By the time it was all done, Livingston would wear six different numbers, play for nine different NBA teams over 11 of his 12 pro seasons and work on so many 10-day contracts that insecurity would be an ideal choice for his computer password.

Only twice did Livingston play more than 17 NBA games during the same regular season. One season, he appeared in just one game — 1998-99, with Phoenix. Only once did he come close to playing an entire NBA season — 1999-2000, again in Phoenix. And only once did he play for the same franchise in back-to-back seasons — the Suns, counting that lone game in '98-99.

Over the 11 years, he played 203 NBA games, an average of fewer than 19 per season.

Livingston was waived from the Jazz's training camp in 2001, when John Crotty won the backup job behind John Stockton and Rusty LaRue got the mid-season call-up that Livingston had hoped for.

From there it was on to the CBA, one of an alphabet soup's worth of minor-league stops in which he would ride buses, stay in cheap motels, endure subzero temperatures and earn a relative pittance in pay, sometimes well under six figures.

Livingston finally got his turn in Utah in 2005, when he arrived on a 10-day and wound up logging 17 games — but only after Carlos Arroyo was traded away, and Keith McLeod, Howard Eisley and Raul Lopez all sustained injuries of one sort or another.

"He came here and helped us with just one leg," Sloan said. "That's what we talk about all the time: You can play, and have talent, and run and jump. But here's a guy doing it on one leg, because he thought about what he was doing and knew what he was trying to get done. That's a tremendous asset."

"And after watching him play on one leg over the last part of (his career), you can imagine what he would have been on two legs," O'Connor added. "Because he played with his mind."

Tough times

Still, frustration litters Livingston's long and winding road.

There was the time he thought he was going to get a two-year deal with Seattle in 2002, after having helped the Sonics win a couple playoff games the previous postseason, but Gary Payton and Kenny Anderson ended up eating all the point guard money.

And there was the time he figured a nice playoff run with the Suns in 2000 would lead to something, yet he wound up playing only two NBA games the next season for Golden State.

Over the course of his career, Livingston has cashed roughly $5 million in NBA checks. It easily could have been 10, even 20, times that. Yet he never made more than $1 million in any one season and frequently made less than $350,000.