Fisher arrives in Utah

Derek Fisher was well-spoken, honest and upfront as can be Friday about the reality of being dealt to the Jazz.

It caught the combo guard, who can play some shooting guard but clearly prefers the point, rather off-guard. It came, in fact, as a downright shock. One that required quite a bit of time with which to come to terms.

And the initial uneasiness about it all has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with working in idiosyncratic Utah.

"The initial reaction to the trade was strange," Fisher said of a swap that become public July 5 and was made official July 12, but was not formally completed until the 31-year-old took a physical exam Friday. "Because I wasn't expecting to be traded."

But Fisher, make no mistake, wanted out of Golden State.

He and his agent even spoke about the possibility of a contract buyout with the Warriors, which instead wound up shipping the veteran combo guard to Utah for three younger guards with contracts that will expire after the coming season — Devin Brown, Keith McLeod and Andre Owens.

"I had expressed some unhappiness at times before with wanting to be a starter and wanting to have a bigger role, because I felt like I was capable of doing more to help the team," the Little Rock, Ark., native said. "But they had basically frozen me out on any type of trade talk. They weren't going to trade me. They felt like I was 'too important.'"

The jolt came when the Warriors traded Fisher anyway, news the father of newborn twins received from "some guy" as he headed to a workout at a California gym.

"I think they respected my wishes in maybe wanting to have a bigger role on the team," said Fisher, who signed with Golden State as a free agent in 2004 following an eight-season, three-championship career with the Los Angeles Lakers. "But when you have Baron Davis at the point guard position and Jason Richardson at the 2-guard position, I'm the odd man out.

"I think (Warriors basketball boss) Chris Mullin and the organization wanted to give me the opportunity to have the role I always wanted to have, and I think the Utah opportunity presented one that was good for them and one that they also saw as good for me — but it wasn't something that had been discussed prior to the deal going down, so that was what really caught me off-guard.