Utah Jazz: Kirilenko seeking return to old form

It was nearly two years ago that Andrei Kirilenko sat in a chair at the Toyota Center in Houston — and wept.

He had maxed out his emotions, and even his status as a one-time NBA All-Star wasn't going to stem the tide of tears.

The forward from Russia had been benched for the final quarter-and-a-half of an opening-round Western Conference playoff game against the Houston Rockets — the Jazz's first in four years, and first since John Stockton retired and Karl Malone had left for the Los Angeles Lakers — and he simply couldn't handle any more.

Ever since, and even as the Jazz prepare this week to open a first-round series with the Lakers on Sunday in L.A., Kirilenko appears to be a changed man.

He seems — as the theologian Reinhold Niebuhr requested in his version of a rather popular prayer — to possess the serenity to accept the things he cannot change, the courage to change those he can and the wisdom to know the difference.

He's evidently come to terms, too, with his lot in life with the Jazz: a former scoring leader reduced to role player; an ex-starter now coming off the bench; the team's highest-salaried employee, but, at 27.3, No. 6 behind five others in minutes per game.

"I'm sure it's something that's probably been hard for him, because guys have progressed on the team as far as me (and) Carlos (Boozer, the Jazz's two-time All-Star power forward) since he's been here," point guard and 2008-09 team scoring leader Deron Williams said. "You know, he went from being the guy everybody depended on to score 15, 20 points a game to now 11, 12.

"That has to be tough on some people. But I thought he's done a good job of adjusting. He hasn't complained, or made any scenes."

? ? ?

The meltdown in Houston was quite dramatic. And it is yesterday's news.

But it serves, too, as backdrop for evolution of a relationship in which player plays and coach coaches — and both accept each other's realities.

"I've always tried, after last year and the year before," Jazz coach Jerry Sloan said, "(to remember) he's got to be who he is, and I can't change that."

So Kirilenko reads his paperback books, often spy novels written in Russian, while waiting for a game to get under way, and Sloan no longer complains about it.