Utah Jazz: A.K.'s travel plans were Jazz's least concern

For all the recent ballyhoo and what-to-do about Andrei Kirilenko's vacation plans — a recurring playoff theme, it seems — the roaming Russian looked like he only had one thing in mind at the end of Friday night's elimination game against the Los Angeles Lakers.

That seemed to be Game 7 and not the Eiffel Tower, the French Riviera or crusty baguettes.

In the final 43 seconds, Kirilenko drilled two 3-pointers, blocked a Kobe Bryant layup and pulled down a rebound, helping the Utah Jazz rally to nearly force overtime.

But for the Jazz and Kirilenko, who had a whirlwind of a couple of days, the late surge proved to be too little, too late. As far as Kirilenko was concerned, it might have also put to rest the theory that a distracted Kirilenko was ready for his European vacation to begin.

"I don't think about anything else," Kirilenko said after Game 6.

But whether "visagate" was a distraction for him and the Jazz or not, this much is clear now: The NBA playoffs will no longer distract any of them from booking family trips. The Lakers cleared up the rest of their summer.

Au revoir, Utah. Bonjour, France.

Kirilenko offered a solution to prevent any future foreign travel concerns.

"Give me American passport and I will never worry about it," Kirilenko said. After reporters chuckled, Kirilenko said he was serious and that his son, a natural citizen because he was born in the United States, doesn't have to "worry about it."

But leading up to the Western Conference semifinal finale, much was made about Kirilenko's decision to miss practice Thursday so he could resolve travel paperwork issues for his family.

Jazz coach Jerry Sloan claimed the situation was his fault. Kirilenko had explained his paperwork plight and Sloan granted him permission to leave after practice. A miscommunication arose, however, because Kirilenko thought practice was going to be at 10 a.m. and made flight plans to the Bay Area accordingly. Because Wednesday's game was late and the Jazz didn't arrive back in Salt Lake City until the middle of the night, Sloan pushed back the time of practice until 11:30 a.m.

Kirilenko returned in time from his team-approved detour to the San Francisco embassy to make Friday's shootaround, and he wasn't sure why everybody was making such a fuss. His agent, Marc Fleisher, said he had to apply for visas last year, too.