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| Chris Andersen exchanges words with Rex Chapman (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
On Thursday night, the Denver Nuggets beat the Los Angeles Lakers in Game 6 to tie their first-round playoff series, and did so without Chris "Birdman" Andersen, who is dealing with an issue greater than basketball. Thursday afternoon, Douglas County sheriff's deputies entered and searched Andersen's home in an investigation related to their Internet Crimes Against Children unit. The Nuggets, in turn, have excused Andersen indefinitely from all team functions. P. Solomon Banda of the Associated Press has more details:
The Nuggets will not necessarily miss Andersen on the court — he had yet to play a minute in the Lakers series and has seen his role diminished as JaVale McGee, Kenneth Faried, Timofey Mozgov and Kosta Koufos have earned more minutes in Denver's big-man rotation. Nevertheless, this incident could be a distraction for the entire franchise.
Andersen has been a controversial figure before and was suspended from the NBA for two seasons due to several failed drug tests for unspecified "drugs of abuse," but this investigation is an entirely different kind of serious. We'll continue to update you as more details emerge, but for now we're going to look at what's known and not draw too many conclusions in either direction.
