Game-crashing fan banned for a year

A spectator who ran onto the Delta Center floor was taken to Salt Lake County Jail and banned from attending Jazz games for at least one year, a Jazz official said after Tuesday's game against the San Antonio Spurs.

Specific criminal charges were not immediately known, Jazz spokeswoman Linda Luchetti said.

The fan rushed down the lower-bowl stairs and onto the court while Jazz forward Andrei Kirilenko was shooting a pair of fourth-quarter free throws. He threw his arms in the air and danced about for several seconds but did not appear to have any weapons or otherwise make any threatening actions.

Delta Center security did not immediately react. Nor did players from the Jazz or Spurs.

"You can't expect those kinds of things to happen," Jazz forward Matt Harpring said. "I was kind of stunned."

The first person to react, in fact, was Jazz coach Jerry Sloan, who bolted from the Utah team bench from more than 20 feet away and approached the fan just as others who were closer began to escort him away.

"I just thought he was in the wrong spot," Sloan said.

Asked what he would have done if he'd gotten to the spectator sooner, Sloan said, "I might have knocked the h—- out of him, to get him off the floor.

"First of all, if you're a player, you should never let him get that far. You never know what's gonna happen," the Jazz coach added. "If I'm a player, I'm gonna get him off the floor . . . if I see some weirdo like that, then take care of business later.

"You can't stand around waiting. A guy might do something crazy, and then you say, 'I wish I'd done something faster.' Knock him on his a--, and get him off the floor. If I'm a player, that's what I gotta do. I don't care if they put me in jail."

Kirilenko missed the free throw that followed the incident but did not seem shaken by the presence of the fan.

"In Europe," said Kirilenko, who is from Russia, "it usually happens. At soccer games. They're naked. He was not naked. That's good."

KIRILENKO NOMINATED: Kirilenko has been selected by a five-member panel of former NBA players as the Northwest Division nominee for the NBA's 2005-06 Sportsmanship Award, which will be presented after the season to the player who "best represents the ideals of sportsmanship on the court."

It's the second straight year Kirilenko — who coincidentally picked up the first technical foul of his five-season NBA career in Tuesday's loss to the Spurs — has been nominated.