O'Connor a sharply dressed fan, G.M.
Brad Rock
Can't be Jerry Sloan, because he's on the court.
It's Kevin O'Connor, the Jazz's general manager and all-around fan.
"You're either in it or you're not in it," said O'Connor.
"But when you're in it, you get in with both feet."
O'Connor being a two-feet-in kind of guy.
"My dear wife can attest to that," he said.
Nobody ever said being a G.M. and a fan were mutually exclusive.
"It's an incredible opportunity, but it's wearing," he continued, "and if you have to have the passion for it, to get up the next morning and go to work and try to figure out a way, that's fine. But if you can't have that, then somebody else does."
That somebody is possibly the Los Angeles Lakers, who enter today's game with a 2-1 lead in their conference semifinal series with the Jazz. But they won't be getting a free pass from O'Connor. All those foul calls in Kobe Bryant's favor? O'Connor will be contesting a lot of them, though not in an official capacity. In an emotional one.
One step further and he'd be wearing grease paint.
"I think you always feel like you're in the games," O'Connor said. "If you're a player, you really control it. When you're a coach, you control it a little bit less. And when you're sitting in the stands, you feel like you have no control. That's why I yell. That's why I'm a fan."
O'Connor comes by his animation honestly. He's been at all of the aforementioned levels — player, coach, fan. The son of a New York City cop who became chief of police in Syracuse, N.Y., he served two years in the Army, assisting with eye, ear, nose and throat treatment.
He gained degrees in economics and business from Belmont Abbey College in North Carolina, where he captained a basketball team that went 21-5 his senior year. That was when he was fully in the game. The next step came when he worked as an assistant coach at Virginia Tech, VMI, Colorado and UCLA.
His background includes three uncles who played college and/or professional sports.
O'Connor considered following his father into law enforcement but instead took a job as volunteer JV coach at a high school. He was hooked on being in the game, or at least as close as you can get wearing a necktie.
It wasn't exactly a rocket ride to the front office. He spent 11 years as a college assistant. He was also a scout with several NBA teams, including the Jazz, Sixers and Nets. But, he says, there's no clear-cut path to sports management.
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