Nuggets' Pope makes fine living as NBA deep reserve:
Mark Pope wasn't hurt, but he needed an injury.
That's how it works in the NBA, where teams have 12 active roster spots and a three-man injured list that can be used like a storage shed for able-bodied players. All it takes is some drummed up explanation like a sore back or a strained shoulder.
Pope proposed chronic dandruff as the ailment. Or schizophrenia.
But there's not much room for humor, even when it comes to the running joke of the injured list. So when Pope comes to town with the Denver Nuggets tonight, he's out with patellar tendinitis, also called jumper's knee. Those who know Pope know it's a tough injury for him to have. After all, it usually requires jumping.
"And I don't," Pope said. .... Pope has played four games the past two seasons combined. Playing time: 20 minutes, total. Pay: About $1.3 million and counting.... [He] settled on medicine as his second career, which meant more undergraduate classes since his English degree didn't satisfy all med-school requirements.
Pope took inorganic chemistry at Marquette while he was with the Bucks, then physics at Columbia and a year of biology at New York University while he was with the Knicks.
Last summer, he took organic chemistry at Colorado, and he will finish his final prerequisite beginning in January.
He plans to take the MCATs this year and apply to medical schools by Nov. 1.
