In Utah, Hoping Small Egos Have More to Prove
By HOWARD BECK
Published: May 26, 2007
SALT LAKE CITY, May 25 ─ The resume, newly revised, says Carlos Boozer
is a certified star. He has the requisite statistics, an All-Star Game
appearance and, as of this week, a spot on the United States Olympic team.
But in his mind, Boozer will forever be a second-round pick ─ a guy snubbed
34 times in the 2002 N.B.A. draft, who stayed home on draft night rather than
risk an emotional breakdown before the television cameras in New York.
Once a second-round pick, always a second-round pick.
"I'm always going to have it," Boozer said. "I always feel like I have
something to prove."
Perhaps never more so than now. Boozer's team, the Utah Jazz, is behind, 2-0,
to the San Antonio Spurs in the best-of-seven Western Conference finals. If
the Jazz does not win Game 3 here Saturday night, the series is probably over.
San Antonio has the polish, the experience and, most critically, the three
championship banners. The Jazz, still young and wide-eyed, surprised everyone
just by getting this far. It would be more than stunning if the Jazz won four
of the remaining five games to win the series.
But then, as Boozer noted, "We've been underestimated for a while."
Underselling the Jazz is an easy thing to do. There are no soda pitchmen on
the roster and no high-flying dunkers with eight-figure shoe contracts. In
fact, Utah has built a contender out of mostly spare parts.
Of the top eight players in Coach Jerry Sloan's rotation, four were
second-round picks ─ Boozer, Mehmet Okur, Gordan Giricek and the rookie Paul
Millsap. Two others were taken late in the first round ─ Derek Fisher (24th
in 1996) and Andrei Kirilenko (24th in 1999). Matt Harpring, the 15th overall
pick in 1998, is with his fourth team.
Only Deron Williams, the third overall pick in 2005, was ticketed for stardom
the day he was drafted. Everyone else on the roster ─ which also includes
the second-rounders Dee Brown, Jarron Collins and C. J. Miles ─ was an
afterthought, proving that good chemistry sometimes trumps outright talent.
This is not a trait the Jazz players run from. Indeed, they seem to embrace
it, even to draw collective strength from it.
"I think it's just the humility of our guys that allows us to play at a
higher level than maybe what most people would think," said Fisher, an
11-year veteran who won three championships with the Los Angeles Lakers.
In Los Angeles, Fisher was a firsthand witness, and peace broker, to the
annual ego wars between Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal. This Jazz team,
as short on egos as it is on star power, has no such issues.
"Because of our humility, we give each other room to be who we are," Fisher
said. "Nobody tries to dominate the space, dominate the game. We're willing
to share the ball with each other, share the court. Nobody feels as though
they're bigger than basketball."
The players reflect the demands of Sloan, an old-school coach. He is generally
intolerant of anyone who fails to listen, hustle and play selflessly. Such
players usually end up stuck to the bench, or shipped to another team.
But Sloan snickered at the idea that the Jazz assembled this group by design.
"That's where we were in the draft," he said.
Utah made the playoffs every spring from 1984 to 2003, which meant 20
consecutive years without a top-10 draft pick. After the Karl Malone-John
Stockton era ended, the Jazz should have plunged in the standings and gone
to the front of the draft order. But Utah spent only three years out of the
playoffs and had only one high lottery pick, which they used to draft Williams.
"That's why it was so important that when we got the one pick after the bad
year we had to get it right," said Kevin O'Connor, the senior vice president
for basketball operations.
The rebuilding took creativity and salary-cap room. Harpring was signed as a
free agent in 2002. In a four-day span in July 2004, Utah signed Boozer and
Okur as free agents. Fisher was acquired from Golden State last summer.
The common thread, aside from merely grabbing whoever was available, was
acquiring players "that we thought could get better, guys who are willing
to work to get better," O'Connor said.
Last June, that meant taking Millsap out of Louisiana Tech with the 47th
pick. Millsap led the N.C.A.A. in rebounding for three years in a row, but at
6 feet 8 inches, he was deemed too short to be an N.B.A. power forward. Utah
took him anyway.
Millsap averaged 5.2 rebounds in just 18 minutes a game as a rookie. He
already seems to be one of Sloan's favorites.
"He never asks a question," Sloan said. "It's kind of amazing that a guy,
when you tell him something, he hears it. I don't know why that's that way,
but I've been trying to figure it out a long time."
More than a dozen players taken ahead of Boozer in 2002 are now out of the
N.B.A. Boozer averaged 20 points and 10 rebounds this season, leading Utah
to 51 victories.
The doubts are no longer about whether Boozer belongs here, but perhaps
about how much further he can take this team. But doubt has been a constant
companion.
"We have guys that won't give up," Boozer said. "That's how it should be
with everybody, whether you're the first pick or the last pick."
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/26/sports/basketball/26jazz.html
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