The Jazz Has A Brand-new Beat That old refrain of Stockton-to-Malone is over, and youngsters Andrei Kirilenko and Carlos Arroyo have given Utah an up-tempo game
2000s Vault 2003 December 8 2003
David Sabino
Imagine turning on the CBS news one night and, instead of Dan Rather sitting there, in all his square-jawed solemnity, there was some bony Russian kid with a
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Imagine turning on the CBS news one night and, instead of Dan

Rather sitting there, in all his square-jawed solemnity, there

was some bony Russian kid with a spiky hairdo. Then imagine

quickly surfing in search of Tom Brokaw--steady old Brokaw--only

to see, occupying his chair, a baby-faced Puerto Rican with an

earring. ¬∂ In a sense, this is what's happening to Utah Jazz

fans. For 17 years Salt Lake City was the domain of John Stockton

and Karl Malone, the city's own Rather and Brokaw--or, to use a

sports analogy, its Joe Montana and Jerry Rice. Night after night

the stoic, efficient Stockton threw the perfect bounce pass to

the stoic, chiseled Malone as the Mailman roared down the wing

like one of the big rigs he is so fond of. That's almost 1,400

games of the same pick-and-roll plays, of Stockton pulling up

for his shoulder-launched jumper, of Malone seemingly rooted at

the foul line, his knees tilted inward and his lips mouthing

words that no one could decipher. Seventeen years of edging

thisclose to a title before exiting at Almostville.

Now, in the wake of those two Dream Teamers comes 22-year-old

Andrei Kirilenko, a power forward with swizzle-stick arms, and

24-year-old Carlos Arroyo, a vagabond point guard. So little was

expected of the new duo and their young, anonymous teammates that

most publications--this one included--picked the Jazz to finish

last in the Western Conference, especially after the free agents

it signed to offer sheets over the summer, Los Angeles Clippers

forward Corey Maggette and Atlanta Hawks point guard Jason Terry,

were retained by their clubs. ESPN.com columnist Frank Hughes

went so far as to predict that Utah would break the alltime

record for futility (nine wins) set by the Philadelphia 76ers in

1972-73.

So what in the name of Hot Rod Hundley is going on at the Delta

Center? Behind the coaching of a rejuvenated Jerry Sloan and the

play of Kirilenko and Arroyo, Utah was 9-6 through Sunday and had

already beaten such Western playoff contenders as the Houston

Rockets, the Portland Trail Blazers, the Phoenix Suns and the

Minnesota Timberwolves (twice). Those victories are almost

secondary to the new crew's other major accomplishment: making

Jazz basketball exciting to watch. On sports radio shows and

Internet message boards some fans have begun expressing a

previously sacrilegious sentiment--that the team may be better

off without Stockton and Malone.

Take last week's 83-76 home victory over the Rockets. Even with

Arroyo sidelined by a sprained left ankle, Utah players ran the

floor, hustled like crazy, threw alley-oops for dunks, swatted

Yao Ming's shots against the backboard and--in a definite

Stockton and Malone no-no--had the gall to be animated during a

fourth-quarter scoring burst. "I'll tell you, I miss those two

guys horribly," says Jazz strength and conditioning coach Mark

McKown. "But these kids are fun to watch, aren't they?"

No longer are Utah games as formulaic as an episode of Three's

Company. The core system is the same as it's been for a dozen

years, but in the past the Jazz ran almost exclusively a

one-guard front to take full advantage of Stockton's

decision-making; now it's a two-guard look that creates more ball

movement and more touches for everybody. (Exhibit A: Four players

are averaging between 11 and 18 points.) And while about 25 of

Utah's approximately 75 set plays are still predicated on the

pick-and-roll, those 25 don't see as much action as they used to.

Now, says Kirilenko in his fractured English, "Coach calls plays

for who is scoring. Before, we stand and watch Karl and John. Now

everybody is involved."

