There is no party in the works.
No Dick Motta Night at Big Mac in the planning.No acknowledgment that one of the greatest coaches in NBA history is about to reach a career milestone.
With 25 games remaining in the Denver Nuggets' 1996-97 season, coach Dick Motta is eight victories short of surpassing Boston Celtics legend Red Auerbach as the second-winningest coach in NBA history.
Motta has won 931 games in a span of 25 seasons as a head coach; Auerbach won 938 from 1946 to 1966 and Atlanta Hawks coach Lenny Wilkens is at 1,050 and counting in 24 seasons.
Accomplishments like Motta's usually come with gold watches and banquets, but perhaps the Nuggets know something the rest of us don't.
Why plan a marketing blitz for an event that probably won't occur - and for a man likely to be fired at the end of the season?
Motta needs to win only eight. But it's not news he wants out.
"That's the last thing I would ever tell this team," he said Wednesday. "These kids have been through a lot, and it's been hard on them. The last thing they want to hear about is my record.
"If the fans out there could see how hard we practice and how much we're into (preparing for) every game. If this looks like a group of losers, . . . I don't buy it.
"I've been around a lot of (sub- 500) teams, and they turn it in as soon as they can. This team hasn't."
Perhaps. But for all their enthusiasm and goodwill, these Nuggets are a long shot at best to win the eight games Motta needs to move past Auerbach.
The Nuggets are 17-40 this season, 13-31 under Motta. Since the All-Star break (Feb. 7-10), the Nuggets have lost eight of nine games, including a 124- 122 overtime loss to Toronto on Tuesday.