Marshall left out in the cold

Unless something strange happens, Donyell Marshall is likely to be remembered around here as just another setback for agent Dwight Manley.

Last year, Manley advised client Olden Polynice to spurn the Jazz's offer of $2.4 million on the grounds that he deserved more and there were other teams eagerly waiting to employ his talents.

Polynice spent the year unemployed, a fact he later said worked out just dandy for family reasons, even though he reportedly lobbied teams all season to sign him up.

Now it's Marshall who has turned up his nose at a lucrative offer, leaving himself in the position of probably having to settle for a lot less.

"I believe I know what is available to Donyell now," team owner Larry H. Miller said. "I don't believe he can get (what the Jazz offered) anywhere else in the league."

Thursday's signing of free-agent forward Matt Harpring by the Jazz naturally led to Miller being asked what it meant for Marshall.

"It means Donyell Marshall will be playing somewhere else," Miller said at a Delta Center press conference.

Asked how he felt about that, Miller said, "I have mixed feelings. I had become attached to Donyell. He was fun to watch."

By "mixed feelings," then, it's safe to assume Miller meant he's at least somewhat glad to have concluded what had turned into an ugly negotiating encounter with Manley. Miller didn't deal directly with Manley, but the agent criticized him in the media, and he admits it bothered him.

"Dwight has taken shots at me for not calling him . . . and my response has been that telephones work both ways," Miller said.

What bugged Miller most, though, was the much-publicized incident in which Manley allegedly told him that all contact between him and Karl Malone — another Manley client — must go through the agent.

Miller responded to that angrily, prompting Manley to counter by saying that he was only talking about contact involving contracts. Miller insists, though, that when the message originally was conveyed to him, it included all contact.

The Jazz owner toned down his commentary on Manley at the press conference, however, saying, "I have to be careful not to have this be a Dwight-bashing session, because I like Dwight . . . (But) the relationship between us and his players seems to have disintegrated a little bit."