Jazz's Giricek remains in limbo

ORLANDO — The fate of Gordan Giricek's future with the Jazz seemed to be in limbo Thursday afternoon.

Much clearer, however, was the emerging picture of just what preceded Giricek getting ordered to the lockerroom during the second quarter of Utah's loss at Charlotte on Wednesday night and his subsequently being told to leave the team and return to Salt Lake City.

According to various accounts from some of those who heard a timeout exchange between the reserve shooting guard and Jerry Sloan, the Jazz coach first told the veteran from Croatia that he needed to pass the ball inside.

Giricek answered, "OK," to which Sloan purportedly replied, "Now go sit at the end of the bench and b----."

Said Sloan: "I told him to go sit down and put his butt on the bench."

The remark, whatever it precisely was, infuriated longtime Sloan punching-bag Giricec. He responded with an oral retort, albeit supposedly without swearing at the longtime Jazz coach.

Sloan also confirmed the initial remark about making the entry pass, but did not elaborate otherwise.

"I mentioned something to him about that," he said, "but I'm not gonna get into all that Mickey Mouse stuff. It doesn't do any good at this point."

Sloan — his team in town tonight to face the Orlando Magic, with the omnipresent spirit of Walt Disney here perhaps inspiring his pre-practice quote Thursday — evidently confronted Giricek a second time during halftime in the Jazz lockerroom.

When Giricek asked if he could respond, he apparently got tossed out of the room.

After the game — the 14-13 Jazz's seventh straight road loss — trainer Gary Briggs informed Giricek he would have to retrieve his belongings and return to Utah rather than continue on with the team to Florida for stop No. 3 on a four-game Eastern swing.

Conferring the whole time by telephone with his agent, Marc Fleisher, Giricek complied.

"I can only speculate that Jerry (Sloan) is frustrated with the team's performance," Fleisher said Thursday, "and Giri bore the brunt of that (Wednesday) night."

Sloan — who has a history of similar confrontations with players over his 20-year coaching career in Utah, including, but not limited to, Greg Ostertag, John Amaechi and current Magic point guard Carlos Arroyo — did not deny that Thursday.

"I'm sure that probably has something to do with everything," he said. "Usually when you lose, that's what happens. But I'm not frustrated as far as playing, if we play hard. I get frustrated when we don't play hard."