Other players on that team: Gordan Giricek, Raja Bell, Carlos Arroyo, DeShawn Stevenson, Mikki Moore, Greg Ostertag, Jarron Collins and an undiscovered Mo Williams.
"Bottom line is we just had some guys that wanted to play and wanted to win," Johnson said. "And it happened."
So here comes the new era in Jazzdom. Johnson, Sloan, Stockton, Malone and the late Larry H. Miller are gone. Almost every tie to the Jazz' glory days has been severed.
Experts are again predicting an end to the Jazz's excellence, with good reason; the team is in danger of missing the playoffs after losing 10 of its last 14 games. At the All-Star break, the Jazz are tied for the last playoff spot.
It's hard to imagine things getting better soon.
Still, stranger things have happened. As the '03-04 Jazz showed, sometimes just when you're headed for oblivion, you turn up in the most unexpected places.
e-mail: rock@desnews.com
twitter:therockmonster
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Brad Rock, a.k.a. "Rockmonster," has been a sports columnist at the Deseret News since 1994. Prior to that he worked as a beat writer, covering the Utah Jazz (1990-94). He has covered the Super Bowl, NCAA Final Four, NBA more ..
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True it was Sloans best coaching job and the most fun team to watch. But what did he do next? Instead of sticking with his all star and looking to compliment him with either pass first PG ( they let Mo go what a bummer), or good center - they added More..
there is a big difference this time: no more sloan. sloan's coaching and system enabled a bunch of scrubs to overachieve through hard work and good team play. right now, the inmates are running the asylum. i doubt ty corbin's coaching, personality More..
Enough!!! Yarrlydarb and the others like him need to be corrected. Stockton and Malone had great careers and did many good things for the Jazz, but without the SYSTEM of Jerry Sloan's they wouldn't have had the careers they had. Timing is More..