy, and george karl was one of them.

Carl is full of confidence in his seattle supersonics team. After Jordan finished the Bulls' three consecutive championships and retired for the first time, the Sonics set a record of 63 wins 19 losses in the league regular season in 1993- 1994, winning five games more than the previous record.

However, for the top seed in the West, the playoffs are a disaster. Denver Nuggets were eliminated 3-2 in the first round, which made the opponent's black eight miracle. At that time, Nuggets center Mutombo collapsed at the end of the last series and held the ball high, which became a classic picture of the NBA playoffs, forcing coach Carl to relive it countless times.

"There is no doubt that the series against Denver made me very disappointed because I firmly believe that we had a chance." Carl said. Two years later, he finally led the Sonics to the finals. As a result, the best time has passed, Jordan has returned to the league, and the revived Bull Dynasty won the championship 4-2. Then at 200 1, Carl's Milwaukee Bucks reached the seventh game of the Eastern Conference finals, but still lost to the Philadelphia 76ers led by Iverson.

Now, 58-year-old Carl has been coaching the Nuggets for the fifth year, and once again he is only a stone's throw away from his dream NBA championship. The first game of the Denver Western Conference Finals will start on Wednesday, Beijing time.

"It's great to be back on this stage. This is a stage where only four teams in the league can stand. " Carl, who was still waiting for the winner of the Lakers-Rockets series after the routine training class last Saturday, said. His Nuggets finished the Western Conference semifinals with Mavericks more than half a week ago, and have achieved an overwhelming advantage of 8 wins and 2 losses in the playoffs this season.

In fact, in the regular season, they won the first place in the northwest region with a record of 54 wins and 28 losses and became the second seed in the west, which has shocked the whole league. At present, Jeancard's heart is surging like never before.

This is his second season as an NBA coach, and his desire for the championship ring has become stronger than ever. Carl has never achieved this level of success, even though he entered the NCAA semi-finals with North Carolina in college, and later won the runner-up when he was a coach in the Continental League (CBA) and the Spanish League.

The bomb dropped on Las Vegas exploded in Denver.

Coach Carl never seems to win the championship. "It's like the crisp on the cake. For many years, I have dreamed that when summer comes, I can stand on the top of the world. Only a few guys have the right to talk about his success every summer for three or four months. God knows how much I dream of being that person. " In the league, Carl has always been famous for his eloquence and his love of telling jokes. "In fact, I have been writing down the entries in the autobiography of the future champion coach over the years."

But at this moment, this sentence is obviously a joke. Carl can't forget the shame of being swept by the Lakers in the playoffs last year. The Nuggets stopped in the first round of the playoffs for the fifth year in a row. Until last summer, the Nuggets still didn't see any signs of improvement.

For the sake of cost saving, after last season, the team management traded Marcus Camby, the three-time blocked shot champion and the main center, and then chose not to renew the contract with striker EduardoNajera. At that time, it was widely believed that it would be crazy for the Nuggets to let their two best defenders go.

"It's like a bomb dropped in Las Vegas." Carl said that last year's summer league was held in Las Vegas. "Every coach is blaming us."

Carl spent two weeks thinking, including a vacation to Sanlucas, and finally he decided to take some measures. Carl knows that this team has made great progress in the past few seasons, which attracted free agent Chris Anderson, who unexpectedly became the second highest shot blocker in the league this season, and even Camby frankly conceded defeat (ranked third).

Carl also knew that the Nuggets must gradually strengthen their execution, so he held a training camp for the players of his team, where everyone soon realized that they could no longer express themselves at will. "He forced us to do this from the beginning. He didn't give you any reason at all. He let us know that we have to fight like this in the future. " Defender J.R. Smith recalled.

Billups told a special story.

However, the bigger change did not appear until last year,165438+1October 3. On this day, the Nuggets finally sent allen iverson away and welcomed a Denver man, chauncey billups, a real point guard they had been looking for for for a long time. Carl, who signed a contract with the team until the end of next season, said with a smile that if Billups had not been signed at that time, his chances of staying in the Nuggets' position today were only 50%. "Without him, the number of times we won in the regular season may be a completely different number." He said.