The 61-year-old Sloan is clearly enjoying his new team. "The fun

part of coming to work every day for me is finding a way to win

with the guys we have," he says. "Physically we may be

overmatched, but you can still play basketball if you do it as a

group."

Long known for his old-school values and ref-directed tirades,

Sloan has mellowed this season, reducing his sideline f bombs and

player lambastings. "It's a nice change," says center Greg

Ostertag, a frequent resident of Sloan's doghouse in years past.

"He'll still get on you, but now he'll back off and say what he

likes about what you're doing." Says Sloan, almost

apologetically, "I don't like mistakes, but I also have to

understand that these players have to grow some and I have to

bite the bullet a little bit."

Because of Utah's surprising success, Sloan is suddenly a

front-runner for Coach of the Year, an award that, despite his 15

straight playoff appearances, he has never won. His take on the

matter is predictably Sloanian--"I've never played or coached

basketball for a compliment," he says. "I could give a s--- about

that"--but others think the honor is overdue. "Jerry always got

credit from coaches," says Houston coach Jeff Van Gundy. "I don't

think fans realized his greatness like they realized Stockton or

Malone's greatness."

Minus those two, the closest thing this year's team has to a star

is Kirilenko. Lithe and flamingo-legged at 225 pounds, the 6'9"

forward has flourished as a starter in his third season,

averaging 17.3 points, 7.5 rebounds, 2.3 blocks and 1.9 steals at

week's end while shooting 51.1% from the floor and 88.0% from the

free throw line. Against the Rockets he not only made clutch

baskets, scoring 23 points on a variety of three-pointers, follow

dunks and fearless drives, but also excelled on defense, swooping

in from the help side to bat away shots three times and pinning

two more shots against the glass. Two nights later, in a 98-81

win over the Seattle SuperSonics, Kirilenko had four steals and

four blocks to go along with 12 boards.

"Andrei's the unique NBA player who can dominate a game with his

defense," says Jazz assistant Gordie Chiesa, who believes that

only two NBA players have the ability to regularly thwart

opponents' three-on-one breaks: Kirilenko and Ben Wallace of the

Detroit Pistons, the two-time Defensive Player of the Year.

Though he plays Malone's position, Kirilenko couldn't be more

dissimilar from his down-home, tractor-driving predecessor.

Unfailingly upbeat--a friend nicknamed him the Joker because his

wide grin looked like Jack Nicholson's in Batman--Kirilenko gels

his hair in a Beckham-style faux-hawk and has a Russian pop diva

wife, Masha, 30, whose song Sakharny (it translates as Sugary)

was a huge hit at home last winter. In the background of her

video, Andrei flails away at a dance club, a performance that has

earned him "much joking," he says, from members of the Russian

national team. Explains Kirilenko sheepishly, "I was tired, and

it was dark. I just make dance moves."

Kirilenko is the product of athletic genes. His father, Gennady,

coached professional soccer and handball teams, while his mother,

Olga, played for the national basketball team. He began his pro

career as a 15-year-old for the local St. Petersburg team and was

drafted by the Jazz with the 19th pick in 1999. He arrived

Stateside two years later, and after initially feeling lost in

the U.S. and hating Salt Lake, Kirilenko--who describes himself

as a homebody who likes to "eat good and sleep good"--grew to

appreciate the city's small Russian community and subdued charms.

The feeling is mutual. Kirilenko has become a fan favorite,

answering to the nickname AK-47--his initials combined with his

uniform number, a nod to the Russian assault rifle--and in many

ways becoming the face of the Jazz. After a morning practice last

week Kirilenko stuck around for three hours to tape a

public-service announcement with Masha for AIDS awareness that

will be aired in Russian, film a sequence of 25 trivia questions

and answers for a Russian kids show and do a magazine interview.

