Denver Post If I found the wallet of Nuggets owner Stan Kroenke on the sidewalk, I'd give Nene $7 million in cash and return the credit cards. Honest. The Nuggets need to pay Nene. Or trade him. Or possibly both. The biggest question mark on Denver's basketball team stands 6-foot-11, tall enough to see everything except the future. Ambling through the Pepsi Center with a bottle of apple juice in his hands, Nene faces the uncertainty and laughs. "I am juice. I am a product. This is what I am," says Nene, the beverage palmed by a giant mitt. "Players are no different than juice. We are part of the business." Does Denver dare pay Nene more than he's worth now, or risk losing him as a free agent when the season is over? Either way, the Nuggets are gambling. In this game of poker, there's only one way to bet. All in. Give Nene a contract extension. Do it now. See if $7 million per year can get the deal done. Is that not an outrageous sum to wager on a 23-year-old big man who does not figure to start for the Nuggets and cannot jump? Of course it is. But tell me another player on the Nuggets with more room to grow than Nene. While Denver coach George Karl professes love for his team's talent, no player performed at an all-star level a year ago. Yet reality has not stopped the hype for this team as the gaudiest winner in the franchise's NBA history, which dates back almost 30 years. Fifty-five victories? That's crazy talk from the Nuggets, unless somebody steps up bigger than newcomer Earl Watson, a substitute point guard. Nene is volunteering to be a hero. "I know I can be the best," says Nene, not lacking for confidence, especially for a dude slated for duty spelling Marcus Camby at center, when not giving a blow to Kenyon Martin at power forward. Source
