LAS VEGAS, Nev. — If you focus only on Coby Karl’s bouts with cancer the past two years, you’re missing the point.

If you narrow in on the fact that he’s the son of an NBA coach, you’re seeing only part of the picture.

If you think he would give up his aspirations of joining the NBA because he comes from a small school and went undrafted, then you’ve got him all wrong.

Karl is heading to Lakers’ training camp in October because in his young life there hasn’t been an expectation he couldn’t meet or an obstacle he couldn’t beat.

"My feeling is that anything Coby gets right now is a celebration," said his father, Denver Nuggets coach George Karl. "It’s like an incredible story, a Hollywood story. ... We should just see his opportunity and his life as a celebration, and that’s the way I’m going to look at it."

A 6-foot-6 guard, Karl earned an invite to Lakers camp after averaging 12.1 points per game for the club’s summer pro league team that competed last month in Las Vegas. That was good for second on the team, but certainly no guarantee of NBA success.

The number that intrigued the Lakers just as much was the six stitches Karl received after mixing it up with a much larger opponent.

"He gives us something that we don’t have," said Lakers’ assistant Brian Shaw, who with Kurt Rambis, coached the summer league team. "He gives us somebody that has more size. We have Kobe (Bryant) at (6-6). But this Coby brings physicality. He’s not afraid of contact."

Or afraid of anything else.

In 2006, Coby was diagnosed with thyroid cancer. It was nothing serious, he was told. His doctors assured him that this form of cancer was treatable in 95 percent of cases.

Although Coby underwent chemotherapy for papillary carcinoma in March 2006, he required a lengthy surgical procedure 13 months later to remove cancerous lymph nodes in his throat. The seven-hour procedure was the doctors’ second effort in just more a year to eliminate any remaining malignant cells.

Since then, Coby has not looked back.

If he makes the team and sticks around beyond Dec. 1, his contract becomes guaranteed for the remainder of the season.

"As bad as it sounds, I wouldn’t have changed any of it," he said. "I’ve learned a lot from it and matured. Just looking at life in a more broad view and not taking things for granted. I enjoy things a little bit more, like playing basketball, my family, my friends, and just an appreciation for the situation that I’ve been given. It’s taught me appreciation."

Part of his strength stems from the relationship with his father, whose own battle with prostate cancer was winding down when Coby was diagnosed.

He was a ballboy for the Seattle SuperSonics when George coached the team, joining his dad at work for seven years. Coby got to spend more time with his busy father while he getting a valuable taste of the NBA game.

With each coaching job George landed, Coby was ready to tag along, following him on four NBA stops and a two-year stint in Spain as Real Madrid’s coach in the early ’90s.

Coby became even closer to his father at the beginning of high school, when George and his wife filed for divorce. Father and son lived together until Coby began college, moving around an estimated 15 times.

Yet their biggest challenge came later, toward the latter part of Coby’s collegiate career at Boise State. At 22, George’s only son had already endured one of life’s toughest battles — cancer. And it scared away some NBA teams on draft day.

"It kind of makes you think where you are in life and know that anything can be taken from you," Coby said.

"I think everyone wants to get drafted, but when it comes down to it, that’s just one night. Hopefully it’s just the first night in what’ll be a long career for me."

It’s his hustle and toughness on the hardwood floor that has defined Coby’s off-court character.

While the process seems ever so rigorous to those witnessing his situation, Coby has remained optimistic.

His performance, though, is all the more impressive as a relatively unknown guard from a small university, might not necessarily guarantee him a spot on the opening night roster.

The recent signing of Chris Mihm and guard Derek Fisher puts the Lakers at 14 guaranteed contracts. If Coby hopes to make the team, it will have to be as a shooting guard, Shaw said.

Coby demonstrated his physical play with his battle wound from his summer league collision, which is carefully covered by two bandages until the stitches are removed. His other scar, a four-inch slice beneath his throat, signifies much more: It is the symbol of a person who refuses to take no for an answer.

"A lot of people didn’t believe he was going to be a Division I player," George said. "A lot of people don’t believe that he’s going to be an NBA player. And I think he’s going to prove all of those people wrong. He actually likes being the underdog. After proving people wrong, he kind of likes to look at them in the eye and tell them they were wrong."

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