When he was a junior at Boise State, Coby Karl, the combo-guard son of Denver Nuggets coach George Karl, noticed swelling in the lymph nodes at the left side of his neck.
A fever or a cold or something, he thought. "Obviously, in the back of my mind, I thought it could be something serious," but at first he banked on the power of positive thinking. "I try to ignore the bad stuff." He hoped he "was just being pessimistic."
He wasn't.
It was cancer, papillary carcinoma.
"You start thinking about a lot of things. You think about the things you take for granted, and, you know, when you hear the word 'cancer,' and in our generation it's 'AIDS,' it's pretty scary," said the 6-foot-5 NBA Draft prospect who auditioned with eight other players Tuesday for the Utah Jazz.
"You think your life might come to an end, but fortunately, it didn't turn out as bad as some of the cancers."
Karl caught it early, despite his initial denial, and 90 percent to 95 percent of those with that cancer live out their lives in full, he said. He had surgery to remove the thyroid and took a radioactive iodine pill at home.
"It didn't affect my performance. I wasn't tired or sick or anything," said Karl, now 24.
Then in January 2007, before a game at Utah State, the fifth-year Bronco senior, whose dad had come to Logan to visit him, found out there was additional worry — a seven-hour surgery would await once he completed the WAC season. "The doctors called and said they wanted to take out the lymph nodes on the left side of my neck, so that's what we did April 1. That's hopefully behind me now," said the younger Karl.
His father told the Orlando News-Tribune last month during the NBA pre-draft camp, "The most gratifying evening of my life is the time he told me he had cancer for a second time, at Utah State. I am crumbling, and he goes out and gets 24 (points) and eight (rebounds)." (Actually, it was 17 points and seven rebounds.)
George Karl underwent surgery for his own (prostate) cancer in the Huntsman Cancer Institute in July 2005. "And his was kind of the same thing," said Coby. "They found out in time, and it's a curable, treatable form of it, and it's been taken care of. I think we've been very fortunate in terms of dealing with cancer."
Coby is much like his father as a player as well, leaning heavily on hustle and effort. Growing up NBA, Coby learned, "There's not many secrets. The one that everyone doesn't want to hear about is hard work. I've seen guys that were supposed to be nothings turn out to be NBA all-stars, and it's all because of hard work and perseverance and toughness," he said.
"That's what I try to strive for: Never stop working, never stop getting better. It works. Hopefully it works for me."
Karl was second-team all-WAC and averaged 14.8 points as a BSU senior. He's a three-time WAC all-academic team member with 1,698 career points, third on the all-time Bronco list. His Jazz workout was his 11th and last before Thursday's draft, in which he's projected as a possible second-rounder.
Jazz player personnel director Walt Perrin said Karl was brought in not as a favor to his father but because, "Sometimes you get an odd number, and you say, 'Who else do we want to bring in that we kind of like and fits that position?' Coby was that."
Karl looks at the draft as a starting point for his pro career and, citing undrafted former Jazzman Raja Bell and others, intends to keep trying even if he's passed over on Thursday. "I'll be playing basketball my whole life or being in an organization," he said.
Karl claims to be a Jazz fan. "I love watching the team. There's very few teams in the NBA that are enjoyable to watch for me any more — a lot of teams don't play the right way. I think that's what Utah does. They play hard, and they play tough. That's what I want to be on. I want to be part of a winning team," he said.
The Jazz are nothing like his dad's Nuggets. "Very different," said the son. "But the main thing is what coach (Jerry) Sloan and my dad preach is play the right way, play hard, play tough, play defense.
"Unfortunately my dad's team doesn't play defense, so you can't really say that now, but if you look at his history, his teams have played defense. They're kind of old school — just do it the right way — and that's how I learned to play. So hopefully I have an opportunity to do that here."
E-mail: lham@desnews.com