Giricek reinstated as Jazz move on

One of Utah Jazz coach Jerry Sloan's favored sayings is that his team needs to "play forward," to not dwell on things that have already happened.

That's something, said Jazz general manager Kevin O'Connor, that Sloan is good at doing himself. "The one great thing that coach Sloan has is he deals with a situation, and he really does move on," O'Connor said Thursday morning after he, Sloan and Gordan Giricek met prior to practice and Giricek was reinstated after spending a week away from the team at Sloan's request.

The two got into an on-the-bench spat Dec. 19 at Charlotte, and Sloan sent Giricek first to the locker room and then home from the road trip. Giricek missed two road games, Christmas-Day practice and Wednesday's shootaround and home game before the matter was resolved Thursday morning with all parties pledging to play forward.

None of the three would talk specifically about what happened at the meeting, other than announcing Giricek's reinstatement, which came in time for him to practice Thursday and fly to Los Angeles with the team for tonight's 8:30 MST game with the Los Angeles Lakers in Staples Center.

"What we expect is for Giri to play and do what the rest of the team does. We're not asking him for any more or any less, period," said O'Connor, who wouldn't even say how long the meeting lasted.

About the only indication of what went on upstairs behind closed doors at the Zions Bank Basketball Center practice facility — even Jazz center Jarron Collins was playfully trying to see if he could catch a glimpse of the meeting from the far side of the court; he couldn't.

"The most important thing for everybody who loves the Jazz should be that we took care of the things and that we're going to move forward," Giricek said, seeming relaxed as he stepped onto the court with his teammates for the first time in eight days. "It's going to be fine. We discussed different things.

"We left everything behind us. We move forward, the way it should be, not only in this situation but in your life, right?

"Always move forward from any situation you have, and why not? We're paid professionals, and we're grown-up people, and we're going to do everything that's possible to help the team," Giricek said.

"It's never good to end up being public like it was," he added, "but sometimes you can't stop it, sometimes it happens and you have to deal with it, and I think we dealt in the right way, and we're going to move forward for sure."