Billups was completely integrated into this team almost as soon as he arrived in Denver. He brought the Nuggets a "passing priority" attitude and a strong defense. In the dressing room, the veteran also easily won the right to speak. "The coach doesn't need to talk as much as before. He can save his breath and focus on what we need to improve. " Smith admitted that Billups has become the spiritual leader of the team.

Of course, another important factor of Denver's success lies in Cameron Anthony's continuous maturity. With the climb of Nuggets' record, Melon's average score dropped from 25.7 to 22.8, which just proves that he is becoming a better all-around player.

When all these changes happened at the same time, the Nuggets created the best single-season record in Pingping's 33-year history. Carl called this season "a special story" and Billups was the storyteller. Thanks to the efforts of all the players, Mavericks coach rick carlisle thinks that Karl has "completed what I think is the best job in his coaching career".

Melon-finally, it was a painful experience.

The last western conference finals of Nuggets can be traced back to1May 22nd, 985, and Anthony just celebrated his first birthday a week later.

"Now he can finally clear up all the grievances and bring a team like us to such a height." Billups knows exactly what kind of pressure his coach is under. "I know George is really not easy. It has been very difficult to teach here in the past few years. Now he is very happy. All the players were close to him, and he was ecstatic. All the players felt it, and they were thinking,' Dude, we've never seen you so happy ...' "

The happiest person in Jeancard may be Anthony, who is the only player in the team who has experienced the first-round elimination of Nuggets in recent five years. When the Nuggets often ended the season with disappointment, Melon even directly challenged Carl's coaching authority.

"The current scene is really exciting. I have been with him for four or five years. We have experienced the lowest period and now we have reached an unprecedented peak, but we can still improve several levels. " Anthony had a painful experience.

Although Mark Vulkendean, vice president of Nuggets basketball operations, said that the management has never questioned Carl's coaching ability, it is obvious that Carl has been sitting on a volcano for the past few years, and he himself admits that this season is a great opportunity for him to clear his reputation. "I get paid here because I am expected to win a great victory with the team. I know that playing the first round every year is by no means the reason why (Nuggets boss) Stan kroenke hired me. " Carl made another quip.

Carl knows that every boss hired a coach to win the championship, and this time, at least he saw the peak he often dreamed of.

At present, Carl is fighting against the disease. He has prostate cancer.

Today is the Phoenix Suns.

Brief comments on the head coach and main players;

D 'Antoni: D 'Antoni has dual citizenship of the United States and Italy and has 30 years of professional basketball coaching experience. He has taught in NBA, ABA and Italian League successively, and his rich resume made him the head coach of Suns in June 2003. Since then, he has led this scarred NBA youngest team to a record of 2 1 win and 40 losses. D 'Antoni introduced a faster-paced style to the Sun. Under his guidance, the Sun began to look for other scoring methods besides three-pointers, and achieved success. In the 2004-05 season, the Suns won the Pacific Division championship with 62 wins and 20 losses in the regular season, and reached the playoffs as the first in the West.

The 2005-06 season is the third season for D 'Antoni to coach the Suns. 1998-99 was the coach of the Nuggets, and 1997-98 was the player coach. In 2000-0 1 season, D 'Antoni became the assistant coach of the Blazers. In the 200 1-02 season, D 'Antoni returned to Italy to coach Benetton treviso again. He led the team to 28 wins and 8 losses. D 'Antoni is a legend in the Italian League. During 1994-97, the Benetton team he coached won the European Cup and the Italian Cup in 1995, and also won the league championship in 1996-97.

D 'Antoni was selected by the Kings in the 20th overall pick in 1973, and was selected as the second NBA rookie team in 1974. He played 13 seasons in Milan, Italy, and was the scoring champion in the history of the club. D 'Antoni, who has galloped in NBA and Europe, knows the essence of American and European basketball and how to combine the advantages of American and European basketball.