Benching was not done out of spite, ego

This not a parting shot at Carlos Arroyo, nor is it an effort to "beat a dead horse to death," as Karl Malone once said in charmingly redundant fashion.

But I listened to a talk-radio show a few days ago in which comments were made so silly as to make me whip out a notebook and jot some thoughts as I weaved down I-15.

This particular commentator seems to think all the blame for the Arroyo episode should be on Jerry Sloan. He said that Sloan let his "ego" and "arrogance" get in the way of acting in the best interests of the team — perhaps not in those exact words, but that was the gist.

He accurately pointed out a couple times that he — and we — did not possess all the information, but that didn't stop him from blasting Sloan for being stubborn and inflexible.

Hey, I don't know any more than that guy what really went on behind the scenes with Arroyo. I've heard the same rumors you probably have, that Arroyo's non-game work ethic was questionable. But there are some things I do know. Here they are, in no particular order:

• Sloan would never bench a player out of sheer meanness. Sloan wants to win. A lot. And if he thinks a guy is going to help his team win, he'll play him — provided the player has shown that he deserves to play. Heck, Sloan even kept trying to play chronic knucklehead Chris Morris a few years ago. And he kept going to Greg Ostertag, despite Ostertag being maddeningly inconsistent and occasionally lippy.

• This was not about Sloan feeling he had to prove who was in charge. He knows who is in charge. He has the full support of owner Larry H. Miller. To call this a power struggle assumes that Arroyo had some power, and that was not the case. Sloan runs the team. His attitude is: If you don't like that fact, play somewhere else. Gee, kind of like most businesses. How many of you work at a job that is run on democratic principles?

• Sloan feels intense loyalty to those guys he perceives as busting their humps for the team. And that's what Keith McLeod did when called on to fill in for the injured Arroyo at the start of the season. Despite that, when Arroyo came back, he got his starting job back. Then, when he clearly was outplayed by the other guys, what was Sloan supposed to do, play Arroyo simply because he's making more money?

At one point the radio dude said, with evangelical fervor, referring to Arroyo, "We all know he's the best point guard."