Utah Jazz: Shake, rattle and roll — Team uses pregame rituals to get ready for battle

Before every basketball game, players from the Utah Jazz huddle up outside of their locker room, jump up and down, get a little crazy and then head into the arena pumped full of adrenaline.

And that is just the opening ceremony for these players' pregame rituals.

From the time they get dressed until tipoff, members of the Jazz have all sorts of things to do besides stretching and shooting layups and 3-pointers. Some are playful. Some are simply habitual. And all, of course, are critical.

It starts with the "jumping circle," which backup point guard Ronnie Price says they do "to get some blood flowing," and it doesn't end until ...

... C.J. Miles has done all of his playgroundlike handshakes with the starters;

... Carlos Boozer has wiped his feet on the sticky shoe pad, pounded fists with people on the scorer's table and squeezed the game ball;

... Andrei Kirilenko has circled the court to shake all three referees' hands;

... Deron Williams has tossed his heating pack to Jarron Collins and chest-bumped a few players;

... all of the reserves have assumed their unofficially reserved positions on the bench;

... and, well, lots of other important stuff that always happens while fans are waiting in hot-dog lines and scrambling for seats when the ref throws the ball up at center court.

"Everything is so ritualized. It's always the same. Just watch it. It's kind of funny," Collins said. "And if anybody throws anything off with the seating assignment or the ritual it's like, 'What are you doing? You're jinxing us.'"

The happy-go-lucky Miles is the ringleader/head cheerleader. If the NBA had an award for having fun and pumping teammates up during introductions, this enthusiastic 21-year-old would be a serious MVP candidate. Miles is the personal welcoming party for each player at the end of the human greeting tunnel that forms by the Jazz bench when starters are announced.

Miles has a personalized handshake for each starter — and for others on the team — that he energetically performs when the players run through the tunnel.

With Mehmet Okur, Miles wiggles his fingers to signify money because that's one of the Jazz center's nicknames. He does a Russian variation of that with Kirilenko. Boozer's choreographed handshake used to be longer, but they shortened it down this season.

Miles saves his best for the starting guards. In Saturday's Game 4, Miles and Ronnie Brewer crouched down and slapped hands. He said they always do "something off the wall" that they make up.