Hundley shows up for TV finale with bump on head

OAKLAND, Calif. — For the final game of his TV-broadcasting career with the Jazz, Hot Rod Hundley needed extra makeup.

Hundley opened a gash on his forehead early Wednesday, the result of walking into the corner of the TV cabinet in his hotel room during a 4 a.m. bedroom-to-bathroom stumble.

"Lots of blood," he said.

So what did Hundley do? "I went back to bed."

Hundley was treated by Jazz trainer Gary Briggs after he woke back up, then covered the cut with extra makeup as he called Utah's season finale at Golden State on Wednesday night.

The game was the last on TV for Hundley, who will work radio only next season as the Jazz breakup their longtime radio-TV simulcast team. Color analyst Ron Boone will work TV games next season with Craig Bolerjack, who also works for CBS.

"I'd like to still be doing the simulcast," Hundley, the only TV play-by-play man in the Jazz's 31-year history, said with a bit of emotion in his voice before his final call on the tube. "But between the two, I'd much rather be doing radio."

KNEE SURGERY: A member of the Jazz organization is undergoing knee-replacement surgery next week.

But fear not, it's not a player.

Actually, it's Hundley — the No. 1 overall pick in the 1958 NBA draft — who is getting a new right knee.

"They both need to be done, because they're both bone-on-bone," he said. "But the right one hurts a lot more than the left. Next year, I'll do the other one."

NO RAJA: When he first sat out with a bruised shin on March 30, it wasn't supposed to be a season-ending injury. As it turns out, though, it was just that for Jazz guard Raja Bell.

Bell missed his 12th straight game Wednesday, in part because of the sore shin, and in part because of a cortisone shot taken in his right foot while waiting for the shin to heal.

Bell, a free agent this summer, said he perhaps could have played if the Jazz were in the hunt for a playoff spot.

Since they weren't, he did not.

"I would have liked to have been 100 percent and ready to play down the stretch," he said. "I played for a while with it. It got worse. I could have played at about 65, 70 percent — but it wouldn't help us as a team."