O'Connor pays visit to Boozer in L.A.

The report that Jazz coach Jerry Sloan mentioned on Aug. 2 that said power forward Carlos Boozer is in powerful shape have been seconded by Kevin O'Connor's in-person encounter with Boozer in Los Angeles on Friday.

Boozer is working out and playing with other NBA players, who play in three or four L.A. gyms. O'Connor, the Jazz's senior vice president of basketball operations, met with him there and tried to soothe Boozer's mind regarding the recent rumors about him and/or Matt Harpring being dangled for trades.

"I sat with him, and I told him, 'It's all hogwash; I don't know what else to tell you,' " O'Connor said about reports that Utah is shopping Boozer around.

O'Connor said he's happy to listen to any legitimate offer about anybody, but, "I've never picked up the phone (to initiate anything) about that kid this summer," he said. "We are not active in trying to pursue a trade."

After seeing a very fit Boozer on Friday, that resolve is probably even stronger.

"He's in fantastic shape," O'Connor said. "He looks in terrific shape. Everybody's been talking about how hard he's been working and what he looks like. I didn't see him play, I just saw him standing in a shirt and a pair of shorts, but he looks terrific."

WHY L.A.?: O'Connor didn't go to L.A. specifically to see Boozer. But what else happened in L.A. on Friday involving the Jazz? There were reports in Los Angeles papers that Utah and Denver made offers to Clipper restricted free agent guard Marko Jaric that were high enough the Clips didn't want to match them, even though they'd said all along they would. So the Clippers on Friday entered into a sign-and-trade deal that they had said they wouldn't want to do and sent Jaric and guard Lionel Chalmers to Minnesota for Sam Cassell, who has one year remaining on his contract, and a lottery-protected 2006 draft pick.

Anyway, talk about the Jazz making a nice offer to Jaric may have been pretty near the target.

The Jazz also apparently made one of the better offers — the best one, according to the Indianapolis Star — for Lithuanian Olympian Sarunas Jasikevicius, who instead took Indiana's money, saying he wanted to be with a winning team.