Denver Hires Former Player To Lead Team

The Denver Nuggets reached into their past Thursday, hiring former fan favorite Bill Hanzlik as their new coach.

Hanzlik, who has no head coaching experience and just completed one season as an Atlanta Hawks assistant, is Denver’s seventh coach this decade.

He inherits a team that went through two coaches and two general managers last season and finished 21-61 - one game better than the worst record in franchise history.

Allan Bristow, Denver’s vice president of basketball operations, fired coach Dick Motta shortly after the season and now will try to rebuild with Hanzlik, a longtime friend.

‘We got the guy we wanted,” Bristow said.

Hanzlik, 39, spent five seasons as an assistant when Bristow coached the Charlotte Hornets. He also played for the Nuggets while Bristow was a Denver assistant to Doug Moe from 1984-90.

Hanzlik could not be hired until the Hawks were eliminated by the Chicago Bulls in the second round of the playoffs.

“It’s a great moment for me, my wife and my family,” Hanzlik said. “We’ve had some tremendous memories here in Denver. I feel I’m ready. I’m ready, I’m excited.”

As a Nuggets’ player, Hanzlik won respect with hard work on the court and community work off it. He now faces the challenge of reviving a team that finished with the fourth-worst record in the NBA last season.

The Nuggets have the No. 5 pick in the June 25 draft, and they return young talent that includes power forward Antonio McDyess and guard Bryant Stith.

But their best player, LaPhonso Ellis, faces a long rehabilitation from a ruptured Achilles tendon.

Pippen has foot injury

Chicago’s Scotty Pippen has what the team is calling a “soft tissue injury to the bottom of his left foot.”

The Bulls said Thursday that X-rays and an MRI revealed no fractures or ligament damage and listed the All-Star forward’s status as day-to-day heading into the NBA Finals.

“I’m not concerned,” Pippen said Thursday. “If I put forth a lot of effort treating myself, I should be fine.”

Pippen had to leave Wednesday’s game in the first quarter.