Utah Jazz: Bleach-blond Fez comes to camp

How many blonds does it take to change a coach's mind?

In the case of Jerry Sloan, one's certainly not enough — even if he's 7-foot-1 and oozing with potential.

Indeed, it's going to take much more than a mere dye job for Kyrylo Fesenko to make a killer impression during his second summer in Utah.

Such was the sense Monday morning at the Jazz's practice facility, where Fesenko showed up for the opening session of Rocky Mountain Revue camp with his naturally brownish hair bleached so blond some wondered if perhaps the big Ukrainian center had joined a boy band.

"I was like, 'I guess you're going for the Backstreet Boys look,"' teammate Morris Almond said.

"If that's hot in Ukraine, that's hot in Ukraine," he added. "But, you know, over here ..."

Not so much, is what Almond wanted to say — and what Sloan did not need to.

"I'm not worried about his hair," grumbled Sloan, whose two-decade coaching career with the Jazz has lasted nearly as long as still 21-year-old Fesenko has been alive. "I'm worried about what he does on the floor."

The 2007 second-round draft choice logged just nine NBA games last season and spent much of the year with the Jazz's NBA Development League-affiliate Utah Flash.

Maturity concerns plagued the happy-go-lucky Fesenko's rookie season, which is why even he must know this offseason is so critical.

"This is real important summer for me — probably most-important summer," Fesenko said after the Jazz's first practice for the six-day, eight-team Revue, which opens Friday at Salt Lake Community College. "And I have to play right now, because my contract only goes to the end of the season, and I have to make the team.

"So," he added, "I will try to play 100 percent, I will try to do everything what coaches expect me to do, and just help the Utah Jazz win."

Whether Fesenko can, Sloan suggested, is largely up to him.

"His attention span," the Jazz coach said, "is better than it was a year ago at this time. He's got a long way to go to make himself a better player. He has skills, but sometimes the outside things will take you right out of this game. If those things are more important than basketball, that's where you get in trouble.

"A lot of people have skills," Sloan added. "A lot of them are sitting on the sidewalk, wondering, 'What happened 20 years ago, when I had a chance?' You know, he's got to figure out what he wants to do: play basketball or be a clown."

Based on one mere summer practice, there's cause for hope.

"He has worked a little better so far," Sloan said. "But that's not the whole picture. It's every day.