Rather than rush through his obligations, he advised the American

producer on the difficulty of the trivia questions ("Russians do

not know White Chock-late," he said of a question about Memphis

Grizzlies point guard Jason Williams. "Only five percent know

Oll-en Iverson!"), joked during the filming (told to act serious

by the producer, he stared into the camera and said, "Hi, I'm

Serious!") and taught a reporter how to say beautiful in Russian

(kra-SEE-va-ya).

The player who preceded Kirilenko in the makeshift studio was the

other half of the new Jazz tandem, Arroyo, who was doing

interviews in Spanish. Starting with his season-opening 18-point,

13-assist performance in a win over the Blazers, he has

demonstrated surprising quickness and scoring ability. The 6'2"

Arroyo played his college ball at Florida International and spent

a year with a pro team in Spain before landing short stints with

the Toronto Raptors and the Denver Nuggets in the last two

seasons. This is the first time he has played major minutes, and

he has made the most of them, averaging 15.5 points and 6.1

assists. (While injured, he has been ably replaced by Spanish

import Raul Lopez, 23, yet another heady Utah playmaker.)

Arroyo's hot start, combined with his star turn on the Puerto

Rican national team over the summer--he led the squad to an upset

victory over Steve Nash and Canada to take the bronze medal in

the Olympic regional qualifying tournament--has made him into "a

Michael Jordan figure at home," says Jazz p.r. man Kim Turner.

"The Puerto Rican media call all the time. They call me, they

call him at home. Finally, I had to set up a biweekly conference

call. It was just too much."

Multicultural, multinational, multiplying wins; it's easy to see

why Utah fans are warming to their team's new incarnation. On

Jazzfanz.com, a surprisingly active message board devoted to the

team, the tide of opinion is changing. "Watching this new Jazz

has been a lot of fun in ways that the old team never was,"

writes one frequent poster who goes by tatermoog. "With Stockton

and Malone there was a predictability, both playwise and

gamewise."

Though many of the posts begin with a tribute to their departed

heroes, there is a feeling in the air: Change is good. "A group

of people would have wanted Stockton and Malone to play until

they were 55," says David James, a local news anchor who hosts a

Sunday talk-radio show. "But there's also a contingent that feels

like, 'We weren't going to get past the first round anyway, so

why not change it up?'"

That contingent was easy to identify after the Rockets game. They

were the ones who stayed after the victory, filing down to the

lower deck to sit and listen as Utah players did courtside

interviews broadcast over the P.A. Upon finishing his, Kirilenko

raised his arms to the crowd, eliciting a giant cheer, and then

strode off the court into the tunnel, grinning his goofy grin and

slapping every hand proffered to him, a new kind of star for a

new era in Salt Lake.

SI.com

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COLOR PHOTO: PHOTOGRAPH BY KENT HORNER/NBAE/GETTY IMAGES K RATION With the spindly Kirilenko (47) replacing the Mailman, Sloan (right) has found he can still deliver wins to the Jazz.

COLOR PHOTO: GREG NELSON [See caption above]

COLOR PHOTO: KENT HORNER/NBAE/GETTY IMAGES STOCK ANSWER Already a superstar in his native Puerto Rico, Arroyo is quickly making his point with fans in Utah.

COLOR PHOTO: ALEXANDER WILF FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE Masha is a bigger star than Andrei back home, where her singing puts his dancing to shame.

THEY'VE GOT SOME POP

Utah's current roster had the fewest combined points in 2002-03

of any team this season. (Karl Malone and his new Lakers

teammates had the most: 10,547.) Here are the teams with the

least proven firepower, each of which was going great guns at

week's end.

--David Sabino

TEAM PLAYERS' TEAM SCORING

COMBINED IN 2003-04

POINTS IN (NBA RANK)

2002-03

Jazz 4,057 93.1 (10th)

Sonics 5,709 93.7 (eighth)

Nuggets 5,739 94.8 (seventh)

Clippers 5,876 96.6 (fourth)

Bucks 6,109 95.2 (sixth)

Sloan is the early front-runner for an award he's never won:

Coach of the Year.