Borchardt misses another game in hometown

SEATTLE — Five times now since Curtis Borchardt joined the Jazz, Utah has played in Seattle — and Borchardt has not.

It happened again Wednesday night, when Borchardt — who attended high school in nearby Redmond, Wash., and whose father, Jon, spent three of his nine seasons as an NFL offensive lineman playing for the Seattle Seahawks — sat out his second straight game this week due to a stint on the injured list.

"It's frustrating," said Borchardt, a 7-foot reserve center.

"But . . . if I get enough rest this time," he added, "hopefully I'll be healthy the rest of the season and this won't be an issue."

"This" is his already surgically repaired right foot, which Borchardt originally hurt while attending Stanford.

Pin-replacement surgery in the stress-fractured foot caused him to miss all of what would have been his 2002-03 NBA rookie season, and other injuries — broken finger, broken wrist — caused him to miss all but 16 games of last season, including both for the Jazz in Seattle.

The foot seemed fine this offseason, though it did swell a bit in the October preseason.

With the Jazz trying to decide whether or not to pick up the option year on Borchardt's rookie contract, though, he largely trudged on, missing only a minimum of time.

"In the preseason, especially with the contract," he said, "I wanted to get back out there as soon as I could — and I played in about 20 games, and it started bugging me again."

The Jazz did pick up Borchardt's $1.9 million option for next season before the end-of-October deadline for doing so.

But the foot pain cropped back, go figure, just prior to last Saturday night's game in San Antonio - when Borchardt's parents, who now live in Austin, Texas, made the drive to watch the Jazz play.

On Tuesday, the Jazz decided to put him on the injured list for at least five games — meaning about a dozen friends attending Wednesday's game missed out on watching Borchardt play against the Sonics, and meaning additionally that Borchardt's parents will not get to watch him if they make the drive to Dallas, as planned, for Saturday's game, either.

But so be it, said Borchardt, who just wants to be healthy.