Miller, Ostertag put verbal confrontation behind them

Jazz owner Larry H. Miller met with Greg Ostertag prior to Utah's game against San Antonio on Monday and apologized for his part in a recent verbal confrontation that led to the veteran center being suspended without pay for one game by the team.

"I was out of line," Miller said.

"I said (to Ostertag), 'I don't want that kind of relationship with you.' . . . We don't need that from a team standpoint, we don't need that on a personal basis."

Ostertag returned to the Jazz lineup Monday but said little about the matter that led to his sitting out last Saturday's loss at Dallas.

"It's in the past," Ostertag said after the Jazz's morning shootaround. "Don't dwell on the past.

"It's over with," he added. "We got it done, it's over."

Monday night, however, Ostertag addressed Miller's apology.

"It means a lot," he said.

"Everybody's heads were cooler, and cooler heads prevailed," Ostertag added. "He said what he had to say, and I said what I had to say, and we shook hands and it was over."

Miller approached Ostertag as Ostertag headed off the Delta Center floor following pregame warmups Monday, and the two spoke for more than five minutes.

"I think that was big of him to come and do that," Ostertag said. "I think he got caught up in the emotions (last Wednesday) just like everybody else was caught up in it, and . . . it's over now."

Ostertag got into an argument with coach Jerry Sloan that later involved Miller after Utah's loss to Seattle last Wednesday night, then skipped practice Thursday, prompting his team-imposed suspension.

Ostertag and Sloan got into it after Sloan's postgame comments.

"I saw it unfold," Miller said. "By the time I got back there, there was like 12, 15 guys (between Sloan and Ostertag)."

That's when Miller got involved and said something to Ostertag.

Miller on Monday said the matter "escalated so fast" but never grew beyond an exchange of words between the player and coach — typical of Ostertag-Sloan feuds in the past.

The owner's advice to Ostertag's teammates: "When Greg and Jerry get going at it, the best thing they should do is stay out of it, because they (Ostertag and Sloan) seem to talk each other's language."