Adrian Dantley will finally have his No. 4 Utah Jazz jersey retired and raised to the rafters at EnergySolutions Arena on Wednesday night.

It's 10 to 15 years late, of course. Dantley last played in the NBA during the 1990-91 season. That means the Jazz should have honored him by the mid-1990s — like they did for lesser Dantley contemporaries Darrell Griffith and Mark Eaton. Even though Dantley finished his career elsewhere, he was the face of the Jazz from 1979-86 — making the All-Star team six times and winning two NBA scoring titles during that stretch.

Dantley scored more points in a Jazz uniform than Griffith, Pete Maravich, Eaton and Jeff Hornacek, all of whom had their numbers retired before him. In fact, only Karl Malone and John Stockton have scored more points for the Jazz.

Of course, personality conflicts between Jazz brass and Dantley made honoring him problematic. Still, it's nice that those differences have been put aside enough to allow Dantley his due. Better late than never.

The Jazz, meanwhile, have been on a jersey-retirement binge. Maravich, whose best playing days were with the New Orleans Jazz, was the first to get the honor, back in 1985. Frank Layden, the general manager and coach who helped put the Jazz on solid footing in Utah, had the No. 1 retired in his honor in 1988. Griffith (1993) and Eaton (1996) followed in the 1990s.

That made for two jersey retirements in the 1980s and two in the 1990s. But Dantley's jersey retirement will be the fourth in five years. Hornacek was honored in 2002, followed by Stockton in 2004 and Malone last year.

The good news is that the Jazz won't be running out of available jersey numbers anytime soon. This should be the last of it for a long while — unless the Jazz decided to reward Jerry Sloan with a jersey retirement, like they did for Layden, when he finally calls it quits as the team's all-time winningest coach.

No former Jazz players who have retired in recent years are close to being in the running — not even Greg Ostertag. Especially not Greg Ostertag. That means it will likely be at least a decade before the Jazz have another jersey retirement celebration for a player after Dantley's big night Wednesday.

In any event, it's interesting to prognosticate who will be the next Jazz player to have his jersey hung in the rafters. Is that player even on the team right now, or will it be a future draft pick or free agent acquisition?

A couple of years ago, it would have been a good bet that Andrei Kirilenko's No. 47 might someday be retired. After all, he was a Jazz draft pick who was emerging as a star and had just signed a huge multiyear contract extension. But Kirilenko's play has been erratic this year and he's not even a double-digit scorer anymore. He could still be the next Jazz player to get the honor — especially if he sticks around in Utah for his entire career — but it's no sure thing at this point. Utah's two All-Stars this year — Carlos Boozer and Mehmet Okur — are other possibilities. But Boozer has had just one great year with the Jazz, after two injury-plagued disappointments. It would take another six to eight years — at least — of him playing like this season for the Jazz to really start the talk of number retirement. Okur is in the same boat. He would need to string together multiple years like this one.

For my money, Deron Williams is the current player with the best chance of getting his number retired by the Jazz. Sure, he'll have to show he has longevity, too, but the Jazz love the way he directs a team and will do everything in their power to keep him around for years to come. He's the type of player that makes others around him better.

Look for the Jazz to retire the No. 8 about 2020 or so.

---

E-mail: lojo@desnews.com