Andrei Kirilenko, once the future, may soon be past

Once upon a time, it appeared that Andrei Kirilenko was the future of the Utah Jazz franchise.

Of course, those days have been gone for a long time, as Kirilenko's leading-man status steadily diminished to that of a solid but unspectacular role player with the addition of Deron Williams, Carlos Boozer, Mehmet Okur and others to the Jazz lineup.

Long gone are the days when Kirilenko was the go-to guy, often the first or second option in Utah's offense.

And now, it looks like AK may be gone, too, if a rumored four-team trade goes through as planned.

Kirilenko and his bloated $17.8 million, final-year contract, which has been hanging around the neck of the Jazz payroll in a salary cap death-grip stranglehold, would be sent to the Denver Nuggets.

Denver would subsequently trade star forward Carmelo Anthony to the New Jersey Nets in a complicated four-team, multi-player transaction which, when all is said and done, would bring Charlotte forward Boris Diaw and New Jersey swingman Quinton Ross to Utah.

Several other players and draft picks are also reportedly involved in the deal, which came to the surface on Friday but is yet to be finalized.

If and when it happens, it would mark the end of the multi-talented Kirilenko's career in Utah, where he was drafted as an 18-year-old in 1999 and, after remaining in his native Russia for a couple of years, finally joined the Jazz in time for the 2001-02 season.

In 2003, after the glorious Stockton-and-Malone Era had come to an end with John Stockton's retirement and Karl Malone's defection to the Los Angeles Lakers, the slender Russian forward began emerging as the Utah team's new-found leader.

His steady scoring and shot-blocking abilities, easy-going personalty, wide-eyed innocence and occasional funny, fractured use of the English language made him a fan favorite and often a media darling, too. From 2003-06, he was certainly one of the best and most valuable members of the Jazz roster.

Indeed, Kirilenko can do a lot of things on the basketball court, and he can fill up a stat sheet in five categories — points, rebounds, blocked shots, steals and assists — like few players in the game ever could.

In a 2006 game against the Lakers, he had a rare "5X6" — six or more in each of those five key statistical categories. It was the second time it had happened in NBA history since the league began recording blocks and steals in 1973.