"Basketball was his life," Nancy Warkentien said. "You know how Hoosiers are about Basketball? It's almost a religion."

In the more than three decades since Mark Warkentien left Riverside determined to carve a path for himself in the sport he loves, he has embarked on an arduous climb from the pit of his profession to its peak. In September 2006, he was named the top Basketball executive for the NBA's Denver Nuggets, the team that stands four victories away from eliminating the Los Angeles Lakers and advancing to the NBA Finals.

Warkentien won the NBA's executive of the year award this month after engineering the roster shakeup that transformed the Nuggets from an undisciplined run-and-gun unit into this season's most improbable success story. He upgraded Denver's defense by signing little-known Dahntay Jones and Chris "Birdman" Andersen at bargain prices before landing all-star Chauncey Billups in a maraschino cherry of a blockbuster trade with Detroit.

"I thought Mark did the best job of anybody," Lakers general manager Mitch Kupchak said. "He made a great trade to get Billups and then the guys he signed during the offseason were great fits as well. I just think he did a wonderful job, and he did it within a budget. People have no idea how hard that is in this environment."

LIFELONG PASSION

It's fitting that Basketball is Warkentien's lifelong passion, because he was born in the most hoops-crazed state in the nation. He learned to shoot on baskets attached to old wooden barns in his native Huntington, Ind., before his parents moved the family to Riverside in 1965.

Warkentien's long-range shooting and fiery competitiveness helped propel Ramona High to back-to-back league titles in 1970 and 1971, but he lacked the size or talent to play beyond the junior college level. In fact, it's his passion for Basketball rather than his on-court heroics that resonated most with high school teammates.

To this day, longtime friends still call him "Dr. Stein," a nickname derived because he operated with a surgeon's precision on the court and because of the way his name was commonly misspelled on rosters by tournament directors.

"We would do whatever we could to get in the gym," said high school teammate Tony Masi, now athletic director at Riverside King High. "We'd be in there on Christmas night if we could."

Nancy Warkentien recalls getting anxious when her son didn't come home for hours after she sent him to a nearby German bakery one Saturday morning to buy Danish rolls. The fear turned frantic that evening when his girlfriend called looking for him when he didn't show up for their date.

Finally, Warkentien burst through the door long after dark with no rolls but a good explanation: He ran into Masi on the way to the bakery and they drove to Los Angeles for a YMCA tournament, which they didn't want to leave until they were eliminated.

"I was a gym rat, so that's one of the qualities I look for now in players," Warkentien said. "The more guys you have who play with great passion, the better you're going to be."

PUT TO THE TEST

Warkentien has shown an eye for talent at every stop of his career, from his first job as an assistant at Riverside City College, to his years alongside the legendary Jerry Tarkanian at UNLV, to the pros. The Denver brass put Warkentien's talent evaluation to the test again last summer after a decisive first-round sweep at the hands of the Lakers convinced them that the high-octane 50-win team they assembled needed to improve defensively to contend.

What provided the biggest challenge was ownership's decree that Warkentien reduce payroll while rebuilding. Denver had one high-priced player too many with Carmelo Anthony, Allen Iverson, Kenyon Martin, Nene and Marcus Camby all set to earn more than $10 million this season, so Warkentien jettisoned Camby to the Clippers for essentially nothing in return.

As furious Nuggets fans lambasted him for discarding their starting center and best defender, Warkentien scoured the free-agent market for reinforcements.

Jones, plucked from the obscurity of the NBA Development League, started 71 games this year and typically shadowed the opposing team's top-scoring guard. Renaldo Balkman, acquired via trade from New York for three players Denver had no use for, emerged as a key backup. So did ninth-year veteran Anthony Carter, who Warkentien persuaded to re-sign with Denver for the league's minimum salary.

The most fortuitous under-the-radar addition of all was Andersen, perhaps the NBA's feel-good story of the year. Banished from the league in 2006 for violating its drug policy, Andersen emerged as the NBA's second-leading shot-blocker this season. He inspired "Birdmania" among legions of fans, who don phony tattoos and mimic his birdcalls, arm flapping and trademark spiky locks.

"Not a lot of people probably wanted to give Birdman a chance, but he (Warkentien) trusted him and he's helped out tremendously," Nuggets forward Kenyon Martin said. "I didn't know what they were doing honestly when they didn't get anything back (for Camby), but they must have known something I didn't."

The trade for Billups originated during the offseason amid speculation that the Nuggets were ready to part ways with Anthony, their leading scorer who had fallen out of favor in Denver as a result of a DUI arrest and a series of first-round playoff failures. Detroit general manager Joe Dumars called last summer dangling Billups in return, but Warkentien said he told him flatly Anthony was not available.

Once Dumars floated the idea of a Billups-for-Allen Iverson trade a few weeks later, Warkentien pounced. Losing the high-scoring, yet past-his-prime Iverson paled in comparison to what Warkentien believed he'd gain by adding a defensive-minded point guard whose shot-making and leadership skills were affirmed by the championship ring he won with the Pistons in 2004.

"It was an offer we couldn't turn down," Warkentien said. "Put a big-time coach (George Karl) and a big-time point guard together and good things are going to happen."

Billups, a Denver native, has lived up to his "Mr. Big Shot" nickname, posting 17.7 points and 6.4 assists per game to help propel the Nuggets to their first Western Conference Finals appearance in 24 years.

AVID FANS

There won't be many fans rooting for him in the heart of Lakers country this week, but those with ties to Warkentien will be.

There's Warkentien's mom, such an ardent Basketball fan she admits she'll sometimes arrive late to church rather than miss the last two minutes of a game. There's his high school coach, Doug Stockham, an avid Lakers fan except when they play Denver. And there are his former high school teammates, who still get together with Warkentien every summer to golf and swap stories.

If the Nuggets knock off the Lakers, the group will have a great story to recount this summer. Warkentien insists this year's Nuggets are one of the favorite teams he's been part of because of the prevalent redemption theme.

"Birdman beat the worst of human demons, Kenyon Martin is the first guy to play with two microfracture surgeries in both knees, Chauncey Billups is returning home and 12 months ago Dahntay Jones was in the D-League," he said. "Trying to pick your favorite part of this season is like choosing between your kids."

Reach Jeff Eisenberg at 951-368-9357 or jeisenberg@PE.com

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MARK WARKENTIEN FILE

Born: April 16, 1953, in Huntington, Ind.

Hometown: Riverside

Team: Denver Nuggets

Position: Vice president of Basketball operations

Career Milestones: Helped Riverside Ramona High to league titles, 1970-71

Began his coaching career at Riverside City College in the early 1970s

Coached the UC Riverside women's Basketball team to an 18-9 record in 1977-78

Helped build the UNLV team that won the NCAA title in 1990

Has never experienced a losing season in 18 years with four NBA teams

Named NBA executive of the year this season for assembling the Denver team now in the Western Conference Finals