Amundson's dream realized

Louis Amundson tried not to get his hopes too high, but he knew the Utah Jazz were looking for a big fill-in player because forward Carlos Boozer is hurt, and he knew the Jazz had scouted him a couple of times recently.

"I knew they had their eye on me, but I wasn't really trying to get too caught up in it if they were at the game. I was just trying to play," said the undrafted UNLV product who was playing for the Colorado 14ers of the NBA Development League when the call from the Jazz came at about 4 p.m. Monday.

He was packed and on a plane and in Salt Lake City quickly enough to see a little of the Jazz's Monday-night win over Chicago in EnergySolutions Arena, finished a physical and did a workout for Jazz coaches Tuesday and was at the team's first practice of the week on Wednesday.

"It was incredible. It's my dream," he said of the call-up. "Just to be here and have this opportunity, it's great for me."

Amundson is a 6-foot-8, 225-pounder who sees himself as a kind of lighter version of Jazz rookie Paul Millsap. "I'm an energy player. Just try to come in and stir some things up on defense, bring energy, extra possessions, blocked shots," said Amundson.

Because of his weight, "I've got to find a way to make it happen out there. I try to beat players with my speed and my quickness," he said.

He and Millsap have another thing in common — both are invited to all-star festivities in Las Vegas later this month, Millsap to be in the NBA rookie-sophomore game and Amundson named Tuesday to the NBDL All-Star team. Amundson likely won't go, though, as he must be on a D-League roster as of Monday to do so, and his 10-day contract with the Jazz would run past that.

"Yeah, probably not," he said of a return to Vegas, where he played collegiately. "I'd rather be up here, obviously, than playing in the all-star game in the D League, but it's cool. It's a nice honor."

Amundson will wear No. 22, same as he had in college.

He grew up in Boulder as a University of Colorado football fan and played a number of sports as a youngster but never was recruited by the Buffaloes. For one thing, he was a good 25 pounds lighter then and had to work hard in the weight room just to get where he is now, he said.

Pepperdine and Tulsa recruited him, but both schools were getting coaching changes, so he went to UNLV under Charlie Spoonhour. He recalls trips to play Utah and BYU and coming home with losses. "We used to get spanked up here The Utes, they always used to kill us," he said, but the Rebels won in Salt Lake City his senior